Hey there everyone!

I'm a newcomer to the world of BPs, and I'm not leaving! I went to my very first reptile convention (Repticon in Texas), and after looking at every animal at least twice, the hubby and I decided to go home with a sweet normal female. I had been absorbing information about BPs and snakes in general for the past couple of months prior, and after playing with the husbandry a little, Kira was home! I know it's kind of lame to just have a normal, but really she is so pretty, and I'm a solid believer that there's no such thing as an ugly ball python.

I left her alone for the first week (besides picking her up a little bit before then to check for mites), and then it was time to feed her. The vendor had been feeding all of their animals live fuzzies, so I went to the feed store and picked out possibly the cutest little rat I'd ever seen, along with some frozen fuzzies because I planned on switching her to F/T. I was worried that she wouldn't eat on account of potentially bad husbandry or stress, but she killed and ate without a problem!

48 hours after I fed, I handled her a bit and she was NOT happy... hissed, made a show, kinda made an S shape so I left her alone until she had fed successfully twice, just to make sure that she was happy in her enclosure. The week passed and I tried thawing a frozen fuzzy, again worried that she wouldn't eat because I'd heard how difficult it can be to switch your BP from live to F/T... but after dangling for just a few seconds, she ate without any problems whatsoever!!

I just wanted to share my experience as a new owner, and maybe tell my story of the first couple of weeks and get some pointers about what I should be doing differently, etc. I am now handling Kira for about 10 minutes a day (48 hours after eating and watching for signs of shed, of course), and she is to the point where she will accept handling without hissing or making a show. This post might be boring to some, since I can't even post pictures, but I'm just so proud of my little danger noodle!! It's so difficult for me to find people who want to hear about Kira without wanting to kill her!