This is my baby, Marvolo. I bought him from Norm over at Dino Reptiles (Great guy. He tricked my dad into thinking ball pythons grow 14 feet in length ) on June 14th. I decided I would handle him today.


From what is seen here, he's got some purdy eyes.


ANYWAY. While I was under the infamous trance admiring his stunning charm and dashing good looks, he flipped over on his belly momentarily.


And what?! A slit? On the belly?!

Of course my initial reaction consisted of screaming "What the HELL is that?"

I had seriously thought I had managed to burn the poor guy. I went straight to his tank, checked my thermometres and went on a massacre with my handy temp gun. I have his heating pad controlled by a dimmer switch (currently in the works of getting my filthy hands on a thermostat, by the way!) but still thought anyway that it was running like a million degrees. I thought I was about to have a heart attack as I couldn't seriously figure out what was wrong and how he possibly could have burned himself with. I don't think I had ever hated myself more than I did at that point for possibly being careless enough to let my new pet cook itself. So then, I logged onto this site and immediately sent pictures and info to the one and only dr del.


...who told me I was crying over Marvolo's bellybutton.
I had thought that the slit on his belly was a burn or scale rot. Something as ridiculous sounding as a bellybutton had not crossed my manic mind at the time. I'm sure at least some of you have had these kinds of scares, haha. Or at least I will think that to make myself feel a little less stupid...>.>

Anyway, here he is. Meet Marvolo the little normal male and my first ball python. "Mad props" as all the hip children say, to anyone who got the Harry Potter reference.



Thanks for looking. I hope anyone who doesn't own a snake yet remembers this little tale!