Jag the GIANT Pastel Yellow belly male...

Here are new pictures of Jag. He is my 8 year old Pastel Yellowbelly male. Have had him since he was a tiny hatchling. He is living proof that you don't have to power feed to end up with a big Ball Python. All mine are fed well, but rather on the conservative end of the spectrum, rather then heavily. They will reach their genetically predetermined size regardless. To this day he continues to grow. He also took a 7 month break from feeding between February and September. Didn't hurt him any..LOL. There is no flabby fat on that boy...All muscle and very strong. I can't really make pictures holding him up anymore...my arm gets tired before he poses right, lol. Therefore I had to rest him on my legs in some pictures to get all of him into the shot. He is around 5 feet long and around 3000 gr. He is one awesome guy [emoji4]

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Nice! I don't think I've ever seen a male ball python that big. I know you can breed a small male to a big female but I wonder if you can do it the other way around? I wouldn't think his hemipenes would fit in a small female snake LOL. He's got some really nice color and pattern.

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Originally Posted by cchardwick

Nice! I don't think I've ever seen a male ball python that big. I know you can breed a small male to a big female but I wonder if you can do it the other way around? I wouldn't think his hemipenes would fit in a small female snake LOL. He's got some really nice color and pattern.

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Thanks for the compliments !! I do think he is gorgeous, too. He has such a pixelated look to him, he reminds me of "charcoal drawings" when I look at him.

Yeah, I dunno, I don't think I would want to pair him with a small female, that just doesn't seem right, LOL.

Funny story...from the getgo Jag just grew BIGGER then any of the others. I got 5 hatchlings, all from the same year. All on the same schedule. Yet, Jag grew bigger and faster, on the same amount of food. How weird is that ?

After a while I assumed he must be a female. But since I didn't plan on breeding, I wasn't that worried about it throughout the years. When I decided to breed them all last year, I paird Jag with my other male. Of course they each sat in opposite corners of the tub, looking highly offended. LOL !!! So I decided to probe Jag, and yup, he was a male after all !! Just a REALLY big one.

He must simply carry some of those "big BP" genes, I suppose..because I haven't fed him any differently then the others..

Brian Gundy has a Normal ball python that he said grew bigger than any of his other ball pythons and he thought it was genetic. It makes me wonder if it's a specific gene that is co-dominant or if it gets diluted. For example, if you breed a fast growing snake with a slower growing snake, will half the babies be fast growing and half slow growing, or will they all grow a mid range speed?

It would be an interesting experiment in genetics. Perhaps it could be the start of a new 'Giant' morph LOL. From what I've seen I'm thinking it may be a higher conversion rate of rodent / food intake to weight gained, i.e. feeding the same rodent will make a 'Giant' snake grow faster because more of the rodent is converted into snake body mass. Seems like you could track the rodent weight vs. snake weight over time and compare the food intake to body mass conversion.

What a stunner! Are you sure he's a male? :P

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Originally Posted by cchardwick

Brian Gundy has a Normal ball python that he said grew bigger than any of his other ball pythons and he thought it was genetic. It makes me wonder if it's a specific gene that is co-dominant or if it gets diluted. For example, if you breed a fast growing snake with a slower growing snake, will half the babies be fast growing and half slow growing, or will they all grow a mid range speed?

It would be an interesting experiment in genetics. Perhaps it could be the start of a new 'Giant' morph LOL. From what I've seen I'm thinking it may be a higher conversion rate of rodent / food intake to weight gained, i.e. feeding the same rodent will make a 'Giant' snake grow faster because more of the rodent is converted into snake body mass. Seems like you could track the rodent weight vs. snake weight over time and compare the food intake to body mass conversion.

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Interesting thoughts, esp. about how the food is converted in the body.
I think there is a region where Ball Pythons grow bigger. Their heads, everything. Not just heavier (through feeding) but bigger overall. Forgot what they were called, though...I believe that it IS genetic and perhaps somewhere along the line Jag carries the genes of those bigger BP's.

How those genes present, dominant, co-dominant, etc..I have no idea. But would be very interesting to find out !!

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Originally Posted by mlededee

What a stunner! Are you sure he's a male? :P

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Yup, LOL. I probed him twice (carefully, wanted to make sure its not a female that got "pierced" by probes) Probes went in easily and deep, on both sides.

Plus he had ZERO interest in my other male and that other male sure didn't like Jag, either. LOL!!!

He is awesome! That pic with him on your legs makes him look huge! I'm sure it must be that your pretty tiny but seeing how thick he is next to a leg is unreal, I've never seen a ball python look so big! I would be breeding him just to try and pass down his 'big genes' to some other morph combos. He was a lucky pick up for sure!

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Originally Posted by zina10

Interesting thoughts, esp. about how the food is converted in the body.
I think there is a region where Ball Pythons grow bigger. Their heads, everything. Not just heavier (through feeding) but bigger overall. Forgot what they were called, though...I believe that it IS genetic and perhaps somewhere along the line Jag carries the genes of those bigger BP's.

How those genes present, dominant, co-dominant, etc..I have no idea. But would be very interesting to find out !!

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there is - it's called sub-saharan iirc. :)

Such a big beautiful boy, wonder how big he'll end up being. Also, that makes me wonder if anyone has bred bps for size? Would anyone even be interested in large bps?

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Originally Posted by MD_Pythons

Such a big beautiful boy, wonder how big he'll end up being. Also, that makes me wonder if anyone has bred bps for size? Would anyone even be interested in large bps?

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There is a member here that breeds for size, jordan something, I'm sure he'll chime in. But yes, there is definitely a demand for larger ball pythons. For a lot of keepers they are a little smaller then they would prefer but still the best choice because the larger pythons are too large especially for keepers with young kids like me. Retics were always my favorite but I switched to ball pythons for my children's safely and so they can enjoy the hobby with me. I would love ball pythons even more if they had just a little more size on them.

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Originally Posted by MD_Pythons

Such a big beautiful boy, wonder how big he'll end up being. Also, that makes me wonder if anyone has bred bps for size? Would anyone even be interested in large bps?

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They don't come up all that often over this side of the pond and I'm torn between keeping the bloodline pure and taking advantage of the fact they tend to have larger clutches to improve breeding odds for rare combos. :weirdface

I think I'd probably keep the line pure if I could find any. :oops:

Now I remember what they are being called... "Volta Ball Pythons". Or...sub saharan, like dr. Del said.

They do seem to grow bigger and have bigger clutches. Outback Reptile sells wildcaught/imports of them regularly. Usually gravid females.

I'm not a fan of buying gravid imports, but perhaps that is the only way you can get a true Volta that way? Not sure someone is breeding them "pure", most people probably use them to produce some kind of morphs, with bigger clutches. Not sure how the "grow bigger gene" works, once you breed a Volta to a "regular sized" Ball Python. Would certainly be interesting to find out.

There are probably many large "regular" Ball Pythons and some smaller (skinnier) Voltas, so it could be difficult to be certain what one has. I find the Voltas have larger heads as well, then the regulars.

I'm not exactly sure why Jag is growing so big and always has been bigger then the others, while getting no "extra" food. Perhaps he is just a freak of nature of sorts ;)

But I do like him a lot.

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Originally Posted by rufretic

There is a member here that breeds for size, jordan something, I'm sure he'll chime in. But yes, there is definitely a demand for larger ball pythons. For a lot of keepers they are a little smaller then they would prefer but still the best choice because the larger pythons are too large especially for keepers with young kids like me. Retics were always my favorite but I switched to ball pythons for my children's safely and so they can enjoy the hobby with me. I would love ball pythons even more if they had just a little more size on them.

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The biggest one I've ever had was a rescue female. She was 4500 gr (1500 gr BIGGER then Jag!!!). She was kept in a 10 gallon tank with a small water dish and a heat lamp on top. No hide. She took up the entire space all curled up. It was sad.
Despite all that, she was actually quite healthy. And unbeknownst to me, gravid. Found her on eggs one morning, now that was a surprise !! She only had 6 eggs (one went bad) but they were huge eggs. I remember that the largest hatchling was 116 gr and the smallest 89 gr, out of the eggs.

Jag really IS quite big around. Sometimes when I look at the pictures I think they make him look smaller then he really is, LOL. I know he is no "retic/burm" or giant of that sort, but man, he IS really strong. When he wraps to hold on or to try to move around my body, he can squeeze hard!!

Handsome little fellow you have there. He is by the far the biggest male that I have ever laid eyes on.


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Interesting, they're from the Volta region. Between Ghana and Togo. Definitely something I'll look into.

Wow such a beautiful boy! Our male BP if only 400g atm and about a year old


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Originally Posted by zina10

the biggest one i've ever had was a rescue female. She was 4500 gr (1500 gr bigger then jag!!!). She was kept in a 10 gallon tank with a small water dish and a heat lamp on top. No hide. She took up the entire space all curled up. It was sad.
Despite all that, she was actually quite healthy. And unbeknownst to me, gravid. Found her on eggs one morning, now that was a surprise !! She only had 6 eggs (one went bad) but they were huge eggs. I remember that the largest hatchling was 116 gr and the smallest 89 gr, out of the eggs.

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:o

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Originally Posted by Aerries

Wow such a beautiful boy! Our male BP if only 400g atm and about a year old


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He's still a Young'in ;)

Give it time !!

Hard to believe he was ever such a tiny one...

Here he is on the day he arrived (he was in shed)

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and a few days later, after he shed

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and then he started growing and never stopped ;)


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I know..I have a ton of pictures of him ;) 8 years is a long time..

I noticed that some of my ball pythons have bigger heads than others, I was wondering if there was some kind of genetics going on there. I have a few that are the same weight but the heads are bigger, I suppose they have to potential to get much bigger. My biggest one at nearly 4000 grams has a huge head!

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Originally Posted by cchardwick

I noticed that some of my ball pythons have bigger heads than others, I was wondering if there was some kind of genetics going on there. I have a few that are the same weight but the heads are bigger, I suppose they have to potential to get much bigger. My biggest one at nearly 4000 grams has a huge head!

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The 2 BIG rescue females I've had, as well as Jag, all have had large heads. Not freakishly large, of course, but larger then what I'm used to seeing on big Ball Pythons.
I think some Ball Pythons are simply overfed, so they may have the "weight" but their heads are small compared to their girth.

Larger females in the 3000 gr range actually do happen a fair bit. 4000+ becomes more rare, because some of them may actually just be over fed and don't produce well as breeders. But then there are the ones that are huge AND produce well. The priority with most breeders lies in the morphs, though, not in size so much. Unless you have a het, you can "see" what you get with a morph. Buying a hatchling with a promise "it will get huge" is quite the leap of faith ;) Not really a profit to be made there, esp. since most of the huge ones are "normals".

Jag is just my "little" weirdo, because he is a male and big like this. But I still love him. Even though I'm now having to consider to upping his cage size again :rolleyes:

I've not read all the comments, so someone may have mentioned volta blood? I'm not even convinced that it is a real thing anyway.

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Originally Posted by snakequeen74

I've not read all the comments, so someone may have mentioned volta blood? I'm not even convinced that it is a real thing anyway.

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Yes, that has been talked about.

I'm not sure if Jag has some "big BP genes" but I do know that in some form or another he is a bit odd with his growth. I have mentioned before that I bought 5 hatchlings, all approx. the same age that year. They were all fed at the same schedule. I fed conservatively, never "power fed". Not a fan of it.

Even though he was fed at the same schedule, Jag grew bigger and faster, right away. Noticeably so. Why? I don't know.

To this day I have yet to see a male that big. Again, he is NOT fat. Never been powerfed. Not flabby at all. All muscle. Yet, he is LARGE with a proportionally big head.

I have had 2 rescues, one about 14 years ago, the other about 7 years ago. Both were female and were BIG. Not just big/fat, but just big overall. Really big heads, too. One was 4500 gr, the other 3000 gr. They too, seemed "different" to me. And I've had many Ball Pythons (used to rescue, too) and I've seen many.

Is there something to "Volta" ? I don't know. But I do know that some Ball Pythons seem to grow faster and bigger and end up looking "larger" overall (not just fat like some)

To me it doesn't really matter, aside from the whole thing being interesting from a research point of view. I love that big worm and I think he is a pretty cool snake :)

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Originally Posted by zina10

Yes, that has been talked about.

I'm not sure if Jag has some "big BP genes" but I do know that in some form or another he is a bit odd with his growth. I have mentioned before that I bought 5 hatchlings, all approx. the same age that year. They were all fed at the same schedule. I fed conservatively, never "power fed". Not a fan of it.

Even though he was fed at the same schedule, Jag grew bigger and faster, right away. Noticeably so. Why? I don't know.

To this day I have yet to see a male that big. Again, he is NOT fat. Never been powerfed. Not flabby at all. All muscle. Yet, he is LARGE with a proportionally big head.

I have had 2 rescues, one about 14 years ago, the other about 7 years ago. Both were female and were BIG. Not just big/fat, but just big overall. Really big heads, too. One was 4500 gr, the other 3000 gr. They too, seemed "different" to me. And I've had many Ball Pythons (used to rescue, too) and I've seen many.

Is there something to "Volta" ? I don't know. But I do know that some Ball Pythons seem to grow faster and bigger and end up looking "larger" overall (not just fat like some)

To me it doesn't really matter, aside from the whole thing being interesting from a research point of view. I love that big worm and I think he is a pretty cool snake :)

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Yeah, he doesn't look fat, he looks wonderfully healthy. He is beautiful.

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are you feeding him anything larger then a small rat or are u at a medium or larger?

Depends on where I get the rats from. I will give him mediums after he takes a break. But when he is in full on feeding mode he gets large rats. However, the large rats I have aren't huge by any means. If I give him a medium, he acts like he hasn't even eaten and keeps searching for more. The large doesn't leave any bump in him. After a large Rat, he takes two to three weeks in between eating. I've gotten to know him so well, I really leave it up to him. He let's me know when he is ready for more. He is not on a strict schedule at all.


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Looks like he could scarf down a kitten. :O

or maybe a large squirrel!

Rats only! [emoji6][emoji16]


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