What got you started/ addicted to Ball Pythons

[sp0420]

Just thought I'd ask for fun what got you all started and or addicted to ball pythons. For me it was a normal I called pete the snake re-homed from my girl friends sisters bf about 15 years ago. Never forget her lol.

Sean

[Igotsmallballs]

I’ve always wanted a bp. Always seemed like the situation wasn’t right or the person I was with hated snakes. So I convinced my better half who didn’t really want one in the house to let me have one.

Boy did her tune change once I started socializing it. She is now obsessed with them as am I.

Fast forward 14 weeks later. We now have 7 snakes 5 of them are bp’s. With another 3 coming in from a breeder all with different morphs. Our one normal will always be the baby though.

We recently decided to pump our brakes. Slow our roll and focus on just keeping the ones we have happy and healthy. We are also resisting the urge to buy older breeders as we feel we should gain more knowledge while the little ones grow. Although they are loving this humid Ohio summer.0

[cincy]

I got into it being scared of snakes, but loved animals. Was always into coral reef tanks. I started going to reptile shows monthly, and talking with breeders locally. Next thing you know I purchased a butter ball python, that has now turned into 5 bp's, and I have 2 racks now with room to grow lol!

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Seeing a Pied for the first time is what really did it, the only problem they were $10000 so at the time I bought a pair of hets for $1200 and made my own, and the rest is history.

[Luvyna]

Seeing Pied for the first time is what did it, the only problem they were $10000 so at the time I bought a pair of hets for $1200 and made my own, and the rest is history.

This is what happened to me as well. I don't believe in love at first sight lol but that's exactly what happened when I first found out about BPs (didn't even know they existed before that, the only pet snake I knew about was corn snakes), started watching YouTube videos about ball pythons, and saw a pied in one of Garrick DeMeyer's videos. That started me on the path of researching BPs in earnest, falling in love with the species, and deciding to get one.

The breeder I visited had a banana pied available at the time but I ended up liking an albino mojave the most and I've had him for over an year now. Still possibly looking to get a pied one day but not for a few years at least until I'm sure I can handle two and deal with potential feeding strikes with them both.

[lovepig78]

Seeing a Pied for the first time is what really did it, the only problem they were $10000 so at the time I bought a pair of hets for $1200 and made my own, and the rest is history.

I have a similar story... Saw a bumblebee... $15k..... and well... here were now.

[OoohShiny]

I've always liked snakes but been pretty wary around them - not really scared but just.... careful. My sister had them for years but I didn't handle them much because she didn't have friendly breeds. Last year my niece and I were watching Youtube videos and found a channel all about snakes, and we got hooked on watching them.

So last April I just decided to pull the trigger and got my lovely Ana Gwyn, my redhead pastel ball python girl. She is a TOTAL love, very easy to handle, my niece adores her. She's only about 6-8 months old and weighs about 280 grams, so she's still pretty small, but she's just a wonderful girl, so friendly and so much personality.

I love her so much that I got another one almost three weeks ago, a teeny little chocolate enchi I named Tonkatsu/Tonks. Tonks is much smaller than Ana Gwyn was when I got her, she's only about 70 grams, but she is a FIERCE eater (though pretty stupid, she likes to eat her mice butt-first) so I expect her to grow quickly. She's not as comfortable being held as Ana Gwyn is, but we're working on it, and she's more comfortable with my niece so my niece helps me by spending time with her once a week or so (the kid is an animal whisperer and wants to be a vet or a zookeeper). Oddly, even though Tonks is the shy one about being held, she's also the one who NEVER goes in her hide and actually shoves it off the UTH so she can lay on the warms but be out in the open. She'll also position herself on her stick and cosplay as an arboreal snake for an hour or so every few days. Silly snek.

I can definitely see myself turning one of my spare bedrooms into a "snake room" one of these days! I love ball pythons, but I'd really like to have a plains hognose, and some corns and garter snakes (I almost adopted one of Snake Discovery's red-sided garter babies that was just born with two kinks in its back, I was her second choice so I just barely missed out!). I'm pretty sure I'm addicted to snakes now, lol.

[christineho]

Love this prompt!

My 6th grade science teacher had all kinds of snakes in his classroom (sand boa, bp, brb, etc.) and used to let students come in before school started every few weeks to hold the snake while he cleaned the tanks. I went early every single time for the entire year! I was even bitten by the sand boa but it didn't deter my curiosity one bit. I had no idea there were so many morphs and as soon as I saw my first BEL, I fell in love. We now have a normal, banana, and BEL, and are hoping to add more once we get some more space!

[Imjustnicki]

I’m a first time poster here. As I was growing up I used to love going to pet stores and asking to hold the snakes. My local AW Brown pet store would always let me hold their ball pythons. I would always ask if I could get one but the answer was no. Fast forward to December 2019 where I won a $100 petsmart gift card. I wanted to buy cat food and at least try to be a responsible adult. But I left there with a snake, tank and mice, (please no hate I had no clue I was being a bad person for buying a pet store snake, yes I’ve been told I am). That one snake was all it took to start my addiction. Since that day I have gotten three more and I’m actively looking for a new one to breed with one of my females.

mom to

Koda-wild morph 9month old male
Korra- banana pastel (poss) spider 6month old Female
Ezri-wild morph 6 week old female
T’Pol-wild morph (rescue) 3 year old female

[Mr. Misha]

I always was fascinated reptiles and snakes as a child but parents weren't having it. So in my early 20's I walked into a reptile shop with my girlfriend (who is now my wife) and said that I need a commitment in my life . Ended up picking up a beautiful normal BP who was 2 months old at the time. 8 years later, I have a total of 5.