First BP, Looking for help on an ID...Calico Dad / Pastel Mom

Hello, I'm a longtime fish keeper and reptile keeper mostly focusing on Crested Geckos.

I had a nice tank kicking around in my spare collection and I have been cutting back on fish tanks for a while now. I happened to get a tank a few years back with 2 under pad heaters and pretty much everything else you would need to house a reptile. A few years back when I got our Crested Gecko this tank came in the trade.

I cleaned out the tank and made sure everything was working, the night light failed on me when I tested that but that just meant I had to pick one up. I didn't like the lid I had so I modified it to hold in more heat and humidity.

Tank set up is currently a 15 gallon with a 29 gallon in reserve for everything to swap over as he grows. Please don't attack my tank size or the fact that I'm using a fish tank, I've done my research and I assure you with my modifications I am able to maintain proper humidity levels and there is a warm side and a not so warm side, both having hides. I prefer the fish tank set up due to my background with fish keeping, not to mention I like to display my pets proudly.

I managed to find an unregistered breeder via an online site and managed to get this guy at an absolute steal of a price. Estimated weight was 500-600 grams (I will soon weigh) it's male with what I was told a Calico Dad and a Pastel Mom, apparently the Calico didn't come out in this one. He was just at the end of his shed.

https://twitter.com/Subaru_WRX_Kev/status/716152582440247297

Regardless of if it's a morph or a common, it's our family pet now and it will be treated the same either way.

I did a lot of research...which helped, but this is how the timeline has gone so far. I was happy and amazed that things have gone this well!

Wed AM - Tank was set up and brought up to temperature, hide picked up at the store

Wed PM - Picked up Damien (old Jake the snake reference) and played with him for a few minutes and put him into the enclosure.

Wed Night - He explored his tank and then went and settled in his hide.

Thurs AM - Sleeping in his hide

Thurs PM - Quick Play, the gf wants to play with it all the damn time...Added second hide to left side (heat lighted side)

Thurs Night - Really active, spent time all across the tank. Spent time on the rock I have under the heat light. Was really exploring and checking the lid a lot (6 clips and a 15 pound rock on top of my modified MDF lid cover :)

Now at this point I'm a new owner and I'm trying to hold off on the feed to make sure that he eats, I know BP's have the feeding issues. But I was prepared to deal with it, did a lot of research and was seeing nothing but feeding queues. I contacted my "breeder" and he confirmed that he was hungry.

Off to the store to buy small rats.

Fri AM - Sleeping

Friday PM - Quick play after I checked him using my hand at about 18" as a thermal queue and he followed my hand. Switched gears and approached him from the back so my gf could play with him...

*Friday night....as I noticed he becomes active around 9pm till 3-4am I wanted everything in our favour. Once he became active I began to thaw the rat. I danced it in front of him 3 times and on the 3rd time he followed it and hit it. I gave the tail a quick tug and he tightened up on it. He spent 10-15 minutes "pretend killing" it before he downed it like champ.

We're so happy that it ate this well and has adjusted so quickly!

I can't say I'm not going to feed him every friday night at 10pm forever now, I think I will do what we did this time around. Follow the queues "Damien" gives us and let him tell us when he is hungry. I think it's better for the long term if we feed him when he's hungry.

The plan is to never go bigger than a small rat which is what he is eating now.

Once all of the digestion is done, I will get an official weight and post an update.

I want to leave it alone all Saturday and all day Sunday to digest, but I know the gf will be bugging to play with him on Sunday... <<---please advise on this

Thanks,

Kev (Damien...unknown approx 1 year old, approx 500-600 gram Ball Python)

Had to photobucket, lame that I couldn't just upload it here...

http://s22.photobucket.com/user/bomb...bile%20Uploads

I'm guessing by how cheap it was for a 600 gram male, it's fairly common. I'm no snake expert, so I seek your advice on this.

Was told Father was Calico and Mother was Pastel.

Thanks in Advance!

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...pspbexwznw.jpg

Having issues posting pics due to being new...

<a href="http://s22.photobucket.com/user/bomb1977/media/Mobile%20Uploads/IMG_20160331_030004_zpspbexwznw.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b339/bomb1977/Mobile%20Uploads/IMG_20160331_030004_zpspbexwznw.jpg" border="0" alt="damien photo IMG_20160331_030004_zpspbexwznw.jpg"/></a>

Another try...

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...pspbexwznw.jpg

last attempt

http://s22.photobucket.com/user/bomb...xwznw.jpg.html

...thats all 4 boxes from photobucket...im guessing I have to have "x" amount of posts to post a pic. Annoying for an adult seeking advice, I have to admit...I almost didn't bother posting.

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...pspbexwznw.jpg

Maybe this will work?

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...psppmsp1b1.jpg

I have to assume by the price that it was a mis fire or something the "breeder" just realized he couldn't use to make money. Was told Calico Dad, Pastel Mom.

Regardless, my family now has a pet.

We have had him since Wednesday evening this week, he finished his shed with us and began to adjust to his new home very quickly. He was really showing feeding queues on Thursday night, he followed my hand Friday evening when my gf wanted to play with him. After the play, we went to the Local store and got 4 small frozen rats.

He became active around 9:30 on Friday evening and was stretched out sitting on his hot side hide. I started to thaw his first meal :)

(being detailed in case I need to be corrected by someone with more experience, no bro science please...)

Thawed for 20 min in warm water, like childrens bath temp...90-95 F (not C :p) Just enough that it would have some form of a thermal signature for him to pick up.

Lid half off, tongs on the back half...1st pass he took notice, 2nd pass he kept looking, 3rd pass he followed it and struck. I pulled the tail and it tightened up. 10-15 min of killing and he downed it.

Digesting happily in his hot side hide, keeping an eye on him to see if he switches to the cooler side hide. Both hides are identical.

You can tell me it's a $20 snake and I'd just laugh, we love it and will give it a great long term home :)

What a gentle snake...

Congratulations on your new buddy :)

Looks like a pastel to me. I'm not seeing Calico influence on it.

Yeah, I can see the pastel for sure. I like his colors ^_^

Yeah, i'm with Smooth that its Pastel. You can always pair him to a normal and see what the hatchlings turn out to look like. Or just pair him to a calico down the road. He is still a nice looking animal and pastel goes great with most every other gene.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Hammertime1977

I want to leave it alone all Saturday and all day Sunday to digest, but I know the gf will be bugging to play with him on Sunday... <<---please advise on this

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It really should've been left alone the whole first week to settle, get used to it's new surroundings and de-stress from the move.

I would tell her honestly that it's in the best interest of the snake to be left alone to process his meal and explain what could happen (i.e. regurg) if he's messed with after having eaten. I'm sure you love her and don't want to hurt her feelings or discourage her from something that could be a mutual interest, but the health of the animal isn't something you'll want to put at risk for the sake of sugar coating the potential consequences. Just be tactful, but honest. Regurg has it's own set of risks beyond just a missed meal, and imo it's just not worth it for a few moments of interaction.

I agree with SmoothScales. The biggest mistake I see of novice keepers is overhandling. Ball pythons stress easily, even if they don't express it by lashing out like other snake species do (e.g. they are more inclined to freeze or ball up than bite). When I purchase a snake, I generally block off the front of its tub with something opaque (a blanket, piece of cardboard, whatever is handy) and don't mess with it for a full week. After the week is up, I offer a small meal once nighttime falls.

I think the threat of a snake "throwing up" on her would keep your gf from handling him too soon after a feed. That's not something you want to see (or smell!) again!

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...pshizinyqu.jpg

Here he is Sunday night catching some heat. Quite active at night, prefers his hot side hide. Although when I woke up this morning he was in the cool side hide. I'm glad to see him moving between the two as we have been fine tuning the temperature to make sure he is happy.

Managed to get in almost 48 hours before the gf couldn't wait any longer to play with him. I wasn't too confident in his posture, so it took me 2-3 min to get him out of the cage. I don't want to take any chances, I'm prepared for a bite...but if I'm smart about it, it shouldn't happen.

I did manage to weight him when he came out, he came in at 550 grams :)

All is still going well. We had a decent play today.

He wants to slide around when my gf plays with him, but he seems content to sit in a ball in my hands. I haven't had to dominate him at all, very well behaved.

Moved in Wednesday.

Very active Thursday night after spending Wed night in his hide.

He fed Friday night on a small frozen rat. Spent a while killing it before eating it.

Short play Sunday

Decent play on Tuesday. Found a peanut shell sized white poop in his hot side hide. Oddly enough he had been in his cool side hide all day/night.

I'm expecting him to be active and hunting tonight just based from what I have observed. I had predicted he would be active Tues night and be ready to feed Wed night.

We will see how active he is tonight.

I plan on thawing the next rat in water, then putting it under his heat lamp for 15-20 min before offering it.

This is all going so well.

Also...I'm beginning the process of shutting down most of my fish tanks. You guys have won me over. I have had a Gargoyle Crested Gecko for about 2 years, just never dabbled into the dark side yet.

He wasn't overly active last night, so we will continue to observe.

He was in his hot side hide with his head sticking out when I went to bed, when I woke up he was in the cooler side hide.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Hammertime1977

I haven't had to dominate him at all

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He's not a dog and he won't fit in a leather gimp suit, so what exactly do you think you'd be doing to 'dominate'him? They don't have a herd/alpha mentality so really...what were you thinking you could do to 'dominate' a snake?

In the event you had a nippy snake, I would suggest short handling sessions spaced out so he gets used to the idea of being held. It's not exactly something you can force - they eventually decide that their handler isn't going to eat them.

As for the urate you found, he was likely avoiding it. I've noticed mine will get as far away from their waste as possible. Instinct tells them that a rodent will smell that and avoid their location.



Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk

Haha no, I'm a retired heavyweight fighter...I don't need to dominate a 550 gram snake for kicks. I saw in a few handling videos that if they get testy you just cover their head and they curl up in a ball. That's all...the guy called it Dominating the snake.

Not wanting to be by his poop made perfect sense to us.

As for handling I have her chilled out to 3 weekly sessions, this will allow him to have a full 48 hours after his feed.

I have to say that very few of the online personalities that speak about Ball Pythons actually know their stuff, you can see holes in a lot of what they say. The only guy I really trust online is HLH Reptiles, that guy cares about his pets and isn't just out to make a profit before the bubble bursts.

Will be interesting to see who still has their Ball Pythons 2-3 years ago, now that the bubble has burst.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SmoothScales

He's not a dog and he won't fit in a leather gimp suit, so what exactly do you think you'd be doing to 'dominate'him? They don't have a herd/alpha mentality so really...what were you thinking you could do to 'dominate' a snake?

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Really people? The guy's choice of words wasn't that great but come on. Its better that people want to be here. Stuff like this accomplishes nothing. Technically if you physically keep the animal from doing exactly what it wants you are dominating it. We keep them in cages and we restrain them when they try to go somewhere we don't want them to so everyone here is dominating their animals. No leather required. The leather bit was actually funny.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JodanOrNoDan

Really people?

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Yes, really. I was quite curious. And based off the description given, it is a technique I myself have used with nippy, aggressive, or frightened snakes. Though I've never considered it dominating them, and can't recall it being referred to as such - though I've far from watched every YouTube video on keeping/breeding Ball Pythons. I think of it as putting them into a defensive posture.

On the subject of YouTube videos - I have watched some of the HLH videos, but I can't say I'm much of a fan. I'll watch a JKR or Brian Gundy vid over HLH any day.

Haha glad to see a few of you have a sense of humor, I understand the kind of people that tend to populate forums are a bit more introverted.

But I honestly just came here because I really like my Ball Python and I'm trying to soak in as much information as I can, so that I can take the best possible care of my pet. Some people aim for the minimum to keep the pet alive, in my time fish keeping...I learned to dial things in to a much higher level to help with the health of the animals and also to cut down on the amount of work I had to do.

We all like/love Ball Pythons, let's focus on that and not how different our lives and backgrounds may be.

....

To move on, he spent the morning and afternoon in his cool side hide. I expect him to begin being active tonight which would have us feed him tomorrow night. I'm trying to read my animal as opposed to using a set schedule. The set schedule is still there, but as a back up.

But I have 1 Snake, I have it in a tank to display it. Not keeping him in a rack allows for the extra observation. (Absolutely nothing against rack set ups, they just are impractical unless you're keeping 5-6+ snakes and I only have 1...not knocking it at all)

^^
I'm blunt and sometimes people get butt hurt and take things the wrong way, partially because they are online looking for conflict. So I explained myself there so I don't have to deal with butt hurt. Not my game, I do my fighting in the ring and in the cage.

:)

Now I will really know who the cool people are here :)

Keep up the good work Hammertime1977..

I "display" my ball python - Lucifer - in a 40 gallon tank. He will approximately 4 years old and is about 4 foot long now, not sure of his weight.

At first he was very active. exploring his tank. We thought he was hungry, but he was just investigating his enclosure.

Now we try to feed him every 8-9 days. If he eats, great. If he doesn't, we try again about 2 days later.

I was told by a pet store to wait a week between the times that we try to feed him but we noticed that it was loo long of a period of time between feedings if we did that and he became a bit nippy. Has never bit anyone

Good luck and keep us posted.