Hello everyone. I have a few questions.

Greetings and welcome to the forum.

It's nice to see that you have such a positive attitude when it comes to your snakes being that you have had them for such a long time. Quite often people are very defensive when it comes to how they have been doing things because "it works".

Anyway, it seems that Adam has answered many of your questions. I just wanted to add a couple of things. First of all, it is unlikely that you have a Cinnamon Pastel. Not impossible, just unlikely. Although you got your snakes when there weren't many ball morphs and people didn't know much about them, they still went through a lot of hands before getting to you and dealers tend to pick out the unique ones along the way. To help you identify it you can take a look at the Hunter's Guide to Morphs, specifically the Cinnamon Pastel.

Now about the plastic containers. There are a number of reasons that people choose these containers including: Cost, environmental control, space optimization, and they're easy to keep clean. They are very cheap, they hold humidity and temperatures much better than glass, they can stack easily in a rack. I have 17 snakes and couldn't imagine keeping 17 glass tanks around the house. Finally, they are very easy to keep clean. Ball pythons by nature are very shy and usually come out at night when the lights are off, so we're not missing much by not being able to see a lot of nice furniture, although I do see the appeal. Besides, the plastic containers offer some security to the snakes due to their opaque quality, yet one can easily see in to check on their snakes.

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Originally Posted by JB_Orchidguy

Then I can begin warming my babies up and hopefully feeding them rats instead of mice, but if they still refuse rats after warming up could it be they are too used to eating mice over rats since they have been so long on mice?

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Wow, a lot of responses by the time I got mine posted. I was going to comment on the mice and was surprised that Adam didn't. There is nothing wrong with feeding them mice instead of rats. They're used to mice and you might have a difficult time switching them over, but I see no reason to switch if they're both eating well and it's convenient for you.

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Originally Posted by xdeus

Wow, a lot of responses by the time I got mine posted. I was going to comment on the mice and was surprised that Adam didn't. There is nothing wrong with feeding them mice instead of rats. They're used to mice and you might have a difficult time switching them over, but I see no reason to switch if they're both eating well and it's convenient for you.

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I was just overwhelmed from all the reading and typing ... LOL ... good catch though ... rats or mice ... no difference ... I agree. ;)

-adam

Thanks everyone!! No offence is taken at all. In fact my female has already been burned bu the heatrock. I thought it was an electrical burn because I used to feed them in their cage when I was 16/17 and the cord was chewed by a mouse. I replaced the rock after finding the burn, but never associated it to the heatrock. It will be removed then I get home. She has healed fine. They do not use it anyways. I admit my technique is lacking, and that is why I am here reading and learning. I am receptive to constructive critisism. I think I am going to take the advice of getting 3 sterilite toate to keep them in, and take my time to build a nice seperate enclosure for each. I know the uncontroled breeding has happened a number of times, but I plan to be ready for the eggs next time it happens. I am older now and at 27 I have learned to put my mind to a goal and stick with it. Its the only way I have been able to raise and grow over 100 orchids. Now I am devoting energy to my babies who I have obviously been neglecting for years, but thats about to change. I will go look through the caging section and find out the best way to warm the sterilite containers. Now that I know the problems I am facing I will fix them and give everyone that may read this and cring, as I do when I hear about bad orchid culture, a reason to be proud. I will attept to keep them on a feeding scedual and move them up to rats if they will take them. It will be easier on the pockets too.

I will post pictures of my babies tomorrow after taking new pictures. Unless I can talk my wife into taking pictures for me and emailing them to me at work. Then I can let more experienced folks tell me if my female is a normal or not. From what is being said she is a normal. I think I opnly paid 20 bucks for her when I got her, and the male I bought from a friend that was moving I think for 45. I know he is a normal, but she looks light and similar to pictures of pastels. I know she was farm rased from what the pet store guy told me oh so long ago. She was already a juvi when I got her I would say about 2 foot or maybe shorter. Not big at all, but she was bigger than the ones I normaly see at superpets. When I bought the female I was unaware of balls that were pastel or the other morphs. The petstore guy who was a herp guy didn't even say anything about that. This was a small local store not a big chain. He was one of the owners of the store. Maybe I lucked up, maybe she is normal. Only time will tell, and I will love them the same, but I hope to get into the spectacular morphs. I especialy like the bumblebee balls., and the pieball that are almost all white except the head. Big money for one of those I'm sure. Thanks for all the help, and you can stop cringing now. Things will get better and I will be asking more questions to perfect my technique. Oh and they will be seperated if not tomorrow early next week. I have to work this weekend and I work nights so..... Thanks everyone. Please feel free to give advice, just please don't be to hard on me :oops: I should have done it sooner, but it will be done right now.

I just want to add that I love orchids. :)

Thanks everyone for the replies. Xdeus sent the link to what a cinnamon Pastel would look like. I have to say I think my female looks like the snakes on the top pictures. She is dramaticly lighter than my male. I'm not going to get all excited because I could just be hopeing to hard. I will post pictures tomorrow of them both and ask for expert opinions. As i siad I would be happy either way,but having an unknwon diamond would be nice too. Thanks everyone I will definately switch them to the sterilite containers. I need to get that big bulky cage out out of the computer room and save money for the incubater project. I will be successfull this time. I am in learning mode and appreciate everyones husbandry help. BTW I am a quick learner too. So rest assured. Thanks for being so receptive to me too, and not bashing me to much for my lack of skills. :P

I haven't looked yet, but if there is an off topic picture section I will post some pictures of orchids that have bloomed recently for you April. I have a splendid little mini hybrid thats in bloom now and so lovely. Its abreviation is Ocd, but I can't remember for the life of me what it stands for it is labeled properly and a nice little thing. :D

Yep there's the off-topic cafe. I'd love to see some of your beauties. I don't have any orchids, but I love looking at them. So exotic.

Someday I'll try my hand at keeping them. :)

April they are really easy. Once you learn how to take care of them its a breeze. Basicly like snakes. Once you know and have things down its easy as pie. I have some orchids that I have had trouble blooming, but thats not the norm. Some are pickier than nothers, but by no means difficult. Like I tell everyone, Its just different than most plants. Believe it or not I can kill Aloe and people say that is so easy to grow. You just need to know the conditions you can give and then fit what will go good for your conditions. And with over 25,000 different species and countless hybreds, I'm sure you will find more than a few you can grow that apeal to you. They range from flowers 1/8 of an inch across to about 6 to 7 inches across. Sweet fragrence to stinky foul smelling. From a full grown plant fitting in a 2 inch pot to a mamoth gramatiphylum that can fill a 12 x 12 GH if left undevided. So once you find the time to learn I can point you in the proper dirrection and help myself with any questions. I am by no means the end all athority, but I have read so much on them that I have alot of facts. It will soon be like that with balls. I knwo I did it backwards and learned a new thing first before the snakes I already owned, but what I was doing worked so I wasn't concerned about changing. I found the site by accident last night and now I am rethinking the "its working" attitude and open to how it should be done for the benefit of my babies. Sorry they don't have names. They are known as boy snake and girl snake. Its just stuck for so long they will probably stay like that.


P.S. the offer to learning a secondary hobby of orchids is open to anyone who is interested. Just PM me. I am willing to give info to get info.:D Thanks again everyone!!! I love getting the excited feeling you get when you know your about to do things right when you have been doing it wrong for so long. Thanks again!!

Hm.. well my aloe is growing. :) I unfortunately don't have room for any orchids right now, but I'd still like to see some of yours.

You better start a thread in the off topic cafe before this thread is totally hijacked. lol