Considering a blood next?

[shelliebear]

Currently, I own 3 ball pythons and 2 corn snakes, and have for almost 2 years.
I know I'm still a novice keeper, but I was considering in the next few years possibly getting a blood python. I've read that captive bred individuals can have very nice temperaments, but like any snake, I know they're all different. It depends on the snake itself.
Do you think it's a bad idea to go from balls and corns to bloods? Has anyone done it? What advice do blood keepers have about keeping your first one? Any tricks to use with bloods?
Thanks for the advice. Like I said, I'm not getting one tomorrow, just maybe in a few years.

[DNACurtusK]

Not a bad idea at all. You obviously are educated to know to do your research before aquiring one!

You will love them. Very rewarding to work with. It always depends on the individual of course, but for the most part these guys are just awesome temperment wise. Not a ball python by any means, but not the 'monsters' they are sometimes portrayed to be.

I'd reccomend talking with a few different reputable breeders before making a final decision. You want someone that will take the time to talk to you, and answer any questions you have. If you want decent temperments, be sure to purchase a captive hatched baby, not a farm bred one.

Everyone does things a little differently, but I keep all of mine in rubbermaid or sterilite containers right now (until I go all out and buy a nice rack system). With air holes of course. I use blue Scott paper towels as substrate, or newspaper. It's good to keep a water bowl in with them that is large enough for them to get their whole bodies in. This also helps with the humidity. We do not use heat pads because we have a room solely for the snakes, so we keep an ambient temp of 81-83 during the day, and 77-79 at night. (This will vary for everyone). Well, that's about all I can think of off the bat. I'm sure I missed something. Hope that helps anyway.

[Mike41793]

I would suggest visiting someone local to you that works with them to get an idea of what size adult snake you'd be dealing with. If you feel comfortable handling an adult then getting your own baby and raising it to that size will be easy peasy

[DooLittle]

How about a boa? I have no experience with bloods to help you with. But we just got a boa, and he is awesome.

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[Stewart_Reptiles]

Few years back I was asking myself the same question and what sold me was to get to see my friend's collection upclose and get to handle a large female.

Those are amazing animals do your research see if you can interact with larger individuals and I bet you will be sold too.

[DeathMetalMax]

Hey everyone I am Rachelles boyfriend Max. I was the one that really took a liking to the bloods at first after seeing some adults at a local shop and got Rachelle on the band wagon. We really want to get into keeping them in the near future, but like Rachelle/shelliebear said we're gonna have to wait a while because we are limited on space. A question I had though was, what size tubs would you need for a full grown blood python? I'm working on a rack for my balls right now, its a 6 41qt tub set up and I'm pretty sure a baby - juvenile blood python would do alright in one of the tubs but I know it wouldnt work for an adult, so I imagine you would need some pretty big tubs to house one of those fatties.:banghead:

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[dragonboy4578]

I love my bloods, and am looking to add another 1 or 3 in the near future...lol They are very different than ball pythons, but mine are not evil in any way. They can be a bit vocal, at least mine can be. They can be huffy when I pull them out, but calm down quickly. I can also say that their feeding response is unreal. As for tubs many people use tubs the size of Iris VE-175. I have mine in cb-70's right now because they are only around 750 grams, but when they get bigger I have a few 2'x4'x12" PVC enclosures.

[KatStoverReptiles]

My husband and I have one blood. He's about 1400g now. He's really my husband's snake but I do a lot of the cleaning/feeding. Lol He is very different from our balls, corns and boas. He's got his own ideas about how things should be done. Lol He's really really huffy and hissy. We had him in our rack with the balls until about a month ago when we moved him to his own tub which stays a bit cooler. Since then he's calmed down quite a bit. There's such varying info out there on their care but in this case keeping him a bit cooler (~80) seems to keep him happier. We haven't done a whole lot of handling him because he was quite unmanageable before we moved him (let's just say when you opened the tub he came out swinging) but now that he seems to tolerate cleaning and paper changes better I hope to start working with him to get him more used to being handled.

This is Stetson



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[DeathMetalMax]

Yeah I just love how they're fat and slow. Except for, like any snake, they strike pretty quick. Shellie and I have one semi-tank aggressive bp that likes to hiss and moan lol, but once you get him out he's fine. Correct me if I'm wrong, but what I'm getting from everyone that owns the bloods is that they can be pretty tank aggressive. I think that would scare some people off from owning them because well blood pythons have big mouths that can produce a big bite, but for me I just see it as another beast to conquer ....but that's just me and my primal logic.
Btw Stetson looks awesome, nice work

[Mike41793]

Hey everyone I am Rachelles boyfriend Max. I was the one that really took a liking to the bloods at first after seeing some adults at a local shop and got Rachelle on the band wagon. We really want to get into keeping them in the near future, but like Rachelle/shelliebear said we're gonna have to wait a while because we are limited on space. A question I had though was, what size tubs would you need for a full grown blood python? I'm working on a rack for my balls right now, its a 6 41qt tub set up and I'm pretty sure a baby - juvenile blood python would do alright in one of the tubs but I know it wouldnt work for an adult, so I imagine you would need some pretty big tubs to house one of those fatties.:banghead:

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I would say 4'x2'x1' would be perfect for an adult blood, male or female. A pvc enclosure is what im thinking.