Rescuing a girl...Only JUST found out how bad her situation is =[

[RockNRollProcelain]

So I like to peruse Craigslist for racks, equipment, and all that. What did I find instead? Someone was selling their Gravid Female Ball Python (a normal who has bred with a Butter). She looked healthy enough in the pictures, and I sent him a message. Turns out he's not asking a lot - just 100 as a re-homing fee. Okay, cool. I've no problem with that.

I do have a problem with several other things. Such as the fact that he's selling her while GRAVID. I mean really?! Talk about a time to NOT stress this girl out. The stress alone could cause problems with the eggs. So I started asking questions to make her transition as painless as possible - such as what substrate he's using, what type of hides, seeing if I can take some of her old substrate and maybe the hides with me so she has something familiar, etc. I also asked what he's been feeding her, so that I can have food on hand and stocked for her - if she's Gravid, she should be a lot bigger than even my biggest girl. What he has told me has enraged me and made me feel positive that I must get this girl away from him. He doesn't know anything about the substrate other than that she is living in a 40 gallon tank (which I exasperatedly tried to explain has nothing to do with the bedding - to no avail). She hasn't had two hides, EVER. And he is feeding her small or medium mice. I almost flipped. I have another female ball python who I rescued who is far too small to be breeding, but is absolutely eating Large Mice, and will soon be going to Small Rats, as she is rather round. So either he is drastically underfeeding this female of his, or she is WAY too small to be breeding, both of which are going to be huge problems I'll have to be dealing with.

Take all of this and add that I'm currently 20 weeks pregnant and hormonal and protective? I would like to stab this man in the face and then take both the gravid female, and the male she bred with (I don't have enough moneys right now to take both of them since he's asking quite a bit more for the male, and my hormones say to save the mama and her babies).

ANYWAYS...any advice on how to make this girl's transfer to her new home the least stressful as possible? I'm asking for old substrate to bring her home in, but I don't know if that will be enough to make her not terribly stressed. Also, if she is indeed gravid (I've no way to prove or disprove this as of yet) any advice on best care for a gravid female would be appreciated. I've been doing my research, but it's always nice to hear from people who are actually caring for Ball Pythons and have dealt with similar scenarios. =] Thanks everyone for reading my rant and for any/all help and advice given!