My First Rescue

[Crawly's Mom]

Hey guys, I wanted to share my newest experience with everyone. I frequent Craigslist and have lately been looking for ball pythons in particular, especially females. I came across an ad for a 2 ½ year old ball python with a 45 gal tank and the individual lived about ten minutes from my house, so I decided to give him a call. He told me when I spoke to him that he wasn't sure whether the snake was male or female as he'd never had it sexed, so I asked if he'd be willing to let me take the snake to a local reptile shop to get probed if I left a portion of what he was asking and the tank there.

He agreed so I went over to his place to pick up the snake and take it down to the Arizona Reptile Center. As soon as I saw the snake my heart just dropped. Not only was the snake deep in shed but the shed was coming off in tiny pieces. Additionally it had several scars from live feeding and I do not mean small scars, there are some very large gashes on it's body. I put it in a tub and headed for the Reptile Center, fingers crossed hoping that it was a female so I could rationalize to my husband that I needed to spend eighty dollars to bring her home.

We got there and the workers were even appalled at the condition of the snake. Mike probed it and gave me the wonderful news that it was in fact a female. I said right then and there, done, I am taking her home no if's, and's, or but's. Mike actually thanked me for rescuing her from a bad home and said the probing was on the house for giving her a better home. Thank you so much by the way ARC! They even weighed her in for me, she's a whopping 1550 grams.

I called the previous owner and told him the good news, that it was in fact a female and that I wanted to take her home with me. He said he was glad someone with some reptile experience was going to take her and that what I'd given him when I took her was fine. A very nice guy, I just think he honestly had no idea what he was really doing. So sixty dollars poorer, I picked up the tank on the way home and brought my rescue home. I took the time to let her crawl across a warm moist towel, which seemed to get off all the shed she'd been having a hard time getting rid of, but the more skin that came off the more evident her scars are.

Sweetest snake I think I own she kept coming back to me any time I tried to put her down, crawling up my arms and in my sleeves. I tried to get some good pictures, but its still a camera phone. She has some incredibly interesting markings for a normal ball... things I do not think I have ever seen and I am not sure if they are really normal or not. She has black scales flecked through the gold, almost like a granite, especially on her neck. She is very dark black, but has bright white flames and her “alien heads” have white rings around them, pretty reduced, I don't think she has a single true alien head on her. I'm still new with the subtle morphs, not even sure if its really any kind of morph at all, I just wanted to get her out and into a good home.

She's in her tub now, exploring her new hide and water bowl. I cannot tell you how excited I am to have Sally in our home, names after the character from Nightmare Before Christmas, because of all her feeding scars... she almost looks stitched together. Thank you again ARC you guys are absolutely the best, I will give her the very best possible home I can.

[cmack91]

congratulations! im sure youve made her super happy, and she does have a very nice pattern, hopefully it will pass down

[Kinra]

I'm glad she has a good home now.

[lasweetswan]

Aw, that's really sad

[Vypyrz]

Congratulations on the new addition and getting off the stuck shed. Hopefully some of the scars will reduce with time. She definitely has some unique coloring and patterns.

[Crawly's Mom]

Thank you guys. I am going to try and get some better pictures with a real digital camera and not my cell phone, I just snapped these while I was cleaning her up. The scars are pretty frequent sadly. She has at least five I can count that are large scars and the very tip of her tail is almost entirely scar tissue, very hard and rough.

Some of those are just so hard to look at. She is such a beautiful snake and very unique. I don't think I have ever seen a normal that looks like her before. Hopefully with a little TLC she will be fit to breed and maybe even prove out some of those unique patterns. The black speckling and white rings I think are both fairly interesting.