Eleven progression (my first normal)

[rayman99]

Long time lurker here on the forum, and just got my first Ball, Eleven. Here’s a little rundown on the sequence of events since I adopted her.

-26 October 2019: She was shipped from somewhere in the US and arrived at PetsMart
-13 December 2019: According to Petsmart records, Last meal on this date; I don’t believe Petsmart keeps good records of Feeding or age.
-27 December 2019: Had gone to multiple petsmarts to look at BP’s and most looked good. Prior to adoption, I did a brief inspection for visible mites, my very first sexing (used popping method) and it appears to be a girl. On a side note, I think petsmart should have someone trained to sex the animals. After a satisfactory experience at this petsmart, I Adopted Eleven. Here’s the day I brought her home.


-30 December 2019: Weight 150 grams ( I waited 3 days to give some time to get accustomed to the house before weighing and handling.

-30 December 2019: Fed 2x 4g mouse Fuzzies. She destroyed these two mouse fuzzies. After doing some research tryst night I realized 2 mouse fuzzies was not enough. Still have a pack of mouse fuzzies in the freezer.

-3 January 2020: Fed 1x 18 gram adult mouse, took a video took her about 17 minutes to eat.



-3 January 2020: Weight 186 (I forgot to weigh before meal, so weighing was done a few hours after feeding)

-6 January 2020: eyes Blue (going into shed)


-6 January 2020: Bought some New Zealand Spagmoss and put in a humidity hide (Pyrex bowl with top), she spent about an hour in there before going back into the warm hide.







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[rayman99]

Prior to Bringing he home, I was fascinated by all the designer pythons (morphs) but after I got her home I found a real appreciation for the "normals". My next python will be a "normal" Carpet Python (I'm torn between diamond and jungle subspecies). I already found a very reputable breeder and now in the process of deciding and building an enclosure.

[Champ299]

Congrats on your first!! Glad to see your excited about it. They are addictive!!


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[Finn0208]

Glad you got her out of Petsmart, I worked there for two and a half years and it’s a terrible place, their snakes are not kept like they should be.....that’s why I have my ball. He is a pinstripe so he was considered fancy and no one would pay the money for him, I got attached so I took him. He is the best snake, best personality. Good luck with your new baby, can’t wait to see what you get next


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[rayman99]

Glad you got her out of Petsmart, I worked there for two and a half years and it’s a terrible place, their snakes are not kept like they should be.....that’s why I have my ball. He is a pinstripe so he was considered fancy and no one would pay the money for him, I got attached so I took him. He is the best snake, best personality. Good luck with your new baby, can’t wait to see what you get next


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Quick two questions for anyone but the first is primarily for Finn,
1) In your experience working at PetsMart, what is the average age of the Balls when they arrive at Petsmart. According to the chart they gave me she Arrived at petsmart on October 26, 2019. I don't really have a frame of reference on how snakes age and feature as they age. Would it be safe to assume she was approx a month old when she arrived at Petsmart?

2) I have been feeding her progressively larger food, primarily due to not knowing exactly how much she can take. I just bought a mouse that weighs quite a bit, about 48-50 grams, when the mouse is measured, it's about 1 and a quarter inch wide, Eleven is just short of 1 inch wide at her widest part. Do you think this weight difference is a big deal?

[rayman99]

Well I decided to go ahead and give her the 52 gram mouse, tried feeding it to her for about 10 minutes with no luck, she just kept balling up, and letting the mouse walk all over her, I then remembered last time I fed her, she didn't eat until the lights were off. I then dimmed the lights and within seconds the mouse was wrapped up. That was at 8:16 pm, 8:33 the mouse was gone and thanked for his sacrifice.

It was very fascinating to see her slowly but quickly stalk the mouse with the lights dimmed. The moment the lights were dimmed she started slowly approaching the mouse and that’s where it ended.

I can’t lie, feeding her something that’s larger than her head is gonna take some getting used to.
None the less, She's definitely got a full belly.




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[Bogertophis]

Looks like you're off to a successful start, though I highly recommend getting your beautiful python to eat pre-killed (either f/t or fresh killed) rodents only, for the
sake of her safety. Rodents can do a lot of damage, injure or even kill a snake if the snake hesitates or grabs wrong or just isn't hungry enough. I like the normal
ball pythons too...remember, that's what nature (natural selection) decided works the best too.

[rayman99]

Looks like you're off to a successful start, though I highly recommend getting your beautiful python to eat pre-killed (either f/t or fresh killed) rodents only, for the
sake of her safety. Rodents can do a lot of damage, injure or even kill a snake if the snake hesitates or grabs wrong or just isn't hungry enough. I like the normal
ball pythons too...remember, that's what nature (natural selection) decided works the best too.

Nonsense! If I can go hunt for my food, so can she. I’m Just kidding, that’s Understandable and makes perfect sense. I’d hate to have her get hurt.


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[Luvyna]

Beautiful girl! Sounds like she's doing well

[dakski]

Nonsense! If I can go hunt for my food, so can she. I’m Just kidding, that’s Understandable and makes perfect sense. I’d hate to have her get hurt.


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Mice tend to be less feisty than rats. Better to switch to F/T with mice and get her used to that before trying when switching to rats.

We are here to help with questions about F/T and eventually switching to rats.