New ball python owner with extensive reptile experience

Waiting until the next shed will be best, but you can soak him for a few minutes, 15 or so, in warm (not hot) water. Then use a warm wash cloth to help the pieces come off. They normally will rub off very easily.

You can always let him crawl through a damp washcloth. As long as the skin is not connected completely around his neck it will come off with his next shed. I would not advise removing the skin by hand. I have seen patients come in with subcutaneous tissue separated from the underlying muscle because an owner pulled on a piece that was not ready (pretty sure something else was going on but we were not authorized to do further diagnostics).

umm, i would say the main difference between BP breeding and other reptiles is the amount of morphs and the size of the market.

some morphs are expensive, most are not, and normals are not worth much at all.

if you breed some rare chameleons or green tree pythons or spiders or land turtles, you simply have a certain price tag for the offspring and its easy to see how much you make when you produce. and there are few morphs. and that price tag, for just healthy and well-started normals, can be quite high.

with ball pythons you have a price range and if you would produce just normals, or stuff like single-gene pastels, you will have trouble ever breaking even. Depending on genetics and quality the price range for a well-started one can be from like 30 dollars (no way to break even) to 30000 dollars (but you need to invest EVEN MORE upfront and have to deal with drastic price drops every year).

if you just want to breed something and break even and have fun and keep it simple, maybe with the low price for normals and the insane amount of morphs you might pick a different species. as i said, maybe green tree pythons maybe chameleons, here captive bred quality normals already have a nice and constant quite high price tag.

While I think normal BPs are beautiful they only sell for $25-$50 at expos.which is a great price,I was toning to buy one yesterday but went with a black pastel hatchling..hope I made the right choice,cause the guy looks a bit small,sorry to get off topic...

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Originally Posted by KasiRVT

You can always let him crawl through a damp washcloth. As long as the skin is not connected completely around his neck it will come off with his next shed. I would not advise removing the skin by hand. I have seen patients come in with subcutaneous tissue separated from the underlying muscle because an owner pulled on a piece that was not ready (pretty sure something else was going on but we were not authorized to do further diagnostics).

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Pythonfriend

umm, i would say the main difference between BP breeding and other reptiles is the amount of morphs and the size of the market.

some morphs are expensive, most are not, and normals are not worth much at all.

if you breed some rare chameleons or green tree pythons or spiders or land turtles, you simply have a certain price tag for the offspring and its easy to see how much you make when you produce. and there are few morphs. and that price tag, for just healthy and well-started normals, can be quite high.

with ball pythons you have a price range and if you would produce just normals, or stuff like single-gene pastels, you will have trouble ever breaking even. Depending on genetics and quality the price range for a well-started one can be from like 30 dollars (no way to break even) to 30000 dollars (but you need to invest EVEN MORE upfront and have to deal with drastic price drops every year).

if you just want to breed something and break even and have fun and keep it simple, maybe with the low price for normals and the insane amount of morphs you might pick a different species. as i said, maybe green tree pythons maybe chameleons, here captive bred quality normals already have a nice and constant quite high price tag.

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If did do the breeding thing I would just drop the money on a couple of proven breeders with HIGHLY desirable genes from a local breeder. I live in central florida so there are ALOT of them and a very high demand for pet snakes.