Justins samatrian short tail.

hey all picked up this beautiful girl yesterday, cam up locally and very cheap. she is really mellow. currently 2ft and about 2 years old.
apparently she only eats gerbil tho, only downside I can find atm, other than he being blue and well due her shed.
ive knocked my collection down to 1 pastel ball cb15 male darwin, one ij carpet female cb16, and this girl.
[IMG]https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...86635e76_h.jpgScreenshot_20170927-171230 by Justin Phillips, on Flickr[/IMG]

Congrats on your new friend! I love my Sumatrans to death! She will really only eat gerbils, though? That seems like it would get really expensive and I don't see how a gerbil could be anywhere near large enough to sustain an adult Sumatran or promote proper growth. Maybe i'm wrong, though... Do gerbils have much higher protean like African Soft Fur rats? Are you sure the previous owner had exhausted all efforts to try getting her to eat rats? Did he ever try feeding her African Soft Fur rats? I know I had a hell of a time getting my Sumatrans switched over to frozen/thawed rats, but I found that heating the thawed rats up with a heat gun/blow dryer at feeding time worked like a charm.

Cheers!-) I'm gonna try other stuff, gerbils won't do lol, love her already!!! She is very calm and relaxed. Can't wait for her to shed as she is so blue I've not seen her real colour in person yet, not sure that pic does her justice at all.

Both of my Sumatrans are total sweethearts, too. Your girl will look amazing after she sheds! Here are some recent photos I posted of my male and female after they shed:

Samantha:

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/show...Lookin-All-Fly

Jasper:

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/show...Lookin-All-Fly

Yeah I checked your thread before, they look great aedryan!-)
I'm new to sstp's, seems to be black head, copper head ect...what strain do you think mine is?, Will she change much as she grows, i see some are completely black.

After some googling I'm leaning southern black maybe, has almost a clown bp pattern on her back. Super happy.

[IMG]https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4400/...09cea78d_c.jpg 2017-09-29_05-00-16 by Justin Phillips - Flickr2BBcode LITE[/IMG]

Mine are both chrome heads. I would say yours would be considered a chrome head as well. As far as I know, there are really only 3 varieties of Sumatrans - chrome heads, orange heads and black heads... I wish I had a pair of each, but I have to stop somewhere! Or... Do I? lol It's my understanding that black heads and chrome heads can produce both black head and chrome head offspring, so i'm hoping i'll be able to produce my own black heads. But, from what I understand, orange heads are sorta their own subspecies. I really wish I had a pair of them. They're beautiful!

Mine just keep getting more and more gorgeous every time they shed. Their blacks keep getting blacker and blacker... Their heads get more and more silver... All of the gold and silver markings down their backs keep getting more and more shiny... I'm really hoping that the silver and gold markings on their backs don't dull out and turn black with age, but i'm pretty sure they will, unfortunately. :( I don't think i've ever seen an adult with those shiny patterns, but cameras don't even come close to capturing those colors, so I don't know...

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Originally Posted by Justin83

[IMG]https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...09cea78d_c.jpg 2017-09-29_05-00-16 by Justin Phillips - Flickr2BBcode LITE[/IMG]

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She's chillin' like a villain... lol Most of my Bloods and Short Tails shed recently, but my big Matrix girl has been laying in her water dish and hasn't moved for about a week. So, I guess she is getting ready to shed again already. She just shed on 8/31, too...

Lol, still trying to name her, she was called Diablo, not sure that fits hmm. I already have a Darwin bp and dolly ij carpet. Maybe another d name...

I sssorta have an "S" theme going with my sssnake namesss... lol

Right after much googling we have settled on Delilah.

Yes, this is a chrome head. The chromes and black heads are normal color variations and breeding can produce either, but the orange head is a different locality. These guys are usually fantastic feeders, so I wonder if the last owners just didn't have the setup right. A lot of people like to put them in big, open cages/tanks, but when they are young they prefer to feel more snug and secure to eat well. If she doesn't eat, maybe temporarily put her in a smaller bin within that cage until she settles in. I would give her some time to settle in, and go ahead and offer rats instead. A 2 year old (if not underfed) should be able to take med-large rats. 2 feet sounds small for a 2 year old, but she doesn't look overly thin.

Thanks allot pal, I added a few plants and a nice dark Rock hide for her. Currently she is in a 32"*15*8" Viv. Well it's half a Viv which I've split in two... I do have an 18*18*7" Viv housing a mantis, maybe I could put her in there.
After reading I thought she was small, that's more like the size for a yearling right.
I've bought 10 gerbils and I'm planning on scenting them with rat blood gradually over time.

I would just go ahead and try a rat instead, although now you have gerbils to feed off. If you catch her swallowing the gerbil, you could see if you could sneak in a small rat as well. I used to do that for stubborn live mouse feeder ball pythons.

https://youtu.be/WFryx6PRadw

She shed, very poor shed but a bath and a careful owner sorted her out!-)

She ate a gerbil!-) always a relief when they feed for the first time!!!
Next gerbil will be smothered in rat blood eek.

Well as Darwin (my pastel ball) refused a meal today, I thought about dolly(my ij carpet) having it but she has had a chick and a small rat in the last 5 days.
I thought why not try Delilah, bam took a rat...! Fantastic, maybe as it was defrosted with a gerbil and chick who knows, maybe she wasn't happy at the previous home for whatever reason!

That's awesome! Glad to hear you got her to eat a rat!

She is so fat this morning, the rat alone was the upper end of size or her and there's a gerbil in there too lol.... Think she needs a couple of weeks for this one haha.