It definitely says something about the hardiness of these animals. I, too, purchased my 1st girl from Petco and took the advice of the reptile department worker who "could tell the gender by looking at its tail." Oh boy... I started out with a unregulated UTH, a heat lamp, dial gauges, and a half log. I was also feeding a 100+ gram snake mice pinkies. Thankfully I found this forum after owning her a whopping 5 days so she didn't have to suffer long. She laid 7 beautiful eggs for me this week. And she's still the sweetest, most pleasant snake in my collection.