The difference a few years can make -

in me, not the snakes. The snakes are different, too, but it occurred to me today that *I* have changed a lot in regards to keeping snakes.

The first year? "OMG, Snake didn't eat! The world is ending! Is it dying? What am I doing wrong?!" Followed by me trying every feeding trick in the book. "Has it been too long since the last shed/poop?" "Is that rat too big/too small/just right?" Staring at every. last. feeding like it was the most fascinating thing in the world. Obsessively monitoring temps/humidity. Obsessively recording every freaking thing. Absolutely afraid of being bitten and twitchy with the snake.

These days? LOL, no. Check the husbandry with a quick glance, move on. Refused meal? Glance at husbandry, try again in 2 weeks. Go off food for 6 months? Keep an eye on the snake's condition and husbandry to make sure, but if no signs of illness? Don't care. It'll eat when it's hungry. Recording? Um, I do periodic weight checks to make sure I'll notice a big weight drop during fasts but it's an 'as I feel like it' thing. Biting? Pft. Whatever.

Should be clear that I would probably do more record keeping if I was breeding, but I'm not. Just about the only thing I do *daily* is make sure there's fresh water and no poop in the enclosure, and that the t-stat probe is where it belongs/hasn't been yanked out by a cat.

Snakes are a lot more fun this way, I must say.

Yup. Its all a personal confidence thing. It is hard for many to come to grips with because ball python's physiology is so different from a humans.

People act the same way multiplied by a factor of four when they have their first child.

Yeaaaah, I wouldn't let my mother-in-law (or anyone else) babysit my first kid until he was nearly 2, because I was all anxious and freaked out.

My second kid I handed to a stranger in Wal-Mart because they asked, and left him with a teenager at about 4 weeks old to go to a Christmas party.