Well I'm not only new to this forum, but new to snakes as well. I recently purchased a young female Pastel as pictured in my Avatar. I did a lot of research before I bought my first snake. First off I knew that I didn't want a huge adult Boa, or even a Retic. The balls just seemed like a great place to start.

I just ordered "The Complete Ball Python" and look forward to reading it. Until it gets here I'll probably be asking general care questions that I can't find answers to on my own. It seems that I've already run into contradictions, so I guess I'll take the advice of the breeder I went to. "Just because it works for a guy in Florida, doesn't mean it'll work for the guy in California. They're just too different of environments." Makes since to me.

I may or may not start breeding, but I figure I have a year to decide before I need to get a male. As everything I have read indicates that the females sexually mature about a year after males.

Well Happy Herping.