So today I was at Petsmart and they had cut the reptile prices once again. The ball python up for grabs was marked $49.99. I glanced in at him and he is a very teeny thing. My guess would seriously be 40 grams, if that. What was unusual about him was that he had a very gray appearance. I asked to see him, and as I suspected, he was in shed. But beneath the shed he had a curious lack of pigment to his sides, which made him appear gray. I don't know if this is a health issue or just because he was so young.

Is there a way to tell how much normals will darken as they grow? Could it be an indication of poor health? Should I forget the teeny ball python with the bad shed? Hehe.

I think I may start photographing all the normals I come into contact with and try to categorize them by their variations. Perhaps someone has done this already. I have seen some wonderful "normal piles" photos. They can be very helpful in teaching just how different normal ball pythons can bee from each other.