Just want to say thanks

[bigddybn]

I've been lurking here for what seems like months. This site has been a huge help in picking my next pet.

I currently have

1 Ger Shep/Gold ret mix male dog Monty
2 Male 15lb cats Tank and Megellan
2 Parrots (1 Yellow Collared Mini Macaw - looking for home and 1 Hahn's Macaw) Dante and Stanley
3 Ferrets (2 normal, 1 silver blaze deaf) Bandit Rascal Duncan
1 Leopard Gecko (found a home for this one) Iggy
1 New baby BP (still need a name)

I've never owned a snake of any type before. I've had numerous reptiles though. I've raised 2 sets of turtles from hatchlings up to nearly 1ft shell length. Had a set of firebellied toads that I was really into but had a young cousin who absolutely adored them so they went to live with her. I love the parrots but 2 is 1 too many with our schedules so we've decided to find a good home for the larger of the mini macaws. Not to mention the fact that they LOVE trying to out squawk one another.

I'm nearly ashamed to say that I picked up the snake at PetCo. I knew going into it what type of snake they were probably selling but I had very little luck in contacting a breeder (do all of them just ignore phone calls?) and the 29.99 price tag was very hard to argue with. I did spend about an hour in the store handling EVERY SINGLE ONE of the BPs they had before choosing mine. He (he/she who knows?) had the brightest colors of them all. He was also the most docile and by far the first to stretch out and investigate me in my hands.

He is living in a 30 gal tank at the moment. I have a 55 gal in the garage reserved for him when the time comes. I took the many pieces of advice here and purchase a digital thermometer/hydrometer. My temps are typically 93 on hot side and 83 on cool side. I do need a thermostat though as I see during the day the temperature creeps up to nearly 100 on the warm side. The probe does tend to rest on the glass most of the time though. I am using the care free recycled newspaper as bedding. I have been happy with it before and the new guy seems content with it. I purchases prefab hides for him on both the warm and cool sides. At first I had the "half log" jobs in there but he didn't seem to really feel secure in them so I sprang for two of the hiding "caves" that are very wide but with a single small entry way. This way he can be totally dark and hidden when he wants to be but still see Mr mouse run by.

He took his first mouse on saturday evening. We picked this as our feeding day and will try to hold the routine. No problems getting him to eat at all. Immediately recognized the prey and jumped right on it. After reading all the "problems" with the snakes feeding I was quite happy about this.

So far so good.

Pics can be found at http://bigddybn.com/Ive%20got%20a%20snake%20man/ There are just a few but they are fairly large and didn't want to post them here for the 56k crowd.

Thanks for the info everyone!

[frankykeno]

Welcome to the forum and glad you are having such a good experience with your new snake. One of ours was a pet store purchase and has worked out beautifully but like you we knew it was a bit more of a risk going in.


~~Jo~~

[Forrest]

Welcome....Glad to have you abroad

[daniel1983]

Welcome to the site!

[frankykeno]

You know I'm really starting to wonder how balls got this bad reputation as really poor feeders. We've had no troubles with our 2 that way (and we are really newbies) and so many here have great feeding balls. How did this reputation happen or is it really true and we just lucked the heck out?


~~Joanna~~

[Adam_Wysocki]

You know I'm really starting to wonder how balls got this bad reputation as really poor feeders. We've had no troubles with our 2 that way (and we are really newbies) and so many here have great feeding balls. How did this reputation happen or is it really true and we just lucked the heck out?

Well, adult imports can be a real pain to get eating if you don't know how to set them up and get them started ... that's where a lot of the bad rap comes from .... that said, any ball python can be stressed and refuse food because of that stress .... low temps, incorrect humidity, overfeeding, over handling, are some of the many husbandry mistakes commonly made that cause ball pythons to refuse food.

It's not so much that ball pythons are poor feeders, it more often that their owners are "Doing it wrong" (little quote from the movie "Mr. Mom" )

-adam

[frankykeno]

Thanks Adam. I pretty much figured it was that. Makes me feel super good that Mike and I have these two eating so well considering we've no real clue how or where they were hatched or what their lives were really like before we acquired them.

Can't wait for the day we have our first well started baby ball. I'm sure it'll be a way less stressful experience all around.


~~Jo~~

[clizardb]

I truely believe that this is the best place to learn about your BPs other than maybe buying a book that specializes in Ball Pythons. The only bad question is the one you don't ask! That's why the rest of us are here too, for the answer to that question that perplexes us, whatever it may be. Welcome aboard, you're in the right place.

[bigddybn]

Just wanted to update this thread. We fed our second mouse yesterday. I'm not even sure the poor thing touched the bottom of the tank before the snake hit it HARD. I don't have a lot of experience with snakes but this thing has a KILLER feeding response. We have decided Saturday night is snake feeding night. This way we can all be lazy on Sunday and give the snake a much needed break after eating. Still haven't come up with a name yet but we're working on that.

[frankykeno]

This site might help. You can do all sorts of searchs by sex, word meanings, different cultures, etc.

www.petnamesworld.com


~~Joanna~~