Rescued 2 abandoned BPs, what now?

[Coils]

Well, good question. I would like to keep them, or at least one of them. If I have to separate them, I'll probably just keep one. I don't want biters, however, so as long as that stops once they calm down and eat, I don't have a problem keeping one or maybe both.

And I think I'd rather go with onna_shinigami's suggestion on feeding frozen... I have pet rats, and it'd be difficult for me to feed them anything live. Every pet rat I've had has been a feeder. Any feeder rats I bring home would probably turn into pets, lol. Where is the best place to get frozen rats?

I know they can smell my rat, since they're both in the same room. Will that stress them out, since they're so hungry? I can move either the snakes or the rat to a different room if I need to.

Yes, feed frozen if you have to. At least give it a try first. If they are acting as hungry as you say then I am sure they would accept frozen/thawed. (f/t) I'm not sure if keep them in the same room as your rats is exactly stressful for them, but I -do- know that my boa tends to be very aggressive when she can smell her food dethawing in the same room. Maybe just move them to another room and see how it goes?

I myself get my frozen rodents over the internet, but I'm sure you can find them at a local petstore. Petco in my area has frozen rodents for sale. Call around and find out.

Most older ball pythons usually don't bite, but you don't know if these two were handled a lot either. There is no guarantee they will not be bitey if that's the case. You usually tame an anima, such as ball pythons, down over time with some decent handling. It'll all just take patients.

[Coils]

What is big enough? They both seem pretty big to me. I took a rough measurement of the smaller one last night, he/she is just about 3 feet, perhaps a couple inches longer. I posted a pic of them in my profile. There's just over 2 in. between each stripe on the bed (to give you something to judge their size by). Just curious, I'm not trying to breed them.

It's a matter of weight with the females. Generally I wait until the female is three years old or up to a good 1300-1400 grams. If you had a gram scale you could probably weigh them. Even when it comes to breeding though...you only pair them up for breeding season with breaks inbetween a certain number of days. They don't -live- together. It's just a rule that you shouldn't let ball pythons be housed together.

[ed4281]

If you plan on keeping them take a look at this caresheet

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...ius)-Caresheet.

It will help you decide what you need to get and will give you the basics of proper BP husbandry.

Good luck and thanks for taking them in.

[rabernet]

They COULD, but you might not want them breeding if they aren't big enough to do so. That's another issue all together right now. I say you still want to seperate them because it is stressful for either animal! If you want them to calm down and settle in...it's what would be best at this point.

As for food (since you got two answers) I recommend waiting a while also. They need to just rest a while alone and then maybe in a FEW days try offering a prey item to each. I recommend f/t myself. See if they readily take the food that way. Live can hurt the snakes otherwise...especially if they decide not to eat for you.

Live "might" hurt them, but is highly unlikely if you remove them after 30 minutes if they don't eat. I feed live exclusively (over 15K live feedings) and have never had an injury.

However, I encourage each keeper to feed what they are most comfortable with feeding.

I'm with the separate them group. There's no benefit in keeping them together.

[Joggers]

I will separate them then. I don't really want two containers, however, so once I decide on which one to keep, I think I'll try to rehome the second. I've got a friend who seemed interested.

[papa wyrm]

as far as breeding them, if one is female, they aren't all that big, they look around the 1000 gram mark or less, from what i can tell. can you upload another picture with something next to them for reference?
Definitely sewperate them out regardless. there optimum condition is alone except for a day or two at a time a few times during breeding season when they mate. as far as feeders, unless you can get someone to do it for you, or you order like 100 rats at a time, your probably gonna have to get your hands dirty, either by feeding them live or by somehow putting the rats down b4 you feed em to the snakes. wow that was a long sentence lol.
I've haven't been bitten by my snakes yet, but i keep them very well fed, and i watch for signs before handling them. if they are looking at me reared back...tensed up, the only thing i stick in the cage is food. but balls are really docile as far as snakes go. good luck with your new found companions!!

[Powerspythons]

Where are you located? I'm sure someone on here would take whichever one you dont want off your hands..or both.. especially if they're females! haha

[angllady2]

I think once you get them separated and give them several days to de-stress, you'll be surprised at how calm they become.

Right now you have no idea how long they were left to fend for themselves or anything else about them, it seems to me if the previous owners were cruel enough to just leave them behind, they weren't interested in proper care for them. Especially with snakes that large, keeping them together is very stressful and is not helping their moods one bit.

If it is easy to move your rat to another room, you can give that a try to help with the transition for them both. I recommend separating them first, waiting a few days and then offering food.

Gale

[Coils]

Live "might" hurt them, but is highly unlikely if you remove them after 30 minutes if they don't eat. I feed live exclusively (over 15K live feedings) and have never had an injury.

However, I encourage each keeper to feed what they are most comfortable with feeding.

I'm with the separate them group. There's no benefit in keeping them together.

Yes, I said it CAN hurt them. Not all have had a problem with live, but I, from personal experience, have. Even when I didn't LEAVE the rat in the cage without being watched ( i would never walk away).

Sometime a wrong strike thought can still leave the rat plenty of biting room until they are squeezed to death. Either way I don't think you'd want any wounds whether they be big or small. I just think giving that this person has little to no experience....try f/t first if they want to see if they'd even eat.

[rabernet]

Yes, I said it CAN hurt them. Not all have had a problem with live, but I, from personal experience, have. Even when I didn't LEAVE the rat in the cage without being watched ( i would never walk away).

Sometime a wrong strike thought can still leave the rat plenty of biting room until they are squeezed to death. Either way I don't think you'd want any wounds whether they be big or small. I just think giving that this person has little to no experience....try f/t first if they want to see if they'd even eat.

I'm sorry to hear that you had a personal bad experience.

We just don't ever want to become a forum that advocates that live is better than f/t or that f/t is better than live. We advocate that each keeper educates themselves on the different methods and then decides for themselves what works best for them.

I had zero experience when I got my first ball python and fed live. But I also did a lot of forum lurking before I got my first snake and read how to introduce live prey safely.

The OP decided that he was more comfortable with feeding f/t and that's awesome!

My only point in speaking up was so that others who may read this would have the counter information that live feeding isn't inherently dangerous when done correctly. Even IF I'd had 10 injuries in those 15K live feedings - that makes my personal risk of injury in my sample, .00066% - which is pretty darn low.