Daughter and My 1st Snake

We just picked up our 1st snake, a 2 month old Ball Python.. We set up his tank last night and bought him today at a Reptile show in Fort Wayne, Indiana.. He started exploring his new home about 45 seconds after we placed him in it.. He's a climber !

Congrats on the new snake! Its normal for a new snake to cruise their new enclosure. Babies tend to climb a little, but usually stop once they get older and heavier.

Pics?? :)

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Thanks, it's just a Normal and we're unsure of it's sex? Doesn't really matter anyways it's just a pet.. My daughter made it a SHE and named her Avalon
http://www.flickr.com/photos/6146269...ream/lightbox/

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8440/7...66b0af53_m.jpg

She is lovely. I love my normal. They are awesome. Enjoy

Cool normal. Welcome to snakes. Let me warn you...bp' s are addicting. Can't wait to see your second. Ha ha.:D

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Thanks again, we thought she looked pretty cool. She stayed balled up when we were holding her at the show, she was probably freaked out and stressed.. We're going to give her till probably Weds. and handle her some more.. Going to let her relax a little after all the traveling to the show and back to our house etc..
The Vendor said she ate last Weds. also, so after a little handling time will try to feed her. Vendor showed me what size mouse she has been eating, so I bought 36 of them. That'll last her to maybe it's time to move up in rodent size.. I'm guessing?

Congrats, I think that's an awesome thing to share with your daughter!

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Originally Posted by BillinIndiana

Thanks, it's just a Normal and we're unsure of it's sex? Doesn't really matter anyways it's just a pet..

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I have to call Bologna here.

That is a downright lie. LIAR!

You can never have just ONE Ball python....you will find yourself getting the bug and before you know it you will have a rack system built in your spare bedroom with various morphs for breeding projects. You will find yourself unable to sleep at night and load up the laptop and play around with the morph calculator so you can satisfy your desires to breed crazy cool looking snakes. "Just a pet" you say...frakking bullcrap sir! It is an addiction and it cannot be quenched...just satisfied briefly with new "pickups" (which you will spam the forums with the MINUTE you get home and can throw it under a lamp in a white setting to get the best pictures possible while claiming "the pictures suck but the colors are even BETTER in person")

Blah blah blah. We've heard it all before. You're the new kid in class and you have to sit in the front of the school bus...but worry not...the next new kid is just coming home with his new "pet" just now from his local reptile expo....




Welcome to the club!

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Originally Posted by Rawbbeh

You can never have just ONE Ball python....you will find yourself getting the bug and before you know it you will have a rack system built in your spare bedroom with various morphs for breeding projects. You will find yourself unable to sleep at night and load up the laptop and play around with the morph calculator so you can satisfy your desires to breed crazy cool looking snakes. "Just a pet" you say...frakking bullcrap sir! It is an addiction and it cannot be quenched...just satisfied briefly with new "pickups" (which you will spam the forums with the MINUTE you get home and can throw it under a lamp in a white setting to get the best pictures possible while claiming "the pictures suck but the colors are even BETTER in person")

Welcome to the club!

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This may be hard to hear, but it's true. :rofl:
Buckle up, you're in for a wild ride!

Congrats on your baby! However, I wouldn't start handling until it has had at least a week or two to settle in, and has eaten 2-3 times in a row for you. I know its hard to not handle them, but trust me, it well help your snake settle in better, and be better, more well adjusted in the long run, IMO. :)

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rawbbeh

I have to call Bologna here.

That is a downright lie. LIAR!

You can never have just ONE Ball python....you will find yourself getting the bug and before you know it you will have a rack system built in your spare bedroom with various morphs for breeding projects. You will find yourself unable to sleep at night and load up the laptop and play around with the morph calculator so you can satisfy your desires to breed crazy cool looking snakes. "Just a pet" you say...frakking bullcrap sir! It is an addiction and it cannot be quenched...just satisfied briefly with new "pickups" (which you will spam the forums with the MINUTE you get home and can throw it under a lamp in a white setting to get the best pictures possible while claiming "the pictures suck but the colors are even BETTER in person")

Blah blah blah. We've heard it all before. You're the new kid in class and you have to sit in the front of the school bus...but worry not...the next new kid is just coming home with his new "pet" just now from his local reptile expo....




Welcome to the club!

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Yeah, I've heard others say this too.. We're going to take our time and stick with the one till we're sure we know how to care for her.. Then we might reconsider?

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Originally Posted by DrDooLittle

Congrats on your baby! However, I wouldn't start handling until it has had at least a week or two to settle in, and has eaten 2-3 times in a row for you. I know its hard to not handle them, but trust me, it well help your snake settle in better, and be better, more well adjusted in the long run, IMO. :)

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I was afraid someone would say this..Haha. I was just trying to rush it a little I know. We haven't messed with her since we put her in the cage when we got home. She checked it out and now is in her hide on the warm side.. As hard as it will be, we'll take your advice and wait till she eats, Thanks

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Originally Posted by BillinIndiana

Yeah, I've heard others say this too.. We're going to take our time and stick with the one till we're sure we know how to care for her.. Then we might reconsider?

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I couldn't agree more! It can take a while to get the hang of things; it concerns me when some people jump in to get another snake after just having acquired their first.

And to those who say it's impossible to have only one... I'm going on my 5th year with my one precious ball python (though I have a few other species of snake as well). It's all the fun with less poop to clean up! :D

x2 on waiting for handling... I know it's so hard to wait! But definitely worth it, you'll avoid a lot of difficulty if you can get her eating well from the start!


She is a gorgeous little girl, and Avalon is a pretty name! Congrats to the both of you!

Well it made it through the 1st night..ha. I peeked in at her last night. We had the red/night light on and she was out moving around her cage.. I take this as a good sign.
Now today, I just had to say something to my daughter about her music being so loud. I told her to turn it down, I'm sure this is going to stress her new baby out. She rolled her eyes at me and turned it down... Ahh Teenagers, don't ya love 'em ?

Unless the bass is rattling her tank, I doubt the music will bother her too much (not that it's a bad excuse!). One other suggestion I'd make is to use cypress, aspen, newspaper, or paper towels for bedding. That reptile carpet can't be spot-cleaned, which can lead to her sitting in ammonia ickiness a lot more than if you have a substrate that can be spot-cleaned or quickly swapped out for clean when she urinates.

We have two of the carpets. I figured we could switch them during cleaning. How often do you clean your snake's cage ? What all do you do to clean it?

Congrats on your acquisition! They are addictive, going on 7 snakes now after starting first with corns, now up to BP's. I find them more docile and able to "chill out" while sitting with them. Their paint jobs are pretty cool too.


Cleaning:
http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...ght=clean+cage

I started out with carpet but read what a pain it was to clean, so went to aspen, but that started to get expensive. Now I'm using blank newsprint (picked up for 200+ sheets at uhaul for $11.

I also started with a tank but humidity was hard to keep constant, now I've got them all in a rack system. If I need to raise humidity for shedding time, I tape up some holes or put more water in the bowl.

Enjoy and this is a great place for information, I've learned a lot from the experienced people here.

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Originally Posted by icejd7

Congrats on your acquisition! They are addictive, going on 7 snakes now after starting first with corns, now up to BP's. I find them more docile and able to "chill out" while sitting with them. Their paint jobs are pretty cool too.


Cleaning:
http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...ght=clean+cage

I started out with carpet but read what a pain it was to clean, so went to aspen, but that started to get expensive. Now I'm using blank newsprint (picked up for 200+ sheets at uhaul for $11.

I also started with a tank but humidity was hard to keep constant, now I've got them all in a rack system. If I need to raise humidity for shedding time, I tape up some holes or put more water in the bowl.

Enjoy and this is a great place for information, I've learned a lot from the experienced people here.

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The humidity in the tank is going to be a little extra work, another reason we'll probably just stay with the one snake.
My daughter is kinda scared of using the Aspen. A friend of hers from school lost his Corn snake from ingesting a piece of wood.
We were just going to change the carpet weekly ?

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Originally Posted by BillinIndiana

The humidity in the tank is going to be a little extra work, another reason we'll probably just stay with the one snake.
My daughter is kinda scared of using the Aspen. A friend of hers from school lost his Corn snake from ingesting a piece of wood.
We were just going to change the carpet weekly ?

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Impaction from substrate ingestion is very rare in ball pythons. If it worries you then you can use paper towel. Trust me that cleaning the pee soaked reptile carpet is going to be a major pain. Disposable is the way to go. I clean out the cages as soon as I notice the snake has gone to the bathroom.

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How often do they defecate or urinate? Seems like everything I read says 3-4 weeks on #2...

I probably play music louder than your daughter and all my snakes are fine. As someone said, unless its vibrating the tank, it shouldnt bother it.

Defecation can vary alot. Some of mine go once a month, some go only after they shed which is longer than once a month usually, and some go randomnly lol. Usually they pee at least once or twice a week. (Or at least most of mine do).

Congrats on your new pet and welcome to the addiction! :gj:

Night 2 : Avalon's Red/Night light has been on and she is the most active we have seen her. She is all over her tank exploring. We have the suction cup artificial vines on the back wall, she gets in them and climbs to the top of her cage.
Hope all this movement doesn't mean she is hungry. The vendor said she ate Weds. so we were going to wait till this coming Weds. to offer her a f/t mouse.
Should we keep her on the schedule he had her on?

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Originally Posted by BillinIndiana

Night 2 : Avalon's Red/Night light has been on and she is the most active we have seen her. She is all over her tank exploring. We have the suction cup artificial vines on the back wall, she gets in them and climbs to the top of her cage.
Hope all this movement doesn't mean she is hungry. The vendor said she ate Weds. so we were going to wait till this coming Weds. to offer her a f/t mouse.
Should we keep her on the schedule he had her on?

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Sounds like normal new ball python behavior. She is probably testing the limits of her enclosure and looking for a possible escape route. She isn't quite certain if her new digs are safe or not :) She will settle in eventually and won't be so overly active.

I would wait one week from the day you got her before you try feeding. What this does is give the snake time to adjust to its new surroundings, and the extra time also makes them a little more hungry and willing to eat for you.

As for what day to feed on, it doesn't really matter. Pick a day that works with your schedule and you can stick to.

Night 3 : After most of the day in her hide she came out today and did some more exploring.. The Day light is still on and she is roaming all over her cage again. Temps are 83 ambient, according to the thermometer on the back wall. It's 90 on the floor of the hot side according to the thermostat.. I didn't check the cool with the temp gun before I started typing this, I will in a minute

Oh yeah, the Humidity is still at 49%,

props to the person on the first page the wrote the post about the addiction. spot on! im sitting here reading it like omg hes talking about me:O, got my first bp not even a year ago and now i have a rack system thats full already and im making more racks for the new additions, i spend countless hours up at night reading the fourms playing with the genetics calc looking up average prices. :rolleyes: i think i have done so much research i know more about bp's then i do about myself XD

it really is an amazing hobby tho with a great community and there such amazing awesome animals:gj:. so like he said welcome to the club! lol

Paper towels or News paper as a substrate all the way, pull it out wipe the tank down with some antibacterial soap and water on a paper towel dry it with another paper towel lay down a new layer and presto cleaned in under 5 mins! that carpet stuff is seriously a major pain ans starts to fray and fall apart and no good man. almost all breeders use newspaper or paper towel because when u have that many snakes u want the fastest easiest clean up because ull be doing it often XD

and yes pee like once a week poop like once a month is the norm but it varies as with anything. WARNING to you tho bp's eat rodents .... so you can imagine what there business smells like... it dont smell all that good going in never mind coming out, it goes away with a simply cleaning but when she has gone ... ull know.

i would suggest getting a scale that weight in grams if you dont already have one just to know her weight and in case she ever stops eating u can make sure shes not loosing weight, or just to weigh her food for whatever reason sometimes it helps to know what there meal weighs.
*** not set in stone by any means *** but i like using this chart as a basic idea http://www.ballpythonz.net/feeding.html IMO you never have to feed a bp anything larger then a medium rat theres no reason for them to hit 3000 grams there's a point where they don't get longer and just keep getting fatter lol


anyways shes a beaut and you will eventually have a rack and be breeding... give it time haha and theres no question this amazing bp community wont answer so just ask !


0.1 spider
1.0 pastel
0.2 Normal

Thanks for the reply,
As far as the carpet goes, hey it's only one snake and I'm on Disablity ( need new hips ) and am home all the time. So it isn't really that much of a problem for me to clean and change it out. We bought two of them just for that reason. If or when they start wearing out, I'll probably switch to the Aspen. We have her set-up in my Daughter's room, we tried to set it up so it's nice to look at also.

If we ever get into where we have a Lot of snakes or we're breeding, I would probably go paper all the way. In fact, there is a printing company that I can get the "tail-end" of the big newspaper rolls from for free. It's about 3 miles from our house. They gave me a couple to practice airbrushing on last winter.. I bet they each had over 100 yards left on them.. So if it gets to that point we have a source!

We also have a scale I picked up off E-bay for like $10.. It goes up to 11 lbs and can weigh in grams. We have not weighed her yet. We just brought her home and placed her in the cage. We haven't been handling her, but the next time we get her out I plan on weighing her then.

I bought 36 Mice when I bought her, that is what the Vendor at the show was feeder her. I was hoping that those will last her till they are gone and then maybe move up.. I guess we could always try and feed her two if she gets too big for them..?

mice = 13-20grams
Rat pups = 20-30grams
weaned rats = 30-45grams

so doubling on mice would be the same as a weaned rat and feeding mice every 4-5 days rather then 7 days would be the same as a rat pup.

it doesn't matter weather u feed mice or rats all the matters is the meal weight its just cheaper to feed rats then like 8 mice at a time when they get big.

Thanks for the info.. About how much should she weigh in say 4 months? We were told that she is two months old right now.. She looks long too me, but I haven't a clue how to judge age. All I know is when she was in my hand coiled up she was maybe a 3 inch diameter circle.

My guess would be about 500 but its just a very rough estimate every snake is different

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Originally Posted by jfaria1891

props to the person on the first page the wrote the post about the addiction. spot on! im sitting here reading it like omg hes talking about me:O, got my first bp not even a year ago and now i have a rack system thats full already and im making more racks for the new additions, i spend countless hours up at night reading the fourms playing with the genetics calc looking up average prices. :rolleyes: i think i have done so much research i know more about bp's then i do about myself XD

it really is an amazing hobby tho with a great community and there such amazing awesome animals:gj:. so like he said welcome to the club! lol

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Hah! That would be me.

I only said it because...well I was describing myself. There have been a few nights when I've gone to bed only to find myself thinking about "what if I bred a sterling that I produce with.....XYZbuttercupmorph" So...that...causing a slight increase in adrenaline to see pictures and the probabilities of what the possibly combinations would be...I have to reach over and grab my laptop and quench that IMMEDIATE desire for knowledge. I got one Ball Python (a female pastel) by luck in the sense that I really just bought what I thought looked cool that was in my price range. She was super yellow and it just jumped out at me. Little did I know that that one purchase was a great starter to moving on to bigger and better. Now less than a year later I have a male Pewter and I'm ready to make some sterlings...and then some pewter bees as my next purchase will be a female bumblebee....

Oh lord...here I go again....

SEE WHAT THESE DAMN THINGS DO TO US!?!??!?!?! RUN!!! RUN AWAY WHILE YOU STILL HAVE MONEY IN YOUR CHECKING ACCOUNT!!!!


....AND YOUR CREDIT CARDS AREN'T MAXED OUT!!!!


...........AND YOU HAVEN'T GOTTEN PAYDAY ADVANCES!!!!!


.....................AND BEFORE YOU LIE ON YOUR INCOME TAX RETURNS TO GET MORE MONEY TO BUY MORE BALLS WITH!!!


/dies.

Very cool, and I'll agree with the others: You can't have just one.

Trust me, I had one, and now I have almost 25. :rolleye2:

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Originally Posted by Rawbbeh

Hah! That would be me.

I only said it because...well I was describing myself. There have been a few nights when I've gone to bed only to find myself thinking about "what if I bred a sterling that I produce with.....XYZbuttercupmorph" So...that...causing a slight increase in adrenaline to see pictures and the probabilities of what the possibly combinations would be...I have to reach over and grab my laptop and quench that IMMEDIATE desire for knowledge. I got one Ball Python (a female pastel) by luck in the sense that I really just bought what I thought looked cool that was in my price range. She was super yellow and it just jumped out at me. Little did I know that that one purchase was a great starter to moving on to bigger and better. Now less than a year later I have a male Pewter and I'm ready to make some sterlings...and then some pewter bees as my next purchase will be a female bumblebee....

Oh lord...here I go again....

SEE WHAT THESE DAMN THINGS DO TO US!?!??!?!?! RUN!!! RUN AWAY WHILE YOU STILL HAVE MONEY IN YOUR CHECKING ACCOUNT!!!!


....AND YOUR CREDIT CARDS AREN'T MAXED OUT!!!!


...........AND YOU HAVEN'T GOTTEN PAYDAY ADVANCES!!!!!


.....................AND BEFORE YOU LIE ON YOUR INCOME TAX RETURNS TO GET MORE MONEY TO BUY MORE BALLS WITH!!!


/dies.

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hahaha priceless yup im spending every spare dollar on racks parts and food and hounding craigslist for any big cheap female normals haha, countless times the girlfriend has turned over in the middle of the night to see me laying next to her balls deep into my laptop (pun most deff intended!) Rawbbeh ... "were not so.. different... you and i". (austin powers for the win)

Hell I got some of my stuff up for trade right now on Craigslist. I got an offer for a 100 % het albino Red Tail. I nearly took it but I am looking more for balls. XD


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Night 6... Her Ambient is 80 and Warm side hide is 86.4 cool side 78.6.. We have her day light still on, it's almost time to turn it to the Red/night. She has been on the roam for a good two hours. All over her tank..? I just took her mouse out this morning.. I left it in there about 1 1/2 days and then decided that she didn't want it, so I flushed it. I guess we'll maybe try again Saturday or something.. Saturday will be week that we've had her.

You flushed the mouse? :/

Wouldn't that clog up your toilet? I'd suggest refreezing the mouse until garbage day, then throw it in the trash.

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Originally Posted by Bobbafett

You flushed the mouse? :/

Wouldn't that clog up your toilet? I'd suggest refreezing the mouse until garbage day, then throw it in the trash.

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That little thing isn't going to clog up the toilet.. It was a little 6 gram hopper mouse.

Everything sounds to be in order so idk why she didnt eat maybe she just wasnt hungry, nothing to worry about at this point just try again sat or sunday like you said, i noticed you didnt mention any humidity levels i would highly suggest getting a guage if u dont have one already its more inportent them most realize they are starting out. Low humidity will lead to a bad shed which can be a real hassle and stressfull for the snake.

Humidity is borderline low.. at 49%

One Week: Yesterday was a week since we bought Avalon and put her in her tank.. We tried to feed again last night. We're 0 -2 , She just won't eat it.. She'll lay her head on it and stare at it, crawl right over it, but "She No Eat" ( in my best Japanese typing voice)

So how long has a New BP of yours went on a hungry strike? It's only been 7 days since we bought her and the vendor said she ate 3 day before that, so this is only day 11. So, she isn't starving, we just want her to eat so we can start holding her..

Other users may not condone this method but it will most likely work

find a Tupperware container he will barely fit in, by that i mean so his body pretty much covers the bottom of the container now add the mouse a few air holes in the lid and put the lid on. what this is going to do is give him no possible way to ignore his food as it will be jumping all over him.

this parts VERY important you need at watch VERY closely a mouse cant scratch him but it can still bite him, you will see the snake twitch but thats usually because he doesn't want the mouse on him u need to watch very closely for biting if u see the mouse start biting pull it out hold it for a second and put it back in. (this should only go on for a minute or two after that then you know hes clearly not going to eat that day) i imagine this is stressful for the snake but if it works then you've broken the hunger strike


im pretty sure u mentioned u were feeding frozen thawed,

you took it out in the morning and left it in there .... sounds like you left it on the counter let it defrost and tried feeding. if thats the case then you need to not only thaw them but warm them up too personally i let the mouse/rat soak in hot water from the tap just as hot as my water gets some people like to get it perfectly to like 96 degrees eh my waters way hotter then 96 degrees and they take it every time are you dangling it by the tale for him so he sees the motion and thinks its alive? what i do is with the 11" feeding tongs i grab the skin on the back of its neck/in between its shoulders and make it dance around near them, commonly referred to as the zombie dance, its also quite entertaining to watch a dancing rat/mouse get owned by a snake. i actually enjoy feeding time :)

most important thing is to always make sure the food is thawed all the way through if the middle is still frozen it will will be disastrous. or so im told

Thanks for the reply, All we are doing is letting it set out to thaw a few hours and laying it down in the cage.. I'm sure it is thawed though, they're only little 6-7 gram hoppers.
We'll wait a few days and try your advice on the Hot water and zombie dance. Thanks for the tips. About how long do you do this dance, till she takes it or what?

most of the time it takes less then a min for my snakes to take it but thats because there all accustom to it for your little guy it may take longer id give up after about 10 15 mins. you can refreeze them and thaw them again i dont refreeze them more then 2 times after that they get thrown away.

Also warming them up makes them smell more which the snake likes also makes it more realistically alive if its warm. and movement helps a lot too tail dangling or zombie dance my snakes are so used to zombie dance that that wont take a tail dangling rat.

you will have a lot better results with warmth and movement then a cold lifeless mouse just laying there =P and yes ur probably going to have to do this every single time you feed your snake but like i said all mine grab it within the first min because they know the drill. like i said tho i actually enjoy feeding time because i get to watch my babies all out attack a dancing rat =P

EDIT: he seems healthy and from what you have told us he seems to be acting perfectly normal "when hes hungry he will eat" XD just keep en eye out for noticeable weight loss thats when u should begin to worry otherwise just keep offering like every other day, eating strikes are very normal for BP's even with perfect husbandry

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Originally Posted by jfaria1891

EDIT: he seems healthy and from what you have told us he seems to be acting perfectly normal "when hes hungry he will eat" XD just keep en eye out for noticeable weight loss thats when u should begin to worry otherwise just keep offering like every other day, eating strikes are very normal for BP's even with perfect husbandry

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Well, that's good to here. I think she looks pretty healthy ( from a beginners point of view) I'm guessing it's just to soon since all the stress from the trip to the show, then the show and then the ride home. I really wish we would have weighed her 1st thing, but we didn't. Like I said we haven't been handling her trying to get her to calm down.
I've also read about the hungry strikes and that they can last awhile, so we aren't to worried yet.

:) like i said warmth and movement are pretty much a must, i have never seen a BP not eat something it strikes and coils around.

Congrats on your first. They are addicting :). My normal is my favorie and first BP to.

I just saw a video where a guy warms them up a bit (remember they sense heat) and when he grabs them (the rat) he does it behind the neck and makes it Zombie Run so to speak. It looks more lifelike but then again his balls were used to that. Might help. Oh but be careful that the snake dosent strike the tongs for obvious reasons.

Guess we better look into some feeding tongs then, all we have are regular cooking tongs with the big metal pincher things...haha

Congrats on the first one! :D
Also good to someone else from Indiana! (I'm down near Evansville) :salute:

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Originally Posted by mikeandsheleen

Congrats on the first one! :D
Also good to someone else from Indiana! (I'm down near Evansville) :salute:

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Nice to meet ya Mike. We're up about 2 hrs North of Indy, almost to Fort Wayne.

12 days since we brought her home and she finally ate today !http://ball-pythons.net/gallery/file...ts2_705133.jpg

Awesome! Still not happy with the substrate but if it works for you keep on trucking


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