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Re: Giant ball python
Wow, this got ultra-ridiculous.
I've never heard any good reason to house multiple BPs together, but Davevh, if it's working out for you, congrats :)
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Re: Giant ball python
Quote:
Originally Posted by ChrisBowsman
Wow, this got ultra-ridiculous.
I've never heard any good reason to house multiple BPs together, but Davevh, if it's working out for you, congrats :)
Thanks, it has for 18 years!
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Re: Giant ball python
I have a girl like that -she is around 3000g and has a huge head. Here is a shot of her with an 800g spider.
http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/d...randBertha.jpg
Not a great head shot, but you can see how much larger she is than the male.
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Re: Giant ball python
Thats interesting about the possibility of a ball python sub species. Post more info JnJReptiles please!
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Re: Giant ball python
First, here's my big girl Haurie. Unknown origin, as I bought her at about 1700g, with another large girl.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...d/IMG_1599.jpg
Secondly, I kept two male ball pythons together, and when I did seperate them, both ate better, gained weight at double the rate as before, and calmed to be handled easily any time.
Thirdly, I kept ten baby balls together, and seperated them into two groups of five, and then finally into individual bins, and they ate horribly in the large group enclosure, terribly in the small group enclosure, and superbly in the individual enclosure. In the individual enclosure, each snake would stay in a hide, or hang out in a section, instead of constantly roaming around, and trying to get out.
I know it's not definitive, and it's not a scientific test in lab conditions. I just wanted to let you know what my personal experiance has been.
I think that more than one snake can be kept in a enclosure if it's properly set up, and the keeper is very experianced and knowledgable about that species, but I don't see any real benefits to keeping more than one in a enclosure.
Welcome to the forums, and I look forward to the pics if you can get some! And pics of your other snakes too! Especially pics of the enclosures.
edit: Oh, and I'm hoping Haurie is gravid by my het clown male!! *fingers crossed*
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Re: Giant Python
Quote:
Originally Posted by davevh
Yes, this is entirely true!
Snake growth is based on the condition known as indeterminate growth. They grow rapidly until maturity and then growth slows down but never quite stops. Plants also exhibit this same phenomenon (hence old trees getting pretty darn large).
This explains why snakes continue ecdysis (keratin skin sloughing) throughout their lives.
Interestingly, many arthropods slough their outer shell but I am unsure if they have indeterminate growth (100 year old giant scorpions anyone?)
This is one of the reasons I have a lot of respect for the giant snakes in nature because they must be very old and is very sad when people kill them.
Facinating.. thank you for clearing that up for me.
Most insects and arachnids do not molt after they complete their final adult molt. Emperor scorps usually live 7-10 years.. I had an adult female for 3 years or so and she never molted.
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Re: Giant ball python
That would be very cool if she was gravid with the clown!
I was very excited when my large Boa was gravid shortly before leaving South Africa. I was very disappointed that I would not see her offspring but thats how life goes. I made a large effort to find her a good home with a breeder who would take good care of her though ...
Quote:
Originally Posted by wolfy-hound
First, here's my big girl Haurie. Unknown origin, as I bought her at about 1700g, with another large girl.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...d/IMG_1599.jpg
Secondly, I kept two male ball pythons together, and when I did seperate them, both ate better, gained weight at double the rate as before, and calmed to be handled easily any time.
Thirdly, I kept ten baby balls together, and seperated them into two groups of five, and then finally into individual bins, and they ate horribly in the large group enclosure, terribly in the small group enclosure, and superbly in the individual enclosure. In the individual enclosure, each snake would stay in a hide, or hang out in a section, instead of constantly roaming around, and trying to get out.
I know it's not definitive, and it's not a scientific test in lab conditions. I just wanted to let you know what my personal experiance has been.
I think that more than one snake can be kept in a enclosure if it's properly set up, and the keeper is very experianced and knowledgable about that species, but I don't see any real benefits to keeping more than one in a enclosure.
Welcome to the forums, and I look forward to the pics if you can get some! And pics of your other snakes too! Especially pics of the enclosures.
edit: Oh, and I'm hoping Haurie is gravid by my het clown male!! *fingers crossed*
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Re: Giant ball python
We will see how big the babies are and how fast they grow compared to normal balls soon, as the sub Sahara female in the pics we posted above just dropped 8 eggs, and didn't even look gravid.
She was 3000 grams before, and now is 2272 grams, after 8 big eggs.
If these girls lay 8 eggs when they dont even look gravid/ look a little skinny it will be interesting to see how big a clutch is from a female who is fed well and bred in captivity. We sold a gravid one to a friend the other day so will see how many eggs she dropped compared to her weight.
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Re: Giant ball python
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Re: Giant ball python
actually it doesnt look all that much larger than some bigguns i have seen.
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Re: Giant ball python
That's pretty cool.
I have some babies with bigger heads than some, and thier boy's are more or less around the same size.
I remember seeing on King Snake a while ago, there was a HUUUUGE female WC on there. I think it was $1000?
Any one remember that one?
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Re: Giant ball python
That was a 5600 gram sub-Sahara that S&S reptiles/ suzette had, that I believe came from our supplier.
They get a lot bigger, we will post pics when the eggs hatch.
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Re: Giant ball python
That's 12 pounds of hotness! LOL
And I think my 2500g female is huge :rolleyes:
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Re: Giant ball python
Well the babies hatched 4 days ago. They are in the 65 gram range for 6 of them and the last one/ high orange had a huge yolk on him that he hatched with so he is only34 grams, but odd looking.
I asked around about size on the babies and was told sometimes they are 180 grams out of the eggs, some times 60 grams it depends on the clutch.
We will keep growth rates on these guys and see how they grow compared to reg. normal balls. We had 2 other clutched hatch with in a few days of them to so we will use them to compare the growth. The female that laid they eggs was very skinny , to skinny to even look gravid, so that could play a role in the smaller size of the babies.
Time will tell.
The pics are really bad, but didnt want to bug them to much, since they just hatched.
http://www.jnjreptiles.com/pictures/sahara.jpg
http://www.jnjreptiles.com/pictures/sahara_b.jpg
http://www.jnjreptiles.com/pictures/orange_sahara.jpg
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Re: Giant ball python
Heh heh.:D Sawubona
From the first page of his topic there is mention of the Transvaal Snake Park. When I was a nipper my mum used to drop me there on a Sunday morning and then pick me up 6 hours later. Shame that now they've turned it into a huge nightclub!:mad:
I got my first BP just 3 days ago, and so far he's great, well, from what I've seen of him at least.... I hope he does not get to 6 feet. I'm looking at maybe 4 feet or so and I'll be happy
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Re: Giant ball python
Very interesting....So do you think that maybe since the wild balls can eat whenever they want & get that big, that maybe we are not feeding our captive balls enough? My ball (Mila) is rather large; I am 5'10" and she is almost that long, I have had her almost 8 years & do not know her exact age (she was an adult when I rescued her) Before she laid eggs last year by suprise (parthenogenesis) she was a more weighty & healthy looking because I fed her bigger rats, then when she laid her eggs I started researching & found this site & started following "the rules" that most people here live by fiercely & she never gained the weight back that she lost while incubating her own eggs. She looked a hell of a lot healthier before I started to feed her 1 SMALL rat a week...I used to feed her med-large rats no problem, so I am now feeding her 2 medium rats a week and she seems more content & hopefully will get back to looking like her old self. I need to get a scale of some sort so I can weigh her. But she is a big girl.
I really love this site & find useful info, but some people are a little too overbearing when it comes to "the rules" of care and there some questions that I just won't ask here because of that. Just like everything else every snake is different and prefer different temps (like mine), feed, hides ect.
But that won't stop me from coming here because there are people here who do realize that and will have your back when an attack is imminent, as seen in this thread.
HAPPY HERPING!!
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Re: Giant ball python
Quote:
Originally Posted by sharilynn
Very interesting....So do you think that maybe since the wild balls can eat whenever they want & get that big, that maybe we are not feeding our captive balls enough? My ball (Mila) is rather large; I am 5'10" and she is almost that long, I have had her almost 8 years & do not know her exact age (she was an adult when I rescued her) Before she laid eggs last year by suprise (parthenogenesis) she was a more weighty & healthy looking because I fed her bigger rats, then when she laid her eggs I started researching & found this site & started following "the rules" that most people here live by fiercely & she never gained the weight back that she lost while incubating her own eggs. She looked a hell of a lot healthier before I started to feed her 1 SMALL rat a week...I used to feed her med-large rats no problem, so I am now feeding her 2 medium rats a week and she seems more content & hopefully will get back to looking like her old self. I need to get a scale of some sort so I can weigh her. But she is a big girl.
I really love this site & find useful info, but some people are a little too overbearing when it comes to "the rules" of care and there some questions that I just won't ask here because of that. Just like everything else every snake is different and prefer different temps (like mine), feed, hides ect.
But that won't stop me from coming here because there are people here who do realize that and will have your back when an attack is imminent, as seen in this thread.
HAPPY HERPING!!
I believe that the reality of things is different than your line of reasoning above.
In the wild, ball pythons are known to breed at much smaller sizes than what many of us do in captivity. They eat less and more infrequently, and grow much more slowly.
What in your eyes may seem as "healthy" looking may in fact have been somewhat overweight. I can't really say any more not seeing the animal, but based on your feeding regiment, it could be a possibility. Ball pythons generally should not look like blood pythons, and I am a believer that snakes that are overfed in captivity are many times less healthy than those that are fed somewhat more conservatively.
You may also have taken some advice out of context...1 small rat a week with no deviation is not gospel here...when I have a gravid girl lay eggs, I feed her one small meal as soon as she wants it (sometimes the day after laying) and then offer 2 and a few times three weaned sized rats per week to the moms until they start to look more full bodied again. Once they are back up to weight, they go back on a more normal feeding regiment.
And as far as this site goes, I do agree that there are a lot of information regurgitators that have probably spent more time online than with their animals, but for the most part everything that this site goes by does work for a lot of people and when new ideas come up that do work, they are readily accepted. You'd be surprised just how different things were even just 2-3 years ago.
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Re: Giant ball python
I think that it's important to gather as much information as possible, and then figure out how to use that knowledge in a way that works best for your snakes and you. I think that there are some people who read one thread, or even one post, and take that information and run with it.
Also, it is important to remember that a lot of posts are what works for that individual, and it may not work out for you. I've found that a lot of reading, and some trial and error have been my best tools.
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Re: Giant ball python
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Re: Giant ball python
Hahaha! nice reference.....
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