Ball Pythons and Cake

[thejennabird]

I'm relatively new and don't know if this has been discussed before. But it's a slow day and I thought I'd express some thoughts. Forgive me if this is posted in the wrong forum, and mods feel free to move!

A friend asked me the other day why I bothered to answer ball python husbandry questions. My first reaction was "Well, if the questions were easy to answer and helpful to other people, why not?" But then I thought about it a little more and this is what I came up with:

Ball Python husbandry is like baking a cake. Most members here know the BEST recipe or two for making a cake. If you follow this recipe exactly, you'll get the perfect cake. (Of course, you can customize it slightly, such as which frosting or flavor to use, but it's the same basic recipes)

Unfortunately there are lots of people out there who don't know the perfect recipe. They come here complaining "Why isn't my cake a cake?! What went wrong?!" We ask them: "Well... what recipe did you use?", they tell us their recipe, we compare it against ours and point out the obvious issues: "You used baking powder instead of baking soda", "You didn't bake the cake at the proper temperature", "The recipe called for 2 cups sugar and you added 4"... It's easy to tell where someone strays from the recipe!

After that, it's only a matter of getting them to fix it. (Though, sometimes it's easier just to give them the whole recipe and hope they follow it next time) There will always be those people who, when you tell them "You tried to bake your cake in a dutch oven, when you should have used a cake pan." respond "But I love dutch ovens! I want to use them for all my cakes!". I personally know that dutch ovens CAN be used to make cakes, and sometimes those cakes are quite good, but ultimately dutch ovens weren't made to bake cakes, so it's a lot harder to get a good result.

In short, unlike the really challenging issues in life (like which males and females to pair next breeding season, and what to have for dinner tonight), ball python husbandry is easy to troubleshoot. Sure the problems can be compounded by egos, sharp tongues, sarcasm, bad grammar and run-on sentences. While other snakes might be comparable to "easy" recipes like soup or pancakes, baking(/ball pythons) are a complex recipe that requires a bit more effort and precision to get right. But once everyone is following the recipe to a T, the results are satisfying!*

Which gets to the root of the issue: how do we get everyone to follow the recipe exactly from the very start?

* Thejennabird does not advocate the consumption of ball pythons as cake.

[angllady2]

You know, I like your analogy.

Problem is with so many cake recipes all over the internet, heck even on Pintrest alone, people tend to just re-pin and re-pin and share the recipe, without ever actually baking the cake to make sure the recipe works.

Honestly, I guess the best we can do is to make sure our proven and tested recipe gets posted whenever we can, and make sure people know that it actually has been baked in kitchens all over the world, and it does work.

Gale

[thejennabird]

Good point about the Pinterest issue! Perhaps we should start a positive reinforcement campaign. Clean shed? New snake feeding regularly? Here, have a piece of delicious cake!

[Spoons]

What about Burmese Pythons? Can they be eaten as cake?

[calmolly1]

I like the analogy....and it reminds me of my husband baking a cake. He quickly reads through the recipe (maybe but like all men doesn't think he needs to read the directions lol) then gets out the ingredients and throws them in no particular order and only approximate weights, and wonders why it's terrible.

It's easy to read something, totally misunderstood the point, and mess it up completely! I found after a year of research, reading everything I could get my hands on, and still do, I had no idea how to apply the information in the right order or measurements. I mean who knew setting a thermostat to measure 90 was so hard?


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