Comparison: 92 grams to 400+ grams

In January, I bought a gorgeous cinnamon fire female that I later named Ginger. I weighed her the night I brought her home and she was only 92 grams. She was from a silver bullet to super fire pairing and hatched on 10/04/2014, which is four days after my birthday. This was her on the night I brought her home.


Here she is in her deli cup. She would never fit in there now!
http://ball-pythons.net/gallery/file...117_192552.jpg


She didn't want to face the camera in this one. Gives you a great angle to look at her stripey tail, though!
http://ball-pythons.net/gallery/file...0/img_0347.jpg


This is probably the only decent baby picture I have of her, but it's adorable.
http://ball-pythons.net/gallery/file...0/img_0346.jpg


Even though she only ate live food when I bought her, I had no trouble getting her to eat. She took her first frozen thawed fuzzy rat on the first try and hasn't missed a meal since then. As of now she is in the 470-500+ gram range according to my dad (I'm not home to weigh her myself). Ginger looks very different than she used to, and has become my favorite snake in the collection. I'm sure you'll see why!

Look at how big she is! It's amazing how much more blushing there is on her now. I love the fire gene. Didn't like it when I got my first ball python, but now I can really see the difference it makes.
http://i780.photobucket.com/albums/y...psdoi2j8wo.jpg


I just think this is a cool angle. She has the sweetest face.
http://i780.photobucket.com/albums/y...psn1oe0yb7.jpg


She loves to move around! It's great for taking pictures like this. Check out her head!
http://i780.photobucket.com/albums/y...pscetc5tjp.jpg


And here's Ginger being adorable.
http://i780.photobucket.com/albums/y...pssuoskgbl.jpg


This girl has so much personality. She hisses at me whenever I take her out at first, but then she realizes who it is and starts exploring. I can't remember one occasion where she has balled up on me. She's always been a pretty confident snake. She's also one of the most fun to feed. Takes a rat every time without fail, even when in blue. I mean, she smells a rat and she's out from under the paper towels ready to strike.

I wasn't even going to buy Ginger originally. I came to an expo intending to buy a spider or a calico or a lesser... something like that. I ended up buying a bumblebee het red axanthic, but I also saw a pastel female I liked. My dad thought I was insane for wanting a single gene female, so we argued a bit, but I still wanted the pastel. I decided to check out some of the other snakes the breeder had, though, just out of curiosity. I saw a cinnamon lesser (I had considered that particular one for my first snake months before this expo but chose a different one) and a cinnamon fire. I decided to ask about handling the cinnamon fire, and after she had hissed at me several times and tried to jump out of my hands, I was somewhat doubtful. After that, she crawled up my arm and wrapped as tightly as she could around my left elbow and would not move. I tried to pry her off, and she hissed at me as loudly as possible before readjusting her position and resting her head back on my arm. I looked at her for a little while, and she stared back, not looking away from my face. I decided that since she wouldn't get off my arm anyway and wouldn't stop glaring at me (it seemed like she was daring me to try and make her move), I may as well take her home. I reasoned that she probably would be a decent feeder, anyway. I was not disappointed. I am so glad I ended up buying her. Sometimes a snake being a little quirky is enough to get me to take them home, and all of her old quirks are still there. She still likes being jewelry, she's still a talker, she still likes moving around a lot, and she still watches me. If I happen to wake her up while I'm messing around in the snake room, she pokes her head out and watches what I'm doing. If I'm holding her, after she's done moving around, she settles down and looks straight at my face while she rests. Later, she'll start moving again before the cycle repeats. Very strange. None of my other snakes do that, but I think it makes her special. She's my favorite for a reason! :D

Aww, I love the adoration you have for Ginger, it makes me all fluffy and warm inside to hear when someone loves their snake so dearly!! Its so cute how she latched right onto you at the expo, and I agree, she does have a sweet face!! When I take Louie out I call him a "puppy face," haha, on account of those big sweet brown eyes!! Can't resist em. I love Ginger's personality the way you describe it. I'm so happy for you two! xx

I adore her! Fire cinnamons are one of my most favorite combos, and on my list of "make these soon!" combos! Love love love how bright her dorsal striping is!

She is beautiful and sounds like a cool snake! :)

Thank you! I was pleasantly surprised to see how well she's growing up. I had my doubts about mixing cinnamon and fire, I thought it would look muddy later on, but not at all. She's aging very nicely, that's for sure. I'll have to remember to post more pictures of her as she grows. Her dorsal stripe is pretty unique, and I find the contrast of light brown and cream very pleasant. It's pretty cool that the dorsal stripe is getting longer as she grows. I know it's to be expected, but it's interesting. I have to wonder if her personality will pass down to her future offspring. It would be very interesting if that happened. I've heard that personality can be genetic, but I've never seen any actual written accounts (Anyone have any?) of it in ball pythons. If it is... great! No trouble feeding anyone! If not... great! I get the whole mix! It'll be a while before she sees a male, of course. The waiting is nice, though. Gives me more time to just play around with her and make plans.

Just in general, if anyone ever has a doubt about adding a cinnamon fire to their collection... stop. This is a beautiful and affordable combo. It's not even worth having a second thought. Fire is a powerful gene, and cinnamon... come on. Think gargoyles. Where can you go wrong? The pictures don't even begin to do this girl justice.