Thank you Mr. Hamper!!

[JamminJonah]

Okay... so I recieved Ick today at ten thirty AM. CT. He was packed in a bag, surrounded by heat packs in a box (very professional). I was sure that my snake was dead just from all of the horror stories I have heard/read. He was balled tightly around a paper towel in the bag.

I moved him to the tank anyway (still convinced he was dead) and he flicked his tounge quite a bit (smelling me I'm sure). HE WAS ALIVE!! I rejoiced privately for a moment, double checked my temps and humidity and he remains where I left him tightly balled.

Now, my girlfriend of two years (Jill) has come in town(Nashville) from Chicago (home) to witness this very event. I was proud to recieve a snake on the ironic holiday of St. Patricks Day (The saint who chased all of the snakes out of Ireland.)

Not only did i see the tounge flick but after leaving him in the cage on the warm side for a bit i witness TWO yawns.. well at first I thought it was a sign of an RI so flipped a little bit and closely inspected mouth and nostrils.. no discharge and no open mouth breathing after that so I'm pretty sure it was just a yawn. He is currently inspecting the front wall of his aquarium and seems to be warming up/settling in.

Oh yeah and when I flipped out a little thinking he was dead I called Mr. Hamper whose wife re assured me and gave me some advice (all of which i had previously read here) Very nice lady, very nice man and very professional job!

Okay last paragraph... Ick has GREAT coloring and beautiful scales (no signs of any bad sheds at all) his pattern is fantastic if I can get my good for nothing friend to loan me his digi cam I can post tonight or tomorrow. Happy st. Pats!

Don is a great guy with some amazing animals. I bought a baby ATB from him in Indy a few months back and its doing great. Hes one of the best people in the hobby, no doubt about it!

[JLC]

This is so great, Jonah! What fun for you!! (And first-time snake parents are SO cute! LOL...been there, done that myself!)

That's a cool observation about St. Patty's day...I wouldn't have even thought of it!

Good luck getting the little guy all settled in. You know we're all clamoring for pics!!

[JLC]

Ya'll should put a link to his site on the Inquirey board.

[Ken]

Awesome. Congrats

[Marla]

I agree with Judy, cool thought on the St. Pat's day connection. It should make it easy to remember how long you've had him, too. And congratulations! You know we're all excited for you.

[Hoomi]

If Saint Patrick had taken the time to get to know a Ball Python, he wouldn't have chased all the snakes out of Ireland.

What history fails to remember is that after the death of Saint Patrick, it was only a few years until the Great Rat Plague of Ireland, since there were no longer any snakes to control the rodent population, and after so many years, the rats simply bred so freely that they were suddenly everywhere.

[Smulkin]

oughta be there

http://pythons.com/hamper

I hooked up with it through our links section. He is a super dude with a very long history of working with boids, and all of his BP's even (hell especially) the normals have fantastic colring, patterns and consistently are well cared for and in excellent health. Glad to hear he made yet another forum member a proud "parent"!

[gen]

Yay! I can't wait to see pics of him.

[RandyRemington]

Good sounding story but it turns out there where never any snakes in Ireland.