Craigslist rescue

I'm apparently back in the ball game... story time.

I used to keep quite a few balls, my best was a nerd lavender albino het. It was an expensive animal at the time. And I was partnered with a ton of redtails. My partner and I also made plastic cages, rat racks etc. I bred a bunch of dart frogs, all kinds of stuff. But i have been snake less for over a decade now. Just dogs and cats. My 9yo son has been asking for a green snake for probably 2 years now but I've been dragging my feet. I just haven't been that excited about dead cricket smell.

Anyway I was perusing the free section of cl a couple weeks ago and found an ad for a free bp, along with a sales price of $100, no pics. So I emailed and spent a couple weeks going back and forth. She was originally trying to sell but gave up and just needed a home. She didn't have pics but said it was a female dreamcicle, 2.5 feet long. I found that.... intriguing.

A couple more emails and finally a pic, and an apology. Not a dreamcicle, but an orange dream. I was a little dissapointed but for what I was intending a pure normal was absolutely fine, my son was going to freak regardless.

I went to look at snake a couple days ago and get the background. The snake is "at least 4 years old" and was bought at a local reptile/exotics store called incredible pets by current Owners friend. Original owner moved and asked current to take care of her. Current owner has decided she is in over her head, snake is not feeding etc and she wants a good home. So really, I'm probably a pretty good person to talk to even though I'm going to have to remember a whole lot I haven't thought about in a long time. At least the background is there to start from.


Anyway, she's 4 to 6 years old but only 995g. She was getting fed every "3 to 4" weeks, I'm guessing for her entire life. No thermometer but obviously the cage temp is low. But despite that she looks pretty clean and surprisingly healthy just tiny for her age. And she is a "orange dream crossed with something". The owner assumed ut was a ball crossed with some other type of snake and thats why she was small. I had tomexplain thats not the way it works... So mystery snake ☺. She's obviously been handled well, very inquisitive after only a few seconds of handling. All in all, a good ball and a pretty girl. I'm warming her up now and will try feeding tomorrow. She needs to fatten up to say the least. They said they had only fed live but hopefully she's hungry enough once warmed up to take frozen.

My son is ecstatic and she'll have a good home. Good week, even if she's not a dreamcicle. I'll have to find a way to post pics here, I'm curious what others think the "something" she's crossed with is.

Welcome to the forum and welcome back to snake ownership!!

For picture uploading, the easiest way to go about it is by downloading the free app Tapatalk and linking ball-pythons.net Makes it super simple to attach pics to your threads.

Can't wait to hear more about your new girl! It's generally advisable to let them settle for a week or so before offering the first meal. Stress from relocation alone could make her reject a meal, especially if the meal is unfamiliar like f/t. You may have to try live a few times. But you probably know that with your experience, just thought I'd throw it out there.

What's your girl's name?

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...a79d98e3_b.jpg

- - - Updated - - -

https://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1737/2...84019fd3_b.jpg

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...a79d98e3_b.jpg



Looks like flikr still works, stupid photobucket.

Fortunately it was a short relocation for her and besides warming things up adding a cold hide I haven't messed with her home yet so we'll see. I thought about going live to start but Im hoping she is hungry enough that I don't have to. If all else fails I'll get some food in her and worry about switching later. Id rather refreeze than have a pet rodent for a while.

My son decided to keep her name, so pics are of sushi :laugh: I'll have to get a belly pic later, no matter how many cookies I offered she just wont roll over on command....

Congratulations, what a beautiful od spider right? Glad you and your son have this lovely lady to bound over... next a banana bp right;)

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1737/...af49175c_o.jpg20180603_134546 by nathan doty, on Flickr

Spider was my immediate thought but it's been a while so im trying to not make assumptions. And wow, are there a lot more variations out there now than the last time I looked. Paperwork would be nice. Back In the day a spider was not exactly an inexpensive animal. But no matter, for free and a happy kid I think I did pretty good :)

She's beautiful!

Congrats on your new snake!! You’ll love owning ball pythons again, I recently did the same thing. Once your in the game you’re in the game!

I’d call this sweet girl a spider.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Glad she got a good home! She deserves it

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Indy

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...af49175c_o.jpg20180603_134546 by nathan doty, on Flickr

---

Definitely a OD Spider, gorgeous girl! I can't wait to see more updates on her! Welcome to the forum!

(Time to go look at some Caigslist ads...)

[IMG]https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...81fef8c4_k.jpg20180605_140809 by nathan doty, on Flickr[/IMG]

There's her belly. If I hadn't been told she was an OD, without a normal to compare her to I probably wouldn't have noticed more than her pattern. It's pretty darn subtle.

I'm not going to lie, been fighting the urge to do a few punnett squares... always wanted a piebald, maybe an albino or 6, bumblebee... :laugh: If I start with a juvie male, by the time she's up to weight... Pied het, OD spiders :) Add in the albino in lav albino in a couple generations and just roll the dice from there. Whats the point of having 1 when you can have 5 or 15?

Of course my wife has already threatened me once or twice since I surprised everyone. I *may* have neglected entirely letting her know what I was doing.

On the upside shes been moving back and forth between the hot and the cold side instead of just huddling for warmth, progress is being made!

She’s in good hands now. Welcome to the forum, I’m sure you will enjoy your time here.

Thanks :)

Big success tonight. 42 seconds after introducing, she hit her first ever frozen rat off my tongs. She is now curled up in the heat. I'm not counting my chickens yet but I'm happy that she's got some food in her. Hopefully #2 and subsequent feedings will go just as well. She's going to think she's in snake heaven going from monthly to weekly feeds.

My son jumped nicely when she struck :laugh: I stuck my gopro in her tank, going to edit things down a bit. I was hoping to get a snap in in mid strike but it looks like it happened between frames. Ah well, there's always next time.

Sweet! I'm so glad she's in good hands now & hopefully she'll continue to show her appreciation by feeding easily on F/T for you from now on.

2nd attempt ft yesterday, again less than a minute. Very strong feeding response so far. Next week i'll try just drop and go, ignore my frozen rat theatre. I probably want going to get an emmy anyway.

And 2 good teaching moments for my son. In his 9 years on this earth he has had several times where i say "if you do x, y is going to happen. Which he ignores and y happens about 30 seconds later.

But he had decided he is now the resident snake expert and wanted to feed yesterday. I warn if you hold the tongs like that, you'll get bit. Followed by "she's watching your hand" and finally "what did we learn?"
And he learned ball bites don't hurt, so don't be afraid.

Good times :)

Yes, snakes are "teachers" too, lol...:snake: Oops. :oops:

One of my favorite sayings back when I was a cop was "Nothing teaches like an ass whooping." I don't know if I was the first but I coined it after trying to keep rookies alive. I got tired of telling someone "If you keep doing this you're going to get punched in the face, at best." Eventually I'd just grab their training officer and say "Watch, here it comes" and Bam! punch in the face. Then I'd finish the fight while they picked themselves up. It was remarkable how often that little momentary interaction would do what me preaching for hours could not.

Anyways, here we go and saved for posterity.

Problem in 3... 2... 1...

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/887/2...d5fcf2f2_h.jpgProblem 1 by nathan doty, on Flickr

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1725/...a267119e_h.jpgproblem 2 by nathan doty, on Flickr

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1729/...69a2a81f_h.jpgproblem 3 by nathan doty, on Flickr

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/875/2...eba2e6f9_h.jpgproblem 4 by nathan doty, on Flickr

Feed #3 today, tried just doing a drop and while she sniffed around the rat, no strike. I left it in about 20 minutes, pulled and reheat it. I barely had it in her tank before she had it wrapped. From live only and "she just won't eat" to easy peasy f/t with essentially no effort. I'm not sure if I'm lucky or just sooooooo good :laugh: I'm betting a little knowledge and a lot of luck. I'll bump her up a size next week and see how she does.

Shes kept her easy to handle mentality, easy as anything to feed, and has slowly started putting on weight. As long as we continue on this path I'll get to call it a successful rescue. Good days!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Indy

Feed #3 today, tried just doing a drop and while she sniffed around the rat, no strike. I left it in about 20 minutes, pulled and reheat it. I barely had it in her tank before she had it wrapped. From live only and "she just won't eat" to easy peasy f/t with essentially no effort. I'm not sure if I'm lucky or just sooooooo good :laugh: I'm betting a little knowledge and a lot of luck. I'll bump her up a size next week and see how she does.

Shes kept her easy to handle mentality, easy as anything to feed, and has slowly started putting on weight. As long as we continue on this path I'll get to call it a successful rescue. Good days!

---

Good girl!! I'm glad she's doing so well for you!:)

And another not too exciting update. She went off for a few weeks, took the opportunity to change her cage around a bit, she's she'd and back on weekly feed again. She shies away from medium sized but I've amazed my son by knowing you can feed more than 1 rat at a time :laugh

My son wants to breed and I'm having a hard time convincing him how tiny she is regardless of her age. And tbh id have trouble convincing my wife to let us breed if she wasnt tiny :)

Is she an animal lover at all? I tricked mine by purchasing a baby girl and letting her spend time with it. Once she saw personality and cuteness it was all gas no brakes! Now I catch her all morph market a lot helping find our next purchase. Gluck to you and your family!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Indy

And another not too exciting update. She went off for a few weeks, took the opportunity to change her cage around a bit, she's she'd and back on weekly feed again. She shies away from medium sized but I've amazed my son by knowing you can feed more than 1 rat at a time :laugh

My son wants to breed and I'm having a hard time convincing him how tiny she is regardless of her age. And tbh id have trouble convincing my wife to let us breed if she wasnt tiny :)

---

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk

Another update for my little sushi diary. We've gotten her up to frozen mediums now, feeding well weekly. Started with smalls, then recently moved to doubles and yesterday medium. Grandma was in town this week and she wanted to see a snake eat so sushi got her meal a couple days early. I was a little worried she'd balk at the larger but besides a little extra time sizing it up she hit it hard. We weighed her tonight. She needs to poop and only fed a couple days ago but she's topped 1200 (fully loaded) now. Nice clean clean sheds, good behavior, feeding well and putting on weight. She's being a good first snake.

Sounds like she's doing great with you...lucky for her you came along when you did! :gj:

update:
Just over a year since we got her. She went off feed entirely for a while but now feeding regularly on frozen mediums, just weighed her at 1465g. That will come down a bit after she poops, but she's at a healthy adult weight.