Valek x Pennywise progression thread

So I've wanted to start a progression thread for my first two ball pythons for a while, and I figured now that they're settled in and eating on a consistant basis I could start it.

These are my two babies. http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...57b5a0c972.jpg

My Bumblebee female Valek

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My Super Pastel Lesser male Pennywise

They're both wonderful snakes and I love them to pieces. They've been doing well since I got them but their care will be improving. I've already started saving for my reptile basics 3 tub rack. I can't wait to move them to it when I buy it in a few weeks. In the meantime they're surviving well.

They've also been gaining weight since I got them. Valek came to me at 638 grams and is now up to 791. Pennywise was at 935 and is now at 986. I am happy with their weight gains.

I expect Valek to get quite large but I think Pennywise won't get much larger. He is 6 years old, and a proven breeder. Valek is growing quite fast. I'm only giving her one small rat a week so I'm surprised she's gained 153 grams in 2 months.

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Today happened to be feeding day!

All in all satisfied with their first progression update! Hope to have many more to come especially as my girl grows!

They look great! Love the colors and patterns on both of them.

Two beauties! Cannot wait to see their progress.
Any plans on breeding the two?

Also, is it common for ball python males to be under 1000g at six years old? I was under the impression they would be pushing 2000+g. New to this! (:

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Originally Posted by WintersSerpentine

Also, is it common for ball python males to be under 1000g at six years old? I was under the impression they would be pushing 2000+g. New to this! (:

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Most males don't hit 2000g. I only have 1 male that's 2000g and have a feeling he's pretty old. The breeder i bought him off of also bought him as a proven male a few years ago. Wish I knew his whole history.

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Originally Posted by WintersSerpentine

Two beauties! Cannot wait to see their progress.
Any plans on breeding the two?

Also, is it common for ball python males to be under 1000g at six years old? I was under the impression they would be pushing 2000+g. New to this! (:

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I do intend to breed them. Hoping for some queen bees and killer queens. Also, males don't get anywhere near as large as the females. I'm not sure what average full weight is for a male, but I know females can easily break 2000 grams. He had just come out of breeding when I got him and had been off of food. I expect him to get a little heavier but not by much.


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Love the pastel lesser!

Can't wait to see how he breeds. Breeder I got him from showed me some clutches he fathered, and he very consistently passes on that lesser gene. Glad I'll always at least end up with pastel in his pairings. He is really shy though is the only downside, so i avoid handling him so I don't over stress him.

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Originally Posted by HannahLou

Most males don't hit 2000g. I only have 1 male that's 2000g and have a feeling he's pretty old. The breeder i bought him off of also bought him as a proven male a few years ago. Wish I knew his whole history.

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I did not know that! Thank you for the new knowledge.
That's so crazy.. I know how it feels to wish you had the full story!

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Originally Posted by cheosamad

I do intend to breed them. Hoping for some queen bees and killer queens. Also, males don't get anywhere near as large as the females. I'm not sure what average full weight is for a male, but I know females can easily break 2000 grams. He had just come out of breeding when I got him and had been off of food. I expect him to get a little heavier but not by much.


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Oh wow!! I love this site. I keep learning so much. Thank you for the helpful information! ^~^

Some Queen and Killer bees would be great to see!! Keep us updated :D

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Originally Posted by WintersSerpentine

I did not know that! Thank you for the new knowledge.
That's so crazy.. I know how it feels to wish you had the full story!





Oh wow!! I love this site. I keep learning so much. Thank you for the helpful information! ^~^

Some Queen and Killer bees would be great to see!! Keep us updated :D

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Trust me, it will be at least another year and probably a little more, but when I have my first clutch this sight will be the first to know. Also, since A. I'm not a professional breeder who can keep 100s of snakes and easily sell them all, and B. I want to ensure the babies that I don't intend to keep go to good homes, you can expect to see all the babies I'm not after go up for sale at good prices haha. I'm not going to breed to make money, I just have goal animals and I think it would be a wonderful experience.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by cheosamad

Trust me, it will be at least another year and probably a little more, but when I have my first clutch this sight will be the first to know. Also, since A. I'm not a professional breeder who can keep 100s of snakes and easily sell them all, and B. I want to ensure the babies that I don't intend to keep go to good homes, you can expect to see all the babies I'm not after go up for sale at good prices haha. I'm not going to breed to make money, I just have goal animals and I think it would be a wonderful experience.

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Oh yay! The clutch will be one worth the next year and a half you get to bond with your babies!
I cannot wait to see the clutch. Hubby wants a Queen Bee :p

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Originally Posted by WintersSerpentine

Oh yay! The clutch will be one worth the next year and a half you get to bond with your babies!
I cannot wait to see the clutch. Hubby wants a Queen Bee :p

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Queen Bees are so stunning. I just need to remember to not count my chickens before they hatch. If breeding ball pythons was easy everyone would be successful first try. My biggest hope is I just produce a healthy clutch and incubate them well.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by WintersSerpentine

Two beauties! Cannot wait to see their progress.
Any plans on breeding the two?

Also, is it common for ball python males to be under 1000g at six years old? I was under the impression they would be pushing 2000+g. New to this! (:

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i have an 8 yr old male that's roughly 1560 grams. he's quite healthy.

Time for an update. So recently I've decided to give frozen food another shot because it would make my life so much easier and it's a perfect time because both of my snakes are off food. Valek just refused her last meal and after being deep pink for so long Pennywise is now in blue. This is his first shed with me. Everyone of my snakes has shed damn near perfect for me since I've started caring for them so I'm hoping he is the same.

I hadnt seen Pennywise for a few days so I lifted his hide just to check on him and saw how deep he was in shed. Snapped a pic and put his hide back. We'll check on him again in a few days.

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Update. Pennywise is doing okay. His scale issue has stabalized. I'm awaiting his next shed to see if it goes away. He is now at 1036 grams!

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Looking good!

Valak is back in shed. Deep deep in blue. http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...275c24e4f1.jpg


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Even in shed meal time means meal time!

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Another perfect shed from my girl. Waiting for her to use the bathroom so I can weigh her. Also, I can't believe how quickly she's begun to wash out of her vibrant yellow. I know pastels all brown out though so I don't care. She's gonna make a good breeder if she keeps putting on the grams.

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Beautiful Couple! As far as the weight goes, I don't know what's normal for males by any means but my male Emrys is a little over 2000 grams and at least 5 feet long. I adopted him early this year from a completely clueless person that knew next to nothing about snakes, and I have no idea where she got him, so I don't know how old he is. He's obviously full grown, but he could be 3, 5, or 10 years old for all I know.

UPDATE!!! So I went to the Atlanta Repticon show today and run into the guys who sold me these 2. Over The Top Reptiles. I struck up a conversation and mentioned that my boy doesn't always eat. Well they were able to tell me he had been raised on mice because he was never a rat eater and they had trouble getting him to eat. They were surprised he had been eating rats for me albiet inconsistantly. That being said I figured it was worth a try. Boom. Success. He is eating right now. I also got him a new hide!

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We also got a Crested Gecko and a Solcata Tortois today!!

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Still on this mouse kick with Pennywise and its been working amazingly. He doesnt even waste time to take them down. I've never seen him have such a good feeding response. Glad to have him eating regularly.

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Penny and Valak both continue to grow. Valak ate today so I cant weigh her until her next poop but I can see she's growing. Pennywise is now at almost 1160 grams!

OKAY NEW PROBLEM GOD DAMNIT!

No wonder he weighed so much. He pooped a second time but I think there is a chance he may have regurged. His last meal was on November 7th so 3 days ago.

He pooped this morning and obviously I cleaned him up and redid his cage. I came and checked on him about 15 minutes ago when I weighed him and everything was fine. Step out of the room and come back 5 minutes later to find this in the cage. What looks like smeared poop and pee and then 2 lumps one of them still hardly even digested. It looks like the rat he ate from 3 days ago. I havent handled him otherwise and his husbandry is what it's always been.

Does this look like regurge? There was no insane smell or anything just smelled like poop but it isnt normal. There was a little bit of weird good on the floor too but it was also a little left around his anal vent but none around his mouth or anything. I saw him drink water when I'd just put him back in his tub. Indication of him trying to throw up? Freaked out right now. Cleaned up his cage and put him back. Going to leave him alone but now I'm super worried something else is messed up.

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That's definitely regurge. I saw your other thread.. if ends up being ok and it was just a temperature issue or overfeeding issue or something, you are gonna want to give his stomach plenty of time to heal. Throwing up is VERY stressful on the insides of snakes. So you'll wanna give him no less than 2 weeks off. .. my Kenyan Sand Boa regurged about a week ago. He has since been fine but I'm still not gonna feed him for another week. and it will be a smaller meal considering I think I was overfeeding him.

Good luck and keep us posted!


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Absolutely no intentions of going near him except to check on him. He is in total quarentine mode.


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Update. Penny has been doing better. Haven't been messing with him except today to clean pee and change water. Seems like he is entering shed. Pink belly and his pattern looks washed out.

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Valak ate and finished shedding today. Fresh clean tub

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I'm not sure if anyone saw my thread a few months back when Pennywise had some really weird scale issue. It wasnt a burn or scale rot it was just an abnormality. Anyway. He shed last night and it is conpletely gone!

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Nice complete shed.

Update if anyone is interested. We are all moved and settled. Tonight was the second time offering Penny food since his incident. He still hasnt taken yet. I tried last week as well. Pretty frustrating. He is at 986 grams. It's disconcerting to see him slowely drop in grams. Really hope he bounces back. All that said he has peed for me since we got here. Ambient temp in the room is at 81 hot spot steady at 90 degrees.

Hoping if I just continue to keep him clean and warm his food drive will kick back on.

Valak is at around 1100 grams now.

All of my other snakes have been doing well. My Banana has been eating consistantly as well as my Super fire.

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You have some beautiful snakes. I Love Penny! :) He'll come back around and eat when he is ready. Hopefully he won't wait till spring.

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Originally Posted by Reinz

You have some beautiful snakes. I Love Penny! :) He'll come back around and eat when he is ready. Hopefully he won't wait till spring.

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Thank you!

Also that would drive me up the freakin wall -___-

Gave him a try today. No luck. Not even so much as a smell. Mouse pooped a bit so I took it as a chance to clean the tub really fast and grabbed a weight on him. Might have zerod in the scale poorly last time. 994 grams. Makes me feel a little bit better.


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Valak will be in Blue soon. Pattern is totally washed out.

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Grabbed a quick weight since once her shed kicks into blue she'll be completely left to relax. 1127.

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It's update time, and all the news is good!

Penny has now taken meals for the last 4 weeks without issue! This mskes me so happy. He is finally bouncing back it seems. All of my other snakes have been doing very well. My 2 newest passed their 3 month quarentine with flying colors, and my boa is growing like a weed. Awesome awesome day.