Progression of Muriel the Albino Paradox

My ball python is a little like your Vicky, Sauzo. He's ferocious when he strikes (I fear for my hand sometimes) but after a few undisturbed minutes, he'll loosen up and sniff it for a while, sometimes look around as if to check if anyone is watching him. He'll do that for a bit until he decides to find the head and eat it. I'm interested to see what Muriel's response will be like when I feed her in a few hours.

Muriel had a very bad feeding last night. As usual, it took a while for her to strike. The fuzzy I gave her had a gaping belly (I accidentally tore it during handling) so that was my first mistake. When she struck, she ended up with the top of her head inside the mouse's stomach. I thought she would let go and recoil around it properly so I left the room for a minute to clean and put away the feeding tongs. When I came back she was thrashing everywhere with her face still inside the mouse. She ended up submerged in her water dish a couple of times. I went and grabbed the tongs and quickly pulled the mouse off. She was so freaked out she started climbing the glass walls of her cage and it was kind of like she was frantically trying to get to me. I took her out and held her and eventually she calmed down, but she kept opening and closing her mouth like she was trying to realign her jaw. She kept her head up the whole night.

i checked on her this morning before work and she looked alright, wasn't holding her head up against the glass. I feel awful for how irresponsible I was. I was so scared after it happened and I'm worried she won't want to eat again, it was hard enough trying to get her to take her food before. I'll be watching her closely for a bit, make sure she's alright. I think she might have swallowed some water.

Aww poor girl. I've had those kind of days but usually just something like one of them trying to a rat butt first. Nothing that dramatic. Good thing Muriel is mellow again.

http://i.imgur.com/94YoW3T.jpg

Back to her usual, goofy self. This was taken during one of her breaks- not two minutes earlier she was playing spider-snake all over her cage. Hard not to giggle when she fell a couple of times. The spider life does not suit her, but damnit, if that's her dream then who's to stop her from achieving it? At the top of the glass there you can see an ugly smear from the mouse innards she got everywhere during her panic attack. Definitely going to clean out her cage soon. The T8 from Animal Plastics arrived a few days ago. I ordered a pretty TV stand to set it on top of and as soon as that arrives, I'll start assembling her new home.

Unfortunately, I live in a small apartment with two other people and the only place I can keep my snakes are in my bedroom. With the size of this new cage and how big she's getting already, it looks like I may not have the room for my ball python anymore. I thought about stacking two T8's, but to be honest I'm not allowed to have exotic pets in my apartment (don't worry, there are so many units here that the landlords don't spend any time checking for stuff like this and if worse did come to pass, I know my parents would take her in) and a snake condo isn't exactly inconspicuous. He's a sweetheart, never once struck at me. I adore him, but keeping him and Muriel in the same room for a few years is not going to work out. She's already outgrown her 10 gallon so I know this T8 has to house her first, and I can't imagine where I'd put his 50 gallon terrarium. This decision makes me sad, but I know I'll feel better about it if I can find him a loving home.

http://i.imgur.com/cZPgmAs.jpg

And now she's done being an earthworm and back to being spider-snake.

Well babies are supposed to start out in 20 gallons, so naturally 10 wouldn't last long. Conservatively fed, you shouldn't have a largeish (5'-6') snake until it's 3-4 years old. Mine grew a bit faster than some were comfortable with, and even he didn't reach 6' until he was 3 years old. So the T8 should last 3-4 years at least, or whenever she exceeds 6' (t8's are the 4'x2' ones right?).


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Sounds like a wild feeding experience. Don't let it freak you out. It's just one of those types of steps in the learning curve we all go through. Glad all is well now. :)

That is going to be me tomorrow at the reptile show in Michigan. I have had a Ball Python for a year and want to get a BCC.
Congrats!

Honestly I would just get 2 T8s and stack em. The footprint isn't going to be that much bigger and a T8 will last a ball python forever even a large female. The T8 for Muriel will be a toss up depending on her genetics and how big the parents were. I've talked to people who have Surinames that are only 6-7' at 10 years old and other guys who have Suris the same size. So it really depends. Regardless though the T8 will last her at least 3 years as I got my big BCI girl Rosey in a Pro-Line 4x2 and she is 3 years old and 6'. She has been in it since she was a baby at 16". Me personally though, I'm going to get Vicky a T13 as I want more depth in the cage and then just get Dottie a T10. The T8 is a great cage but the Pro-Line I got Rosey in now is 14" high and getting her out sometimes is a pain so I couldn't imagine trying to get a 6' boa out of a 12" high cage no matter how calm they are.

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Originally Posted by CloudtheBoa

Sometimes snakes can take a bit of persuasion to get to eat. Lol As she gets older and eats more meals she may not require so much work to feed.

My retic's first rat required me to heat the head and do the dance twice for her to eat. She wrapped but then just gave up trying to find it. Waiting to see how her next feeding goes.

I remember how different my BCI was from the ball python, they're quite different, and they're easy to get hooked on for sure!


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And then you get the occasional batcrap crazy ball python who thinks they're some sort of reticulated python or indigo snake and they come flying out of their cage and towards your face or your pet cat. (I can't be the only one with a BP who's an absolute nutjob, am I?)

Oh, and Fincayra, your boa is very active! I got mine expecting the same thing and I ended up with a pet rock who's an even better rock than my balls are. lol How big is Muriel now? She looks like she could still hang in that 10 gal for a few months longer. I also second what Sauzo said; just get two T8's and stack them. When in doubt, just stack stack stack! Learning to play 3D tetris is just part of being a reptile keeper! ;)