New to ball pythons

[Kaskadian]

Hi everyone,

My name is Patrick. I'm 24, and I've been keeping snakes/reptiles for around 18 years.

I was keeping Burmese pythons before my work abroad meant that I had to get rid of my snakes. It was heart breaking but ultimately it had to be done at the time.

I'm back and settled in the states, and decided I wanted to get into ball pythons. I like the ease of care/housing/feeding. My Burmese girls ate like pigs and would eat a large rabbit every week if I offered it. I wouldn't feed a large rabbit every week, but you get the picture.

Anyway, I now own 3 young ball pythons that are all amazing. I plan to slowly grow the collection and get into breeding in the next few years. I'll add a few baby pics for you awesome folks.

Thanks for having me!
Patrick



The gal in the pictures is my little female "Amina".


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[DooLittle]

Welcome! Enjoy your stay.

[George1994]

Welcome to the forum Hope ya like it! Very cute snake by the way!

[Mr. Misha]

Welcome to the forum!

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[Kaskadian]

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone! I'm in the process of finding out what these little guys want to eat. They rejected f/t mice yesterday. Hot side is 91 cool is 82. I'll chalk it up to being moved recently. I'll give baby f/t baby rats next. If they don't like that.. I guess I'll try feeding live (which I really don't like to do for the snakes safety).


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[satomi325]

Welcome!
What a cutie you have there.


Feeding live is OK if done responsibly.
You'll find that most of us here feed live.

And since you have little guys, feeding live baby rats should be no issue. They're harmless. Its the adult rats you have to keep an eye out for.
Try feeding live a few times and see if they'll eat if your husbandry is on oar. Once they become more consistent eaters, then try the f/t.

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[Kaskadian]

Welcome!
What a cutie you have there.


Feeding live is OK if done responsibly.
You'll find that most of us here feed live.

And since you have little guys, feeding live baby rats should be no issue. They're harmless. Its the adult rats you have to keep an eye out for.
Try feeding live a few times and see if they'll eat if your husbandry is on oar. Once they become more consistent eaters, then try the f/t.

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Thanks very much for the comments and advice!

I picked up a live mouse (a bit small, but a test since they just rejected food yesterday), and will give that a try tonight. If they seem to respond better to live food than I'll make the switch. I'm doing some research now on the best methods to feeding live. I've always fed F/T mice/rats/guinea pigs/rabbits with my Burmese, so this is a new process for me. I'm a bit nervous about the mouse chomping down on my snake, so I'll be there to monitor the process with a chopstick ready to put in the mouse's mouth.

Cheers,
Patrick

[Zedd]

Welcome! Definitely a beautiful snake!

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[NH93]

Beautiful little snake, and such a cute picture!!

I definitely prefer feeding f/t myself. If you are trying live, it would be better to go with a rat versus a mouse (in my opinion) if you are worried about injuries, simply because the rat will be younger and more defenseless than a mouse of the same size.

[Reptile Frenzy]

Welcome to the forum and the ball python world! I hate feeding live also... Some of our snakes dont exactly nail it on the head so when they wrap it the rodent will actually start chewing on the snake and then I have to intervene and get the mouth away from the snake. I say about 90% of our balls eat F/T but some take live. One of those things you can get around.