Fig Progression Thread

This is the first direct from breeder snake I've had, so my first chance to actually track the growth of a snake from baby to adult!! This is Fig the ball python, he's a lesser het red axanthic g stripe! His hatch date is September 28th, 2019! I'm absolutely obsessed with g stripes, especially subtle ones, and his coloring reminded me of my favorite food... very happy to have him as a first handpicked morph!

Here are his breeder photos (Bought this little guy from KB Reptiles in Ontario)

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Fresh out of the bag, shipped through Reptile Express (FedEx) and received overnight. He's incredibly healthy and well fed, and even more beautiful in person! Will try to get a good eye shot once he's settled in a bit and can stand to be handled longer without stressing. He's a lovely caramel-toffee color with a subtle yellow stripe from head to tail that unfortunately doesn't show up too well in pictures...

https://media.discordapp.net/attachm...504&height=672https://media.discordapp.net/attachm...504&height=672

He weighed in at a flat 200 grams which is a little less than I was told but maybe my scale is off? Or he just had a big poop, lol... took a picture of my 537 gram juvenile female in the weigh bowl to show off how little he is... outside of expos and friends' pets I've never held a baby this small... :please:

Speaking of, our girl is going nuts because she smells him... she loves other snakes... don't know how to tell her she isn't allowed to meet him for a month, but it's cool to see her out during the day.

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He was having a LOT of trouble settling in. Refusing to stay in a hide, glass surfing, etc. It's definitely because his clutter hasn't come in yet. He has the basics but a big empty tank is definitely stressful for such a little guy... it was meant to come in a while before he was so he'd have everything ready to hide in but the shipping got delayed, eugh. He made a beeline for my sleeve though, so... I tried changing shirts and putting the one I was wearing in there for him. Worked like a charm. He calmed down, drank, and is hiding and chilling in it! I'm pretty sure it's just because it has the lingering smell of other snakes on it but... I like to think I'm the snake whisperer. ;)

Anyway, his stuff still says scheduled for delivery in the next few hours... but I'm not holding my breath.

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I think snakes love soft clothes or blankets...they just aren't practical for long-term use. (Be careful about feeding, teeth get caught & cloth gets swallowed, requiring
surgery to avoid death of snake.) Hopefully before he's ready to feed his other stuff will have arrived...I hope he's not too spoiled by then? :D He looks really cute,
tucked in that way...

Thankfully I managed to shake him out of the shirt once his cage got set up, snuck in a little holding moment while I was putting him in, he's so lovely. Can't wait until he settles and I can start taking him out to get him used to handling! Now that there's some proper clutter and his walls aren't just plain glass he calmed down a lot, to the surprise of nobody, and used his hides, yay!! He has three, the big ones have some styrofoam to make the space smaller, I'll remove it as he grows!

My girl gets fed tomorrow (not that she'll let me forget it) and I'm not expecting him to take so quickly after all this stress but if he seems interested I'll try to offer anyway.


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So cute!!! Great looking set up to! Keep us posted.

This is super cool, here's a video of Fig's clutch! He hatched out very gray... but now he's the color of freshly baked bread, I'm so excited to see what colors he grows into! 414 seconds, there's my boy, I've already got that little face memorized! :D

https://youtu.be/-JK5K51WZRM?t=414

He got really excited and went for the food right away! Since he's smaller than expected I ended up giving him a leftover rat scented mouse instead of a nice fatty rat (that's what next week's feed will be, though). This is the face of a super scary predator, right?

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...423_170349.jpg

Meanwhile, in a first ever for me, my girl got over excited about feeding and got... the tongs. Somehow she still wants to eat after having to be peeled off of them... not Fig related but it felt hilariously notable.

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...423_165857.jpg

Don't you LOVE it when it all works!? :snake2: