Shayna - Our Albino Spider Ball

Shayna shed two nights ago and left me some presents.

I took some pictures yesterday, with just the iPhone, but Shayna looks stunning. She also weighed in, dry, at 1,800G. That's a new top weight for her. She's loving small rats every 2 weeks versus medium rats when she felt like it. She strikes most meals now, and even if she doesn't, grabs the rat with gusto and drags into her house, etc. This time last year, she was 100G or so below where she is now.

I thank this forum, and Deborah, for encouraging me to feed smaller meals and not stick with my status quo. It's definitely doing wonders for her.

Even "seasoned" reptile owners can continue to learn and grow. It's important for all of us to want what's best for our animals and be open to the idea we don't always know what that is. I keep many species, and took for granted my BP knowledge, since I've had that species the longest. What I didn't take into account was that I hadn't revisited and caught up my knowledge recently, with BP's anyway. Frankly, snake wise, I knew more about Boas and Carpet Pythons, and Corn snakes until I dug into BP's again for Shayna's benefit.

My point is, be humble and check in from time to time to see if there are new theories, beliefs, or best practices, for a certain species you have. 90% of the time, it will all be good, but even this small change in prey size, counter intuitive as might have seemed, has done wonders for Shayna.


Shayna has had 9/10 rats since March, vs. 8/10 when I fed mediums last year. That may now seem consequential, but the weight gain is, and her newfound zest for eating is. I am interested to see how she does this winter when she usually fasts for 5 months and loses 7% or so of her body weight.

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...om/Q4mWkzr.jpg
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...om/h1zafTR.jpghttps://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...om/kr7cPI2.jpghttps://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...om/0jfxfRp.jpg

She really is looking great dave, them lines almost look citrus yellow on her

I agree, your never too old to learn something new. what is fine for one snake say a boa, isn't necessarily fine for another as you may have noticed with your two, I know ones a locality bc and the a morph BI but can be very different, I've noticed more in my locality boas,
I always like to read thru other threads just incase you may take one thing from it and may work alot better for you
Let's hope her new feeding regime will improver her fasting this winter

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She’s gorgeous, love those dorsal markings!

Shayna has been pounding small rats every two weeks and is looking and doing great. I talk so much about the growing reptiles I have, I tend to neglect poor Shayna on this forum (not neglected at all here at home, but doesn't get enough love here).

Here are a few quick shots of her in my big chair in the reptile area.

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...om/PnGpItI.jpghttps://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...om/1uc7TpP.jpghttps://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...om/gx2Sv0E.jpg

Don't worry, we know you wouldn't neglect such a big cuddly snake like Shayna. ;) I think she likes your chair, too...:snake:

Shayna left me a lot of presents today. She still weighs in about 1,800G and continues to eat like clockwork every 2 weeks on a small rat.

She seems to enjoy being handled the least of all my snakes, and I do not handle her as much as the others as a result. However, in the past few months, she seems more skittish than normal. She doesn't bite, but gets spooked easy, even bumping into herself, or me, etc. and jerking back. She's always done that, but it seems more. Of course, she's still a big sweetheart, and tends to calm down with a few minutes of handling. I handle the boas often and Yafe, the Carpet Python, and even Solana the scaleless corn a lot, and it used to be just Shayna and Figment (corn) snake wise. Maybe I am just used to how deliberate and confident the other snakes are now and in contrast, she seems worse. Anyway, just talking out loud. I will plan to handle her a little more frequently and see if that changes.

In the meantime, she's a beauty.

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...om/y7ADMO3.jpghttps://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...om/2tNsrHh.jpghttps://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...om/asAM6mj.jpghttps://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...om/ZiEfSJg.jpg

She's still a great colour dave

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by richardhind1972

She's still a great colour dave

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She just had her 7th birthday at the beginning of the month. I don’t think she’s changing much!

She's only 7-? She's just a big baby then...7 is not even middle-aged for a BP. You should definitely try to handle her a bit more...she'll get more used to it & calm down
some, I bet?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dakski

She just had her 7th birthday at the beginning of the month. I don’t think she’s changing much!

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I meant that a lot of pythons fade there pattern as they get older

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