Quote Originally Posted by angllady2 View Post
I can understand your reluctance to feed live. I went through the exact same thing. My daughter raises pet rats that I play with daily for Pete's sake!!

However, over time, faced with feeding refusals and wasted frozen rodents that cost me money and stress and what not, I got over it.

By all means, search out a supplier of frozen rats, buy online if you must, just be prepared for outrageous shipping prices, and do what makes you comfortable right now.

I will give a bit of advice on F/T. If that rodent isn't HOT most snakes won't touch it. What I do is thaw the rodent at room temp for a few hours, submerge it in a thin stream of running hot tap water for 30 minutes, towel dry the rodent then dry it with a hair dryer. Once it's nice and dry and toasty warm, grip it with feeding tongs, heat JUST the head for about 30 seconds, then offer it.

Make sure you don't shove the rodent in the snakes face, I offer it on the opposite side of the tub from the snake. If you did things right, that rodent will be putting off a massive heat signature, which is how snakes hunt. And BAM! No more rodent.

Your girl is indeed thin, and you should step her up to at least rat pups ASAP. You new boy will need at least a week to relax and settle in before trying to feed him. Make sure you read and re-read the caresheets, because a 40 gallon tank is huge for one of those little guys, and you are going to need to be on your toes to make it an ideal home. By the way, even from your pictures I can tell your boy is almost certainly a fire. Fire's are a subtle morph, but he'll get more beautiful as he grows. If you want your mind blown, visit http://www.worldofballpythons.com/morphs and have a box of tissue's ready for the drool.

Gale
Iggy is in a 20L and seems happier.
[with all her hides, water bowl and whatnot, I don't know how she can move but she seems to like it better]

The 40 gallon was a bad choice in hindsight, purchased in reaction to other ball python information pages but this winter, with hubby's help, I'd like to make them a more appropriate free standing enclosure, somewhat like an "entertainment center" sort of thing but built to snake specifications.

For him, I bought new "furniture" [same as her generic PetCo/PetSmart stuff though...my selection is quite limited, here] cleaned out the tank and changed out the bedding, adding the new cypress bedding which I think looks grungy but they love.

All "her stuff" went into the 20L.
I bought yesterday but haven't put her new background up yet so she doesn't have her "visual security screen' going.
I searched everywhere, didn't find and can't remember where I got her turtle shell hide so he doesn't have one of his own.

He had no idea what a "hide" was as he's pretty much lived in a closed, barren drawer all of his life and now that the tank's cluttered up with all his "new junk", he's calmed down quite a bit.

Since he's figured out what his hide is for, he's been balled up in there during the day and came out to climb and roam a bit late last night much more calmly and curiously.
He seems to enjoy laying on the new resin "tree" he just got.
He doesn't move or act like he sees me when I go by so I think he's sleeping on it.

I bought two of them but Iggy's really not up to having that in her tank, yet.

[I also switched his light bulb from the red type to the black "moon" type]

For at least a week, I'm not doing anything with him except to monitor his breathing, general welfare, etc and change his water.

Iggy seems to have grown a little already because she's having a much harder time squeezing her whole self into her beloved paper towel tube.

They were out of rat pups so we got the larger mice instead.
Maybe next show....:-\

She's an eager eater [a little glutton, really] and I thawed at room temp/warmed up with hot water and she is fine with that.
She currently weighs 166 grams for a net gain of 32.

I will try the "hot head" hair drier trick for him since he's the 'difficult' one.
Sounds like a great idea...
It might even prompt Iggy's "aim" to improve as she just grabs *wherever* and starts to swallow.

I'm looking forward to him settling down so I can handle him some and find out what his personality really is.

Being a snake bought from a breeder who does this as a hobby/extra income, he's not been personally or regularly handled at all.
He was all "hugs and kisses" at the show after I got him out of the tiny display box he was in but now he's freaked out, I'm sure.

[I also think he was probably a bit chilled at the show...it wasn't very warm in the building and few people had any heat sources on their snakes]

He's very slippery and fast, trying to zip out of my hands and take off to who knows where.
[I had to change something in his house that required briefly removing him from it...that was intense]

I'm just going to let him chill out for a while.

Iggy immediately decided that she liked being a lap snake but I think he's possibly going to be less inclined.

I suppose that's normal considering he's gone from a year of being fed/watered/not handled to suddenly becoming a person's "pet".

Thanks for the website link...you're right....it's mind blowing and the snakes are gorgeous!
[drooooooool!]....