Identity crisis!

[Salamander Rising]

So, the wonderful little slithery dude I fell in love with 2 weeks ago turns out to be a dudette!

Total paradigm shift....my reality is forever altered...I've been head faked...shell shocked...freaked out!

Anyway, gender-bending psychological parameter shifts aside, what can I expect from having a python princess?

I've read that they get somewhat larger than males but what about the whole ovulation deal?

If not bred, will they simply reabsorb?

Temperament differences, if any?

[Should I remove the skull and put lacy curtains and doilies in her habitat?]



The snake shop guy also said she's about 6-8 months old, has not been fed large enough food for her whole life and even though she'd already eaten 2 fuzzy mice last night, he whacked a grown mouse which she promptly inhaled as though she'd been on a year long fast.

[I had no idea she could gag down anything that big]

He only feeds live due to a bad supplier ruining his business with contaminated mice years ago but will pre-whack and pack frozen mice for me.

He will not sell me rats yet...says he will tell me when she's ready and expressed an opinion that 'scaring' her with a rat might make her a classic non-eater python.

[which I personally can't fathom happening, given her current gluttonous ways but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt for her sake]

He let me hold a gorgeous adult pastel.

[I never wanted to let go but I didn't have $400 bucks to let go of, either]......


What are the odds of getting a gal python at PetCo?

Whatever they are, I reckon I beat them.

I really can't get used to saying "she", yet.

He had some really huge "not for sale" snakes in that place.

A 16 foot Burmese.

OMG.

It looked like a fire hose coiled up....I couldn't see where it ended.

[Jessica Loesch]

I'm guessing your odds of getting a female ball python at petco is about 50%

My first was a girl too.

They don't separate em, or sex em.


Grats by the way.

[mpkeelee]

The only difference is size. Females usually do get a bit larger but not so large u should worry. If she develops follicles she will reabsorb them unless bred. Temps and everything else is the same. When she's an adult she will need a bigger enclosure than a male would need. So enjoy her, if she has a male name u like then keep it, she still isn't going to listen to u LOL

[Simplex]

Any idea on her weight? My hatchinglings eat small adult mice. After 2-3 feedings. No way a 6-8 month should be on hoppers. And if she is it would be 6-8 per feeding. Id go with the rats. Find another supplier for feed. Dont understand why someone wouldnt sell u one. That doesnt really make much sense.

[Salamander Rising]

I'm guessing your odds of getting a female ball python at petco is about 50%

My first was a girl too.

They don't separate em, or sex em.


Grats by the way.

OMG...the PetCo folks must either be goofy or or running a disinformation scam.

They said it was 'most likely male' as the females are usually kept as breeders and are more 'valuable'.

My head is still spinning...LOL

The snake store has an awesome big "normal" male for $89 but his colors are very drab.

Iggy [or whatever her name will be] is very colorful.
Her splotches are a golden caramel against a black background whereas the male in the store was sort of -light-brown-on-dark brown.

Will she retain her colors or do they all go "camo" when they grow up?

Thanks for the 'grats...I can't believe what I've been missing all these years.

I used to routinely go snag snakes from the woods and fields as a kid but always only kept them a few days and then took back to their wild homes.

This is my first "forever snake" and I'm not ashamed to admit I'm addicted.

I'm already picturing the spare bedroom upstairs stacked with boxes with a full spectrum of BP morphs in them.....LOL

[I think I've contracted Python Fever!]

[Salamander Rising]

The only difference is size. Females usually do get a bit larger but not so large u should worry. If she develops follicles she will reabsorb them unless bred. Temps and everything else is the same. When she's an adult she will need a bigger enclosure than a male would need. So enjoy her, if she has a male name u like then keep it, she still isn't going to listen to u LOL

Thanks...I was really worried about the whole "hormonal cycle thing".

She already has a 40 gallon breeder tank so space shouldn't be any issue for her later on.

I haven't decided whether to change her name or not.

I know the sound of my voice does prompt her to poke her head out of her turtle shell hide [thereby making her look like the scrawniest tortoise on earth] but I'm not saying anything to her, in particular.


As far as her actually doing anything I ask her to, I gave up on that about 2 hours after I got her......

[Salamander Rising]

Any idea on her weight? My hatchinglings eat small adult mice. After 2-3 feedings. No way a 6-8 month should be on hoppers. And if she is it would be 6-8 per feeding. Id go with the rats. Find another supplier for feed. Dont understand why someone wouldnt sell u one. That doesnt really make much sense.

My craptastic Oneida digital food scale said [as of yesterday, pre-adult-mouse meal] that she weighed 134 grams.

That seems much too light, to me.

She has no "bulk" whatsoever.
[she really seems more like 'teen' rat snake than a python, body-wise]

The PetCo people predicted Dire Consequences if I dared to give her larger food.

[an inverted rectum, to be precise, as per an anecdote about a particular snake in the employee's care]

I totally agree with you about the rats.

Of all the info I've absorbed in 12 short days, everyone is in universal agreement on the superiority of rats as food.

His "reasons" were many and complex; 'spoiled/salmonella plague frozen rodents/snake colony wipe-out" many years ago'.
[times have changed, suppliers have vastly improved, I'm sure]
"Frozen rodents come from labs".
[not so for the reputable suppliers]
"Frozen rodents 'go bad' after a very short time..."3 weeks" and they're "no good any more".
[I doubt that....frozen meat is frozen meat, IMO]

She might eat frozen *now* but "something will "put her off her food" and I'll have to resort to live food or she'll die, in the future.
[she's a very willing, even greedy eater!]

He was really, really dead-set against them.

He had hubby totally convinced until I offered to forward him many pics of snakes mangled/killed by their ersatz "suppers".

I have 3 small but uppity female pet rats and I had to move their "condo" around the corner from Iggy because they were scoping her out with That Look on their faces.
I know they would've shredded her, given half the chance.

I should put something like that in with my poor little gal, alive?

I don't think so.

There are garter snakes, milk snakes, ring neck snakes and small rat snakes everywhere here....you can't tell me they're surviving on the odd litter of mouse pups they might find *whenever*.

Iggy wasn't even on hoppers..I was sold fuzzies.
These things didn't even have their eyes open yet and couldn't hop anywhere.
They were tiny!
No wonder she'd keep looking around for more mice after I'd "push the boundary" and feed her 2 of them.

Ack!

Why can't pet store employees know something about the pets they sell?

I'm going to Repticon tomorrow.

I'm sure somebody there will have rat pups for sale....I hope.

[Jessica Loesch]

IT could be that your petco gets balls from a breeder, but I still don't think they would be separating out females. If they are breeding, they most likely don't care 2 squats about female normals

[rabernet]

Both store's employees sound like typical pet store employees that really don't know as much as they'd like you to believe that they know.

I feed all of mine live, even hatchlings. Live rats, not stunned or knocked out. I've never had one injured - and I even feed off retired breeder rats to my largest breeder females.

I was fed the line "females are more valuable to breeders than males, so there are not females in the pet trade" line by a small mom/pop store near me, yet he has females (he doesn't know how to sex, and for the longest would not allow me to sex them, because I'd "sterilize" them by sexing them - funny how I haven't sterilized any of my breeders! LOL).

Most breeders aren't keeping female normals, because they're replacing them with morph females. Most of us will wholesale our normals to pet stores, males and females.

That is extremely light if her age is correct, though I'm not sure how Petco knows what the age is, considering their supply are captive hatched animals imported from Africa, and not supplied by local breeders. They cost Petco less than $10 a head.

Feed what you're comfortable feeding, but don't be scared off by the horror stories of feeding live. Most of the pictures you've seen are a result of an irresponsible keeper putting live prey in with their snakes for days, with no food or water for the rodent, so they eat the only thing available to them - the snake, if the snake has refused to eat them.

I've fed off over 15K live prey - mice, rats - none of mine have been maimed or killed by their food. If I felt that my collection was in jeopardy by feeding live, I would not feed live, as I have some nice critters in my collection, and I wouldn't put them at risk, if I believed it to be true. My personal experience demonstrates otherwise.

My hatchlings are started on rat fuzzies, and moved up rather quickly to rat pups, then small rats.

Congrats on your ball python - we need pictures though!

[mommanessy247]

nothing irks me more then that person that spews nothing but nonsense about how "feeding live prey is horrible, wrong & evil!" you have to feed what your snake will eat, simple as that.
my mojo girl will ONLY eat live & if offered dead she looks at me like "hey i did not kill that so dont expect me to eat it." i swear she turns her nose up at it as if i've insulted her somehow. so that "feed f/t or pre killed prey only" thing is a load of crock for those that have animals that will only take live.
now lemme clarify those that are successfully feeding f/t or prekilled, awesome & i hope you continue having success doing so but for me i'm stuck with what my girl will take. in fact she just ate today after not having eaten for a month & i had to go down to very young rat pups, crawlers with their eyes still closed. my snake ate the 1st one but now i have to hand feed the 2nd little one for anther 2 weeks before i offer it again.
granted my snake has not been bitten by a rat yet but there have been a couple that have gotten defensive & 1 pounced on my snake's head & she didnt eat for 3 weeks cuz of that. i watch her feedings VERY closely & once i sit down to start a feeding i dont leave from that spot until she's either done & retreated to a hide to digest, if she's eaten. i only leave the rat in long enough for the snake to decide if she's gonna eat it & the second she shies away from it i promptly remove the rat, that way the rat doesnt have time to think about getting defensive or aggressive towards my snake.
about prey size though, the general rule of thumb is the prey should be slightly smaller then or equal to the size of the thickest part of the snakes body but preferrably the slightly smaller. my girl only takes prey smaller then her thickest part & i'm fine with that as long as she just eats. this having to get very young pups thing was only done cuz its been so long since she last ate & i had to go small so as to not overwhelm her system. i'll have to work her back up to weaned rats or the smallest of the smalls again, which is what she was taking before she went on this month long no feeding thing. i'm fairly able to correctly visually gauge the sizes of rats i need, for the most part.
so again, dont fall into that fear trap that those store employees like to throw you into. you do what you have to do with whatever your snake chooses to take & stick to it. your doing what you have to do to care for your pet & no one has the right to tell you what your doing is wrong.