MORPH MARKET WORLD OF BALL PYTHONS BP.NET Where have I been all these years!!!

Defiantly a newbie if you could tell by my title.
I've been keeping reptiles my whole life. I'm 34 now. When I was a kid i had many ball pythons all the way up to my 20's. Around 22 23 I stepped it up and got myself a red tail boa from a family who just wasn't that interested in her. At that time she was about a year old and I had her up until about 6 months ago. Right now we have a very curious 2 year old who also has a fascination for reptiles and especially snakes. She is kind of handsey and right now figuring out puzzles and doing very well getting past chilled proof locks and other obstacles in her way. So, my boa had to be re-homed before something bad happened. Well, a few weeks later i started feeling a bit sad with no snakes around and I reached out to you tube for some snake content. Little did I know there were hundreds of reptile channels. After binging a bunch of the venomous reptile channels a stumbled across a ball python channel, Chris Hardwick to be exact, and I haven't looked back. There I learned about Moroph Market, World of Ball Pythons, and BP.net. First place I went was World of Ball Pythons. I was scrolling through and was blown away at the hundreds of combos and morphs that has surfaced over the years right under my nose. Of course only used to seeing Pieds and normal's I seen the first banana I have ever seen for a reasonable price. So, I frantically started researching the breeder via his website and social media platforms and found out he was a well known established breeder and it would be safe to order without much risk. Brock Wagner is the guy and I would highly recommend buying from him he has some amazing morphs. So, I said to myself i only live once and bought it and the very next day I had a banana het clown hatchling...... I wasn't expecting it to be a hatchling, about 6 weeks old, because i didn't take the time to figure out how morph market is set up. Lesson learned don't impulse buy snakes. I've had hatchlings before and know how to properly care for them but i wanted something i could tame down right away so my daughter could handle him. First couple days he was a monster and defensive striking at everything that moved.I learned a few tips and trick from YouTube and now he hangs off me all day and i only took one bite. But didn't break skin or do any damage. He is a sweet boy now but I still don't trust him not to bite my handsy 2 year old. We will wait awhile until there both a bit older. Hes already eating frozen and staying plump and healthy.

Friday I went into PetCo to buy sub straight and other supplies and I look over and see this Queen Bee but she wasn't looking to hot. The thing I think any guy can relate to who has had his own clutch of daughters like me will tell you, the neanderthal man grunts slowly drain away when u watch tinker bell and my little pony on the daily for a few years. I seen that Queen Bee and then popt out a tear because she was so skinny and stressed out. She was stuck in shed with her eye caps still attached. The thermometer in the tank only said 70 and no humidity at all. She was also stuck in with another snake who was a male. I couldn't help my impulse and next thing i knew i was walking out of the store with a Queen Bee and a new aquarium. She has a slight wobble in her from the spider gene but im hoping it gets better now that she is relaxing and not stressing. So far for the last 2 days she has eaten one live hopper that only took one strike to grab. When I walk past her she follows me and she even comes out of her hide when i stop to take a peek. Tomorrow i'm going to try and soak her and let her crawl around in a towel to get those eye caps off of her. I have handled her a bit and shes a sweet girl so far. The funny thing is when I got her home she seemed fine and not at all snappy, but she laid her head on the back of my hand slowly opened her mouth and slowly clamped down again no damage but it was the cutest bite i ever seen. After that she was extremely curious wanting to roam. Her flight mode never kicked in and it was like i've known her forever. Today though shes resting because she got a nice meal last night and I have a baby shower for my son who will be here in January.

I might start a blog of my snake adventures. Tell me what you guys think. I will try to post more on here when i have questions or when something comes up. Thank you guys for reading and scaleriffic day :):snake::gj::D

I know what you mean about wanting to rescue these poor snakes. I have a pet store around here that has the saddest looking ball python I have ever seen. If I had any money and room for it I would have brought it home even though I know you shouldn't buy them because that just exacerbates the problem. But this poor snake has stuck shed all over him at least one layer and possibly more. The tank his in is smaller than a 10 gallon with no thermometer or hygrometer so who know what the temps and humidity are. I was so mad when I left there. [emoji19][emoji3525]

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So cute.

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Hey...:welcome: We're so glad you found us here...we love hearing your snake adventures, & you sure aren't the only one that's crazy about snakes...there's a whole
tribe of us here. :D

One tiny hint...long posts are much easier to read if you make shorter paragraphs...you know, throw in an empty line now & then. ;)

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Originally Posted by punkrawkah

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That’s not a queen bee. Also, bring up your concerns to the stores management. It won’t change where they get the animals from but maybe they’ll take better care of them. No store wants to be associated with animal abuse. Congratulations on getting back into the hobby! I don’t really see why you got rid of your boa though. Just keep it away from the kid. Idk the full story though. I just don’t see how it’s dangerous to a child in a locked enclosure. Hopefully all goes well!


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I believe that picture is of the banana het clown that the op mentioned at the beginning of his post.

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I know thats my banana het clown I mentioned in my post. sorry for the confusion.

I will try to get a pic of her up tonight. Im having issues with my file sizes for uploading pics.

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Originally Posted by Snakemom85

I believe that picture is of the banana het clown that the op mentioned at the beginning of his post.

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Ahhh... oops, must’ve skimmed over that. My bad!


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https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil...oor_sage_1.jpg

This is sage not looking so hot. I gave her an hour long soak last night and let her play in a towel and some of the shed did come off but not enough to stop me from worrying. Shes basically blind by now and I cant seem to get her to stay still enough to rub a damp cloth on her head. For being blind because of her eye caps shes still in good spirits. After her bath I tried to give her another hopper but she wasn't interested in it. Very understandable though she ate the day before and the bath was probably a bit stressful.

Ill just keep handling her and giving her baths every few days until the shed comes off. Someone on YouTube also suggested rubbing her down in vegetable oil. Is this a thing? Seems weird to me but i'm willing to try anything safe for her at this point. Her tank is sitting at around 86 deg and her humidity is around 60%. I have a reptile fog machine that i'm going to start using tomorrow and I've been spraying her tank every few hours. I'm just worried she may get a respiratory infection if I over do it.

It's easier and much less stressful to put them in a pillowcase, damp with warm water and tied shut, left in the cage for a couple hours if you need to get stuck shed off. Don't put oil on her. Stuck shed or eyecaps aren't going to kill her and if you can keep the humidity correct it will take care of itself quickly enough.

If you soak them long enough the shed will come off. I would repeatedly soak her in warm water until it’s all gone. You can use a towel and/or a Q-tip to remove stuck eye caps. Misting is typically sufficient to maintain humidity depending on the type of enclosure. You can get pump garden sprayers that make misting enclosures a breeze. Also, I believe zoomed makes a shedding assist product as well. Might be something worth looking into if it’s really bad.
This is why chain stores shouldn’t sell animals unless they provide proper care and get their animals from reputable sources. I used to work at one of these chains when I was younger. They never properly trained anyone and my coworkers didn’t have a clue how to care for anything other than maybe a hamster. Also they got their animals from reptiles by Mack and often arrived dead or sick. Tried rescuing a chameleon once and it died from internal parasites. I do have a beardie that I got from them that’s 10 years old and he’s perfectly healthy though. You can get good animals from major outlets but after working there I wouldn’t really recommend it. All my other animals I’ve gotten from reputable breeders.
They killed quite a few ball pythons during my time there. They kept them improperly and refused to send them to the vet when needed. You definitely saved this snake but that’s not how they see it. They just see the animals as money which is really sad. As soon as one is sold they just order another and the cycle continues.


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So, Ive soaked her twice for an hour each time since the last post and we managed to work off almost all the shed. All but her head eye caps and about 3 inches down her neck. Today I didn't soak her. after last nights soak I offered another hopper hoping to get that "i'm going to eat your face off" attitude to go away and I worked!!! she took a live hopper with extreme force. she nabbed it in the butt though... Kinda scary because the way she grabbed it. Took the poor hopper awhile to pass. I had to walk away and let her be. Shes pretty young though and still learning the ropes i think. Or im stressing her out even more feeding after baths.

Today I tried to round up a pillow case i could use for but had no luck. And I didn't want to start a war because I used my personal pillow case. I got the eye brow raise when I asked my wife if i could. She even said Ya go ahead its fine. But I know.... deep down inside she was like i dare you Just do it...

So tomorrow i'm heading to walmart to get a pillow case :rolleyes: :snake2: :snake2: :snake2:

I did handle her for about an hour today. She seems fine not striking at me but she was full so she just basically sat in my lap and watched snake videos on YT with me. She even yawned. Its probably just a tale people tell but I've always herd that's a good sign your snake is comfortable and is tolerating you at the moment. While I had her out I watered her sub straight and refilled her water. She spent the next 30 min or so drinking off of her glass. I don't get why snakes don't use there water bowls dont they know its easier just to drink out of the bowl!!! Dang window lickers!!!! JK JK.

I had bozo the het clown out pretty much all day after I put sage back to bed. I don't think he understands hes a snake. He just slithers around. he doesn't pull away or ball up anymore when I move fast or even when my 2 y/o comes charging at me. This super chill extremely docile snake is getting on my nerves for being too boring lol. He hangs out in my flannel shirt pocket and just chills with his head sticking out looking forward. Hes either pretending to be a pen or a giraffe, not sure which one though he wont say... And he yawns as well. Even while hes trying to be a pen. I still have an old pair of janco jeans with the massive pickets from the 90s laying around. I may need to utalize them when he get bigger. Oh dang just realized though my wife will poke fun of my new tail and i cant even say it will bite you...

There’s a lot of text there ...

Just be aware that it’s best not to handle until they’re feeding regularly-maybe after 3 or so successful feedings ..
Certainly NO handling for 48 hours immediately after a feed ..


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