Question for long-time bp owners

[OhKnows]

I'm really trying to find a way to kill time. My bp just ate his second meal last night with no problems at all, so i'm itching for the 48 hour period to go by so i can finally handle it. I thought about this question in the meantime.

Do you find yourselves being able to differentiate between your snakes just by their patterns? The question comes from curiosity and the psych major in me. The only comparison i can think of right now is this. When you first meet identical twins, they're almost impossible to tell apart (i'm the newbie at this stage, all normal pb's look exactly the same to me). After a while though, you can easily tell them apart, even when they're not next to each other.

[Shelby]

Oh yes definitely. I don't have multiple BPs at the moment, but telling snakes of the same species apart by coor/pattern is very easy. I have two blood pythons and it's very easy for me to tell which is which when I see them separate. Same with my dumerils boas.. quite a lot of differences.

[OhKnows]

Aside from the obvious differences to the untrained eye, ie. size and distinct colors, are the patterns the main giveaway?

I'm like an excited new parent here. I can't wait to get to know Monkey's personality much better and the such. =)

[ddbjdealer]

Head/tail striping is the main differential... but with 11 normals, and two hets that look like normals... it'd be VERY difficult if they ever got put into a bin or something.. I'd never be able to pick 'em all out. lol

[kavmon]

along with pattern, some are shy,nervous others are real active,curious. and some hets have brighter patterns,crisp lines,more blushing. not saying that these are markers but the overall look can be a little different.


vaughn

[frankykeno]

I can tell at a glance which of our 6 ball pythons I'm looking at. Of course size and shade is the first indicator but then some of ours have a unique pattern here or there that I've photographed for their records so I think I automatically look at that. I also only have 6 which I handle a fair bit so you get used to which is which. Of course with hets in the collection, you have to be dead careful about not mixing up who is who or your breeding efforts and credibility would be shot.

All the snakes have very distinct and unique personalities I guess you'd call it. They may not do higher math but they do react to set circumstances in their own way, each different, each unique. It's always a pure joy to watch the snakes especially when they are out for some handling time with the family.


~~Jo~~

[Schlyne]

Yes. Out of the 6, I can easily tell who is who. While it does help that they're all relatively different sizes, the markings are different on them all.

My adult male is a very light tan for some reason, plus he's got a funky key shaped mark on him.
My adult female is very dark.
My young female has a lot of blushing and irregular markings, pratically no "alien heads".
My pastel male, (other than being pastel) has a "lemur face" mark on him.
My pastel female, personality wise, is very curious and has a very light head, almost like a super, but she's not. She's also brighter than the pastel male.
My het ghost male, has a very clean pattern, and he is much easier to tell apart from the young female by personality.

The carpet pythons can be told apart usually by size and by personality. The markings are very similar in both of them, but the male is a shade lighter.

The rest of the snakes are easy, they're vastly different species

[adizziedoll]

I have only had 2 for 5 years, but I can just glance at them and know who's who. I don't really look at pattern, I just know...

But if I did have to look, my girl is much darker than my boy. My boy also has a big scar from a feeding accident on his neck (lol, his neck.. how does that exactly work??) I never really used pattern in the begginning to tell them apart.

[Jeanne]

I have 3 ball pythons. I can surely tell them apart by thier patterns and coloring.. think of it like bp finger prints. Then ofcourse, there is thier personality differences.

[mr~python]

i can tell which one is vanessa or zulu blindfolded just by feeling which one is which. zulu is a very hard muscley snake and vanessa isn't as hard muscled so she's i little softer.

it's much easier just by looking at pattern or color though, lol.