Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I recently purchased some female ball pythons ranging in size from 1250 grams to 1800 grams. They were represented as "unknown origin" in terms of being wild caught or captive bred. They have numerous ticks and various minor scars which seem to point to them being wild caughts. They appear to be cycling and probably developing folicules -- they are staying clear of their basking area prefering the cooler side of their cage. I have an expensive male breeder, but don't want to risk him getting internal parasites. My vet wants to treat them for internal parasites without doing a fecal exam on the assumption that they have parasites which might not show up in the exam. My question is: Will the various medications available to treat internal parasites negatively effect the females reproductive process? Any personal experience insights will be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Joe

You have an expensive male and you're willing to risk it with animals of unknown origin. Definitely not a good idea. Always quarantine new animals away from your collection and have a thorough vet check done on them. Why take a chance on destroying animals you've already established.

I bought the snakes from someone on [bleep].com who claimed they were long term captives that had been cleaned of any external or internal parasites. In subsequent conversations I learned the Seller didn't know where the snakes came from. That he was told they were captive bred, "but you can never be sure." I attempted to cancel my purchase but the Seller wanted me to receive the snakes first to "see how I like them" before making a decision to cancel. I received the snakes inside a yellow nylon bag, surrounded by newspaper inside a cardboard box that was sent overnight by UPS (eventhough I paid extra for styrofoam insulation and a heat pack)! I opened the bag and discovered my "parasite free snakes" have numerous ticks. Other than that they appear healthy and might even be cycling, but I can't trust it. I want to breed my Spider male this year, but I don't have any other females, so I was considering trying to clean the females up so they might work, if that's at all possible. Apparently it's not. I contacted the Seller to try and negotiate a return for a refund and he accused me of lying about the ticks or putting them there myself! LOL!

I e-mailed Dr. Mark Seward who was able to answer my initial question, no the medicines won't harm the reproductive process, but he also cautioned I observe at least a three month quarantine. While it's frustrating for me, that's what I intend to do, which puts me back at square one with no appropriate breeder females plus four potentially parasite laden females that I have to quarantine from anything else if I can't return them.

I agree with Steward, a Three Month Quarantine is the MINIMUM that ought to be initiated in this case.

Frankly, if you have a truly good quality Adult Male Spider Ball Python, I would be hesitant to breed him to any ball that didn't come from a well known and respected breeder, in other words, no wild caughts and no cheap normal females off the net.

Your Ball sounds like a great looking python, dont let the hardwork that went into the makeup of his genetics got to waste by breeding him to snakes that either have an unknown history healthwise, and questionable genetic background and/or are questionable as to whether they are imports or not.

Clean up the females youve purchased, sell them off as pets and get some good breeding stock.

The Best of Luck to you in your endeavour,

Sincerely,

Fredrick Albury