Why do some reptile enthusiasts have a problem with ball pythons.

[Skiploder]

I'm guilty at making fun of ball pythons and the mutant, errr morph craze. Never saw the point in buying a snake for $2500 that will be worth $400 in a few years. Seems like a ponzi scheme to me. It's not a reflection on the animals as much as the culture surrounding them.

It's good natured, but for a lot of "serious" people in the hobby who are focused on locality variants and the like, ball pythons represent the foo foo poodle culture of the reptile world.

I personally love ball pythons, they make fat, nutritious and tasty snacks for my drys. They come in yummy flavors like toffee, banana, cinnamon, lemon, caramel, champagne, orange blast, butter, pie(d), vanilla, candy, chocolate, citrus, leche, mimosa. etc. etc. My drys appreciate the many different flavors.

[JLC]

I'm guilty at making fun of ball pythons and the mutant, errr morph craze. Never saw the point in buying a snake for $2500 that will be worth $400 in a few years. Seems like a ponzi scheme to me. It's not a reflection on the animals as much as the culture surrounding them.

It's good natured, but for a lot of "serious" people in the hobby who are focused on locality variants and the like, ball pythons represent the foo foo poodle culture of the reptile world.

I personally love ball pythons, they make fat, nutritious and tasty snacks for my drys. They come in yummy flavors like toffee, banana, cinnamon, lemon, caramel, champagne, orange blast, butter, pie(d), vanilla, candy, chocolate, citrus, leche, mimosa. etc. etc. My drys appreciate the many different flavors.

LOL...funny! And an excellent point, too. The feeding frenzy pricing over the latest morph crazes and the outright gushiness over them must seem ridiculous to many, and definitely easy to mock...no doubt about that.

[Kara]

Judy & Skiploader both hit this on the head. Most of the people you see talking smack about ball pythons aren't jealous of the morphs, they're more put off by all the hype & drama & and lack of spotlight on other species, that come with the ball python morph craze. I've had this conversation many more times than I can count, with new keepers and old alike. The common sentiment among "old school" herpetoculturists (and I'm talking about folks who've been the first to breed entire species in captivity, not just the first to make a new morph) is that while ball python morphs are great for attracting people to this hobby, often that's where the interest stops, and many times that interest is wrapped around what is going to make someone the most $$$.

There are oodles of species that are more challenging/interesting to keep and breed that certainly deserve their day in the sun, but don't among the "mainstream" herp community because those animals don't come in 47 different flavors/colors. Over the years there have been keepers who were fairly well known for producing less-common species who eventually sold out & migrated over to ball pythons, reducing the availability of those other species in herpetoculture. When the ball python bubble initially burst, several of those people got out completely instead of working with the species they were before - kinda sad to see that. Additionally, many neophyte keepers who start with ball pythons are seemingly unaware that there actually are lots of different snake species out there. For example, on several occasions I've posted photos of extremely nice red blood pythons, only to be asked "What kind of ball python is that?" Believe it or not, life does exist outside of ball pythons, but the influx of bp-only keepers into the hobby doesn't often seem to realize that fact.

To top it off, high-dollar animals - no matter what species - have a tendency to bring out the worst in people. I spent nearly 10 years immersed in the ball python morph sector of this industry working at a big facility. Almost ALL of the worst people I've met in my life have been associated with high-dollar ball python morphs. The drama, the ridiculousness, the stories I could tell you, would absolutely blow your mind (industry wide, not just where I worked). Not to say that I haven't met some amazing people through this hobby/industry...some of my very best friends and the love of my life & I came together due to our mutual interest in snakes. All the same, there's been more drama in ball pythons in the past 10-15 years than there ever was on daytime TV. It's a shame some of that energy can't be channeled into more positive conservation & educational efforts, and working together against anti-exotic legislation.

$.02...from someone who likes ball pythons, and likes to rank on them, too.

[Kodieh]

I'm more of a leopard gecko guy myself, still wading into the balls, but I admit there isn't as much attention or following for Leo's that I've seen. And Leo keepers are more snobby in my opinion, versus ball keepers.

So, as indicated above, it's just jealousy! Like when people cry about more boas on SnakebytesTV haha!


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[BallJohnny]

They are just mad they cant say come look at my balls without it getting werid

[Vasiliki]

I'm more of a leopard gecko guy myself, still wading into the balls, but I admit there isn't as much attention or following for Leo's that I've seen. And Leo keepers are more snobby in my opinion, versus ball keepers.

So, as indicated above, it's just jealousy! Like when people cry about more boas on SnakebytesTV haha!


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The jealousy and haughty attitudes are legit. Drives me bonkers. Someone locally mocked me openly for not having a boa. I'm like: "Boas are too big for me."

The response? "You can always make room for a boa. You can make it work. Saying you can't is just making excuses. And you can't say that you're a herper until you have something more than some geckos and a corn snake. Until then, maybe leave the serious conversations to us, or come back when you have some experience."

Wowee! Amazing how people can get sometimes. I still don't have a boa But I do have a BP coming.

This really reminds me of grade 1-6. "What do you mean you don't have ______? Wow. You suck. All of US have that. And YOU don't. Guess we know who the cool person ISN'T!"

[PiedPeddler]

Aside from the species-specific and locale purists, we also annoy morph enthusiasts who work with other species. Imagine this: A lifelong colubrid enthusiast is walking around a herp expo and notices a Super Mojave. Thinks to himself “That’s kind of neat… A pale gray BP with kind of a dorsal stripe thing going on and a darker gray head.” So he asks “What is that?” The vendor along with all the BP enthusiasts gathered around the table proclaim: “BLUE EYED LEUCISTIC!!!”

What??? The only white scale on that snake’s body is on its belly... Leucistic??? Colubrid guy walks away annoyed and shaking his head.

How about our “Ghosts”? To the rest of the world a “Ghost” is a visual combo of axanthic and hypomelanistic. But BP people call our Hypo a “Ghost”. Whatever… It wasn’t really acknowledged by us until someone was about to make the BP combo of “Ghost” and axanthic. Then we had to acknowledge the issue so we decided to call the BP hypo axanthic the “True Ghost”. On the day we collectively accepted the name “True Ghost” did we then acknowledge all the other BP “Ghosts” were a lie? I thought about advertising some of our Hypo stuff from last year as “Lie Ghosts” but I didn’t think most would understand…

-Paul

[Kodieh]

The jealousy and haughty attitudes are legit. Drives me bonkers. Someone locally mocked me openly for not having a boa. I'm like: "Boas are too big for me."

The response? "You can always make room for a boa. You can make it work. Saying you can't is just making excuses. And you can't say that you're a herper until you have something more than some geckos and a corn snake. Until then, maybe leave the serious conversations to us, or come back when you have some experience."

Wowee! Amazing how people can get sometimes. I still don't have a boa But I do have a BP coming.

This really reminds me of grade 1-6. "What do you mean you don't have ______? Wow. You suck. All of US have that. And YOU don't. Guess we know who the cool person ISN'T!"

And not to be that guy, but we're communally being attacked at the federal level and people have the audacity to be elitist and purist? "oh, we'll, we've been keeping X+ years so leave the politics to the experienced keepers". I hate that, haha.


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[Jabberwocky Dragons]

With all of the pending legislation to ban exotics, I would think specialty only keepers might be understanding or even appreciative of all the new people that ball pythons bring into the herp world. The eye candy morphs and even normal morphs, draw in crowds at both pet stores and expos, and greatly expands the ranks of herp enthusiasts. Some will go on from the gateway drug known as bps into more advanced species. Even if not, ball python keepers provide votes, support for or against key politicians and political groups, and donations to USARK and other organizations. If all of the ball python, bearded dragon, corn snake, and leopard gecko owners disappeared over night, I have a feeling that other specialty keepers may not be keeping their animals *legally* much longer.