Tell me about your first BP!

[onthefritz]

I bought my first guy a couple of months ago at repticon in Chattanooga, TN. He was a 3 week old male calico. When I bought him and all of my supplies everyone at that place told me that I would be back... I kept saying "no, no one is all I want." Everyone's response was along the lines of "That's what I said too but they're like potato chips... you cant have just one."

Im planing on picking up a second at the Nashville Repticon in November... guess they were right

Tell me about your guys' snakes that started it all! Do you still have them?

[somnambulant]

The first snake that actually got me interested in ball pythons was my suite mate's (we had separate rooms that were connected by a bathroom, I had a roommate, she did not) during freshman year of college. She bought a baby ball python from Petsmart, though looking back, it was a terrible idea. She used a back heating pad (the kind for humans to put on their back) that she had to turn back on every 20 minutes inside of the enclosure, didn't have a sliding lock cage (which meant that a few times he actually got out of his little cage), and to top it all off, our on-campus housing agreements prohibited us from having any kind of pet. We weren't even allowed to have fish bowls. Long story short, she got busted with it and had to re-home him. Luckily, she was able to re-home him to someone she knew and they still keep in touch today. He's still alive and well, and is probably around 6 years old now. He was super sweet and ever since then, I wanted one.

A little while ago, I worked for a child care program that also ran an exotic wild rescue. Unfortunately, the rescue was hemorrhaging too much of the program's funds and it had to be shut down, so staff adopted most of the animals. I adopted my normal female, Isis, from there. I had met her a couple months earlier when they brought her to teach the children about ball pythons and I knew she was the one I wanted! My husband had originally said no about getting a ball python because he thought the snake would eat his ferret, so we actually went to adopt a tarantula, but they were all gone. I asked if Isis was still around, they let me hold her, and bam! I couldn't put her back! My husband thought she was "sooo dope!" and wanted her almost as badly as I did. Now my husband is super into reptiles and feels silly about thinking they'd eat the ferret

Even though she is the only normal/non-morph BP I have, she is my princess! She's just the sweetest thing, especially after being used as an 'ambassador' to teach children about reptiles.






In a tree with my husband. My husband actually has the argus monitor up there with him, haha.

[Philip451]

My fiancee works as a Vet tech in an emergency clinic. One evening, a building superintendent shows up with a normal female ball in a shoebox. she's about 200g.
He says, he was working in the laundry room, and found her behind a washer. He wanted to surrender the animal. To be more accurate, I am told he said, take it, or I'm throwing it in the dumpster.

So, The (then) GF, brings her home, and I (having no experience with reptiles at this point) Said, ok, fine, she can stay with us until you find her a home. I wouldn't even hold her, I just wasn't used to the idea if a friendly snake (I'd grown up with garters, and other, "less than friendly" species)
Well, We've had her for years now, and she's an absolute moose. We will never breed her, and she's our special girl. If we have to give them all up and abandon the hobby, she'll still stay.


Here she is, one of the first times i was convinced to hold her.

[albinos_rule]

My first one was "MEAN" and no I don't have him any longer

[Sammiebob]

My first was actually in June of this year, and this year is my magical year of "oh hey look shiny!" And as of this year I have gotten 6 animals, three being ball pythons, one tegu, and two uromastyx. One was a deformed baby and I rescued him but he did not make it, and passed away a few days ago. Anyways, my first were actually two at the same time, I got them off of a lady on craigslist who was housing them TOGETHER in a 50 gallon tank with a reptile floor mat on one side and about 7-9 inches of DIRT!!! Can you believe it?? They weren't completely infested with mites but it was fairly obvious. I mean, it's sort of expected from a lady on CL, but come on. It looked like she didn't even clean their cage. Oo and underneath the dirt? ROTTEN CARDBOARD! Well luckily they are doing very very well as of now and one of them is doing so well that she gets to be bred to my male breeder pinstripe that I got a few months ago. I'm super glad that I got them because they are total sweethearts. They're thriving now 💜

[queenelvis82]

I got my first BP in February this year. She has been a great pet. However, she did have some feeding issues in the summer, but she is now on small rats. It does take some coaxing to get her to eat (about 10 minutes of reheating the rat and presenting it to her.) Not sure if that is normal, but she does eat them and is a healthy snake.

The breeder gave me a hell of a deal on her. Gozer is a caramel albino morph and he sold her to me for 100 dollars! She has amazing patterns and her colors are vibrant. Her personality is very sweet and calming and she tolerates being handled quite well.

I don't plan on getting another pet because this responsibility is just enough to fit in with my lifestyle. Sooo glad I decided on getting a Ball Python for a first pet!

[Masonic]

My first Bp I got a week before thanksgiving in 2012 she was just a het. albino girl. In about the summer of 2013 she had got out and I knew exactly where she was (in our air ducts). I tore it all apart with no luck, I was crushed thought she would be gone forever. I never had the heart to put anything in her enclosure and one day I went in to check my snakes and she was sitting right on top of her enclosure.

[Darkbird]

Lol, my first ball was actually a buddies that he got without asking his mothers permission first, so after a short time it got evicted and he asked if it could stay at my house. That was when it first dawned on me that I could have those kind of pets now. You see, my dad was one of those old "the only good snake is a dead snake" guys, and thought turtles were only good for soup, not pets. But now I had my own place, and my own rules. So I let the snake stay with me, and that one ball python sparked a passion that has led to a hobby that I've enjoyed for over 20 years now. Although I never really had much of a passion for balls, when I started going to shows a lot again a coulle years ago and saw all the different morphs, I got hooked. And now I have a bunch, lol.

[C2tcardin]

My first was a Normal I bought around 1989 after graduating high school, sadly it died a few months after I got it. I was told by the seller that they could go months between eating sometimes so when he didn't eat for several weeks I thought it was normal behavior, my suspicion now was that he had a RI or some other ailment that I didn't know about. I toyed with the idea of getting back into snakes over the years but my first wife was terrified of them, then work and moving around and life in general intervened. Now today we have 8 because initially my 8yo son kept catching local snakes, skinks, and anoles and wanted to keep them but we didn't have a proper tank or viv to house them in. Then last christmas we bought him a tank for keeping anoles and skinks in and that eventually turned into a normal BP we bought at the local Petco. This time I was determined to not have him die on me so I got a bunch of books and read everything I could find online too. Once we learned about all the different morphs and we went to a local reptile show we were all hooked including my current wife who loves reptiles.

[CloudtheBoa]

The first snake that actually got me interested in ball pythons was my suite mate's (we had separate rooms that were connected by a bathroom, I had a roommate, she did not) during freshman year of college. She bought a baby ball python from Petsmart, though looking back, it was a terrible idea. She used a back heating pad (the kind for humans to put on their back) that she had to turn back on every 20 minutes inside of the enclosure, didn't have a sliding lock cage (which meant that a few times he actually got out of his little cage), and to top it all off, our on-campus housing agreements prohibited us from having any kind of pet. We weren't even allowed to have fish bowls. Long story short, she got busted with it and had to re-home him. Luckily, she was able to re-home him to someone she knew and they still keep in touch today. He's still alive and well, and is probably around 6 years old now. He was super sweet and ever since then, I wanted one.

A little while ago, I worked for a child care program that also ran an exotic wild rescue. Unfortunately, the rescue was hemorrhaging too much of the program's funds and it had to be shut down, so staff adopted most of the animals. I adopted my normal female, Isis, from there. I had met her a couple months earlier when they brought her to teach the children about ball pythons and I knew she was the one I wanted! My husband had originally said no about getting a ball python because he thought the snake would eat his ferret, so we actually went to adopt a tarantula, but they were all gone. I asked if Isis was still around, they let me hold her, and bam! I couldn't put her back! My husband thought she was "sooo dope!" and wanted her almost as badly as I did. Now my husband is super into reptiles and feels silly about thinking they'd eat the ferret

Even though she is the only normal/non-morph BP I have, she is my princess! She's just the sweetest thing, especially after being used as an 'ambassador' to teach children about reptiles.






In a tree with my husband. My husband actually has the argus monitor up there with him, haha.

What a sweet story! Glad she's got a forever home with you!

I still have my first snake, my 8 year old normal ball python named Bud. I got him as a late birthday gift when I turned 12. Being so young and having a naive father, I admit he wasn't the best cared for. But I shaped up my act when I got Cloud 5 years later, Bud trucking it through my ignorant phase with nothing worse than years of bad sheds which have been fixed for 3 years now (thank goodness) and maybe being a bit on the smaller side (3.5ft). I got him from a pet store called Pet Supermarket I believe, and at the time they claimed he was wild caught and had mites. He didn't have the demeanor of a wild caught, and didn't have any mites. The past two years the infamous ball python strikes have begun, I assume from moving stress as I've moved 3 times in the past 2 years, and I'm still looking to move again. Hopefully permanently for awhile. He's now back to eating like a champ after an 8 month strike (he's been eating for 1 or 2 months now), and even pokes his head out in an s-curve if I so much as enter the room so I hope this sticks. haha

He isn't the snake that sparked my addiction, but he's definitely got a forever home here with me, if I have any say about it!