I got my first Ball Python home! (He's a pinstripe)

[Dragon Queen]

Yup. I went and picked him up today and got home about 45 minutes ago. I have spent the past 5 days browsing the BP.net forums doing as much research as I can (which I already did before. lol) I wanted a better chance of him eating frozen/thawed, and the reptile store where I got him kept him for those 5 days and fed him twice so I will keep my fingers crossed that I can as well.

The macro setting on my camera is having.... issues that I don't know how to fix, so these will have to do for the next few days until I can fix my camera and get him out.

If anyone has any tips on my tank set up, I would appreciate it. I am not quite done, but that is probably how it will be for the moment.

I don't know if he is a good example of a pinstripe, or just pretty to me, but I am so pleased to have him home! Do any of you think he is pretty enough to breed? I am not sure about that, but I am considering breeding down the road. Not him necessarily, but some BPs.

Now for the pictures:

These first two give a good view of his coloring. Kind of. None of them are quite right.












And him deciding to rub against the side of his hide entrance. Kind of weird since he had more than enough room. lol Maybe he'll shed soon.



Right now he is undecided about coming out of the blue hide. He sticks his neck out a bit, then pulls it back in. He is sitting with just his head peeking out. His temperatures are still not quite right, but I will be fixing them as the day progresses. Right now they are in the mid to high 80's on the hot side, high 70's on the cool.


Thanks!

Draba

P.S. Just to address some of the concerns about the size, I am going to give it a try and if after settling in he still seems to stressed by the size, I will get a smaller temporary tank.

P.P.S. I took the tags off the plants after taking the pictures....

[jjmitchell]

congrats... nice pick up.. Welcome to the addiction

[A&S Reptiles]

He's gorgeous and your tank seems okay. I use a rack. But get him a smaller side. One small enough to where his body is touching all the sides. I think that's why he rubbed his side on it like that. "More than enough room" is no good for a ball. They like it tight and small (: Congrats and be prepared for the sudden urge to get more (;

Good luck!

[wendhend]

He's pretty! You don't typically find BP morphs in pet stores.... at least not where I live! Congratulations!

[DC Reptiles]

very nice pick up!!

[Lolo76]

He's gorgeous... definitely "breeding quality" IMO, and a great way to start a collection!

As for your setup, I'd only recommend changing two things... first you should bump up the temperatures a little, since they like it around 90-92 on the hot spot & 80ish for the ambient temps. Second, I have a feeling you won't like that reptile carpet (or whatever it's called). I tried using that with my geckos, and it was SUCH a pain to keep clean! I just use newspaper or paper towels with my BPs, but if you want real bedding go with Aspen or Carefresh. Nothing really wrong with the carpeting, it's just going to get yucky pretty quick.

[Lolo76]

Oh, and it also looks like a big tank for such a little guy... but as long as he eats and doesn't seem stressed (not constantly wandering or trying to escape), I wouldn't worry about it much. At least you won't need to upgrade when he grows!

[PitOnTheProwl]

Beautiful Pin as far as I am concerned!!

[ballpythonluvr]

Cute little snake!

[shorty54]

Nice pick up and as stated before, welcome to the addiction!