Introducing Mitch.....

I've never posted pics of Mitch, my male Ball Python on here before because hes been over at my girlfriend's house for a few months until recently.....he looks a bit rough because he is in shed, has not ate since October and has some scarring from a bad head rub he got last year.....he was my first snake, which I bought a little over 2 years ago as a baby.....hes a great snake and even though I'm not a big fan of Ball Pythons any more, he's gonnna be with me until the day he passes on. :D

http://novogate.com/forums/28/user/7709/14916.jpg

http://novogate.com/forums/28/user/7709/14917.jpg

Mitch is a nice looking bp, congrats. What are his stats?

He is around 4 feet long, and I'm not sure of his exact weight anymore....before his fast he weighed well over 1000 grams. I'm hoping after this shed he'll regain his appetite.

Its been said over and over, its a not a huge issue if a full grown male goes off feed for a while. Why waste all that energy eating when you could be out looking for a mate? Remember certain lighting conditions might trick them into breeding behavior, which could be the cause of your bp's fast.

What is on the top of his head.

EDIT:Duh!!!!!!!!! I didnt read the post all the way through. LOL

Quote:

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Originally Posted by elevatethis

Its been said over and over, its a not a huge issue if a full grown male goes off feed for a while. Why waste all that energy eating when you could be out looking for a mate? Remember certain lighting conditions might trick them into breeding behavior, which could be the cause of your bp's fast.

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Yeah, I KNOW its not a huge issue. I also don't appreciate you lecturing me like I'm a stupid newbie. :roll:

I didn't mean to offend at all; and unfortunately voicetone can't come through on message boards. I definitly wasn't trying to lecture, just throw out some info. I'm relatively new here too I haven't had a chance to be able to recognize the pros and the noobs yet! Sorry I didn't recognize you!

Umm....I've been here since November....look at my signature and tell me if you recognize my name. ;)

All newbies aren't stupid, they're merely uneducated. We can fix that. Unless they are truly stupid. :D

I have a question for you David. Did you have the snake when the head-rub occured? I was wondering how you treated it and how the healing progressed, since my female lost a few scales on her head during her last shed. I had perfect humidity conditions, and the shed came off in one perfect piece including eyecaps, but 2 of her new scales came off as well. I am treating with Neosporin.

That is a bad-looking head rub on an otherwise handsome snake. My newest bp came to me with a big ol' bump on her nose that I attribute to the 1/2" mesh on the top of her enclosure, but I don't know for certain that's the cause. I do know that the humidity has kept the contact paper from sticking as well as I'd hoped it would and I'm going to need to find some other way to keep the humidity in and prevent future rubs, or maybe 4" cable ties to hold the contact paper in place.

Yes indeed - everyone is only anxious to help - no slights intended I am sure. What was the rub from - screen lid?

Marla - how do you align/affix your contac paper on the inside? I get is laid out, trim it, align it, then lift one edge at a time and apply some dbl sided tape - still there are the exposed triangles in the corners to allow ventilation . . .

Smulkin, it was probably hopelessly optimistic of me, but I applied contact paper to both the inside and outside of the lid then went over it and made conact through every single 1/2" square from one sheet to the other. I left a 1/2" strip all the way along one long side for ventilation. I didn't really want to affix it with any stronger adhesive than that on the contact paper because then I expect to need to clean off the adhesive residue eventually when replacing the contact paper or repurposing the enclosure. Cable ties are cheap, though, and so it plastic-coated wire for gardening stakes and such, so I guess I can just perforate the heck out of it and strap the two sides together, or maybe even stitch it with one of those little reels of plastic-coated wire.

Odd - I'll have to snap some pics - mine haven't flopped down yet even on the high humidity cages. You running any overhead lights?

Yes, I have one small (12"?) fluourescent fixture which sits right on top of the contact paper because it generates so little heat (no contact between bulb and contact paper, though), and at the other end of the enclosure is a ceramic heating element in a clamp fixture sitting on the screen with the contact paper cut out. The peeling started at the end with the fluourescent fixture, though, which is also the opposite end from the water dish.

Actually, the rub was caused by him rubbing his head on the top of his rubbermaid container right after I switched him from a glass tank to the RM, constantly. Its one of the lock-top rubbermaids and has some ridges on the inside of the lid.....and he wanted out, lol. I treated it with virosan and slyvedine. He still has some trouble with it when he sheds....it looks alot worse than it was....he just wouldn't let it heal.

Aaaaaah - nerf teh rubbermaid!

On a serious not I'll have to check ours for those and melt them into nubs if they have them. Poor fella.

im surprised bubba doesnt have a hole in his head by now david... hes constantly rubbing his head on stuff, can't stop him.

They can be persistant little boogers can't they?