Count Your Pits

Hey everyone! (Does your ball python have five heat pits, yes or no?)

I have been wanting to address this for a while, but I am just now getting around to it. My pastel Todd seems to be deformed. I am not sure if I should exactly put it -that- way though....he seems to be just like any other ball and functions normally so far.

When I got him out of his box after reaching my house for the first time I noticed after taking a picture and zooming in that he had....quite a -lot- of heat pits! Every other ball python I had only has exactly five on each side of the nose. I even have been counting every pit I can in ball python pictures since this trying to find more than five, but I have yet to find any with more than that.

I asked the breeder soon after if this was something he had noticed. He said no, and that it shouldn't affect him negatively. He also told me that he wasn't sure that ball pythons have an average of five heat pits to begin with. Honestly, that's something I would think he should have known if he's a breeder since I haven't seen any balls with more than five pits besides Todd -yet-.

He told me he would make a blog and contact his 'professor' to ask him more about it...even use some of my pictures to show him and all of that.
I never heard from him again(and he never posted anything), so now I am investigating a little on my own. :mad:


Here are pictures of them...you can clearly see where one is almost joined making two smaller pits.
He has a full set of six on the one side and then on the messed up side he has seven! :O

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n...gi90/Pits5.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n...0/Pits5red.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n...gi90/Pits4.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n...0/Pits4red.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n...gi90/Pits3.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n...0/Pits3red.jpg

Also does anyone think or know if this could have a really bad effect in breeding him??
I would really hope not, but I have read even little things could cause big problems in offspring and I -did- plan to breed him some day if I could!

I HIGHLY doubt it. :]

Looks Normal to me!

I actually just started a thread yesterday reguarding my BP...who has what appears to be 4 heat pits on the bottom jaw (2 on each side), like a gtp or something would have. Not normal either...

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Originally Posted by Myenia

I actually just started a thread yesterday reguarding my BP...who has what appears to be 4 heat pits on the bottom jaw (2 on each side), like a gtp or something would have. Not normal either...

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-That- I would say was actually normal to tell you the truth. All my ball pythons seem to have those things, but they are VERY small and I am not even sure they work like the top five are supposed to.

Look at the picture above of Todd...the last one you can see near the corner or the mouth the slightly small looking heat pits! :D

http://www.ballpython.ca/collection/albino/albino.html

Check that Albino out.

It has six on each side.

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Originally Posted by The Beast

http://www.ballpython.ca/collection/albino/albino.html

Check that Albino out.

It has six on each side.

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AHA! You found one! That's gotta be the first besides Todd I have seen with more heat pits! :D Thanks! I just wanted to know if there were anymore out there.

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Originally Posted by Coils

AHA! You found one! That's gotta be the first besides Todd I have seen with more heat pits! :D Thanks! I just wanted to know if there were anymore out there.

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No problem.
Once I saw your snake I couldn't help but count the pits on others, whenever I saw pictures.I think its pretty interesting. :)

This paradox albino also has what seems to be six.

5 normal heat pits and then one small one.

http://ballpython.com/morph.php?morph=paradox

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Originally Posted by The Beast

This paradox albino also has what seems to be six.

5 normal heat pits and then one small one.

http://ballpython.com/morph.php?morph=paradox

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Haha, man your good at that counting heat pits, though I really dont know how I missed the one on Mark's site. :P I am not really worried about it anymore and guess I just have a special littel guy.

Jake has 6 on each side. No idea about Ira (corn) he's too small to see

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Originally Posted by ChristinaP

Jake has 6 on each side. No idea about Ira (corn) he's too small to see

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Cool, yea there seem to be a lot out there with at least six I have been being shown now.

Although, do you mean a corn snake? They don't have heats pits.

haha maybe that's why I can't see any :cool:

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Originally Posted by ChristinaP

haha maybe that's why I can't see any :cool:

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lol, that'd be it! :D

Ira's my first corn :cool: he's such an itty bitty thing, no way would I see anything like that on him.....LOL

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Originally Posted by ChristinaP

Ira's my first corn :cool: he's such an itty bitty thing, no way would I see anything like that on him.....LOL

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Tell me about it, I am amazed half those little baby corns can EAT right out of the egg, it makes me wonder sometimes how they find things small enough to eat out in the wild! It's insane!

What kind of corn is he?

Our corn is 2 months old (via pet store) and is eating 2 pinkie mice every 4 days. Jake, my ball, is eating 1 adult small rat every 4-5 days. Corn, will eat right out of your hand, ball, tempermental eater. Has to be dark, quiet, and people have to be hidden. Night and day these 2

He (Or I think it's a he) is an albino corn, that's all I know....LOL

I have pics up in the corn section

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Originally Posted by ChristinaP

Our corn is 2 months old (via pet store) and is eating 2 pinkie mice every 4 days. Jake, my ball, is eating 1 adult small rat every 4-5 days. Corn, will eat right out of your hand, ball, tempermental eater. Has to be dark, quiet, and people have to be hidden. Night and day these 2

He (Or I think it's a he) is an albino corn, that's all I know....LOL

I have pics up in the corn section

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Lol, yea I was checking them out right aftre I asked. *Sigh* :P He is a little thing I must say and yea, seems like you've almost got a problem feeder on your hands. Luckily he at least eats, all of mine eat alright for the most part.

My normal male, Miloh, has refused a bit off and on and wont switch over to F/T instead of prekilled, but other than that I haven't had too many problems.

Jake (ball) took me almost 3 weeks I think to get to eat. Someone suggested that I cover the top to keep the smell in and put it under the heat lamp. I ended up covering the top, and putting it on the warm side of his set-up and turning the lights off. About 45 mins later when I came to check he had eaten. He was hard to get to eat

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Originally Posted by ChristinaP

Jake (ball) took me almost 3 weeks I think to get to eat. Someone suggested that I cover the top to keep the smell in and put it under the heat lamp. I ended up covering the top, and putting it on the warm side of his set-up and turning the lights off. About 45 mins later when I came to check he had eaten. He was hard to get to eat

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Yeah, it sounds like it! >_< Was he eating frozen thawed before you got him, trouble eater from the start(before)?

The lady at the pet store actually picked out what he was eating for us, so he was eating the same thing. F/T Fuzzie mice. After we went through the whole thing of F/T from petsmart (6 I think) We went to an animal supply and got hopper mice. He ate 2 of those the day we started the "new" feeding suggestion. So far he's only refused 1 feeding and that was about a week ago, but 2 days after that, his eyes turned, so I'm sure he refused due to shedding. The charts the petstore gave us, he only refused 1 time and that again was at a shed. I think it was him getting stressed from new environment, new people, being handled (which we stopped except when I clean his set-up) I was told wait 4 feeds, after the 4th feed he went into shed, so we haven't gotten him out in about a month or so (again, except for cleanings, we just move him to a different enclosure, not really handle him)

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Originally Posted by ChristinaP

The lady at the pet store actually picked out what he was eating for us, so he was eating the same thing. F/T Fuzzie mice. After we went through the whole thing of F/T from petsmart (6 I think) We went to an animal supply and got hopper mice. He ate 2 of those the day we started the "new" feeding suggestion. So far he's only refused 1 feeding and that was about a week ago, but 2 days after that, his eyes turned, so I'm sure he refused due to shedding. The charts the petstore gave us, he only refused 1 time and that again was at a shed. I think it was him getting stressed from new environment, new people, being handled (which we stopped except when I clean his set-up) I was told wait 4 feeds, after the 4th feed he went into shed, so we haven't gotten him out in about a month or so (again, except for cleanings, we just move him to a different enclosure, not really handle him)

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Yea, I know what you mean. I had to wait a while to handle a baby of mine who was actually really defensive, but he at least ate alright during his settling in. You have to really be careful about those petstores, I hate them with a passion when it comes to selling any animal and recommend an actual breeder completely! They never know what they are doing and like to lie at places like that.

Although, yes the change could very easily be making him stressed. Actually all my ball pythons eat during -their- shed, but it is common for them to refuse during that time...I just get kinda lucky with that as well. I also can handle mine easily during the shed cycle, but Owen(my spider) is just -slightly- jerky and uncertain about what's going on when his eyes are blue.

My corn, we got him Thursday last week, handled him, stuck him in the feeding box, and he ate 2 fuzzies right away. Not shy, tempermental AT ALL. Night and day

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Originally Posted by ChristinaP

My corn, we got him Thursday last week, handled him, stuck him in the feeding box, and he ate 2 fuzzies right away. Not shy, tempermental AT ALL. Night and day

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Lol, yea, honestly...I haven't heard of many aggressive baby corns besides the sunkissed.