First BIG ball python

My wife found someone listing a 10 pound ball on CL this week for $100. I was doubtful of course but still called the seller. Turns out it was an ex breeder with only the last of his collection left. This girl was his pet which he wasn't sure if he'd let go. I had my wife pick her up for me as I was at work. She ended up being 3,089 grams he said she was 4k a few months back. Not sure what to make of that as she isn't skinny by any means. As a plus she locked up with a spider and mojave male. She shed for me yesterday and has been coiling ever since so we'll see what happens.

She's a really thick girl. I measured her with some string which I later stretched out on measuring tape. I was surprised to learn she was only 53''. And even bigger surprise was my last pick up a 1950 gram girl I also from CL (for $17!) is right at 53'' as well. I was told she had been on a 2.5 month fast and just started being active again. I had wondered how much weight she could pack on but never expected 1,000 grams! Her head is smaller than the BIG girls its easily seen by just a glance.

http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/f...thon/Vegas.jpg
Vegas (named by the seller) she nice and light with nearly no alien heads. I was told she hasn't eaten in a month yet never skips a meal outside of the breeding season.

http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/f...0Python/66.jpg
"66" I was told she only takes live mice. She took a thawed rat just days after I brought her home. She eats like a CHAMP.

Xavier

Nice pick up!!! She is a big beautiful girl :gj:

Nice pickup :gj:

**facepalm**

So much for quarantine. :rolleyes:

She looks good but please get into the habit of being suspicious and quarantining (sp?) all new animals away from your established collection for 30-90 days. :please:

Suppose he had a lot of pythons but only has this one left because the others died of some horrible disease? Suppose the first sign of this is sudden weight loss - say a kilo in a couple of months and loss of appetite?

Not everyone is trustworthy enough to tell you this.

In these worst case scenarios you would have just put about $700 worth of animals in immediate danger of infection and, since they are breeding males, they will likely be exposed to most of your breeding females - which would then probably be exposed to your other breeding males and so on.

By the time you saw a problem with the first girl most of your adult snakes could have been compromised. :(

It's just not worth the risk and gets less worth it as your collection grows.


dr del

Agreed, 30-60 day Quarantine is a MUST every time a new snake comes in.
Losing your collection to one normal female no matter how big she is would suck :(

woow very nice pickups bro

Though I havnt had any situation where I have had to quarentine yet, I am going to agree, Why compromise the health of your whole collection for one snake that is amazing because she is huge. I would say at least get her bin somewhere safe for the next month or so just to make sure nothing happens.

Sounds like the OP was stating she had locked with the males prior to sale. Don't see where he did not QT? Nice pick ups either way.

Sorry for the confusion guys. Brunoheart is correct I have not bred her (I don't even own a male yet)she was bred from the seller prior to the sale. She isn't in the rack with the rest of my snakes.

Xavier

sweet pick up dude :gj:

Jim