Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My hubby brought home ball python a few days ago. Someone he knows had it and was scared to death of snakes....one of his kids brought it home.

We decided to take it and find a home for it...so we thought.
My friends have some that aren't very nice b/c they never handle them. We just knew that was probably why he wanted to get rid of it. We were both shocked to see how calm it is and small. It's definately been handled alot and just wants to hang out around your neck and we've decided to keep it. Heck, what's one more snake? We already have 5 cornsnakes.
It came with a nice big tank and everything. I'm going to have it sexed tomorrow so we can name it.
In the meantime, does anyone know a website that has photos of males and females (spurs). I read on one site that males have spurs and females don't. Then on a different site, it said both sexes have them just males are longer.

Anyway, here's my new snake. It's about 27" long.

Looks very nice. Spur size is not an accurate way of sexing. If it has HUGE spurs it is more likely male and if they are almost non existant it is likely female. But there is so much variation and there is still the chance a male has tiny spurs and females have very large ones. You need to probe it. I like hearing that you want to have it sexed so you can name it. That alone shows you care a lot about animals and it is probably in a great home now. I doubt you will find a site that shows spur differences of ball python sexes. Many snakes can be sexed this way but I would say not the ball pythons. The snake looks pretty healthy too and very nice. Id say you got a good deal and I wish you luck.

Thanks for your reply! The spurs don't seem huge to me. I'll find out tomorrow what I have. Heck if the vet(terrified of snakes) I work for was off tomorrow, I'd take it in and get a weight check on it. Plus, everyone wants to see him/her.
A girl I work with has a male and she's hoping mine is a girl. She wants to breed them since I already have an incubator.

I really don't have to worry about my father-in-law coming over now. He was scared enough with 5 corns in the house...hahaha

Greetings,

Like you and your husband, we keep Corns but picked up a Royal about three months ago. I wanted the Royal but was still quite surprised how I fell in love with the little guy. They're very personable pet snakes. Because they have such large heads, unlike Corns, I think of our Royal as some sort reptilian St. Bernard puppy. LOL

Best of Luck with him!

Cheers,
Jason