Coming back to herps

[hhw]

Hi everybody, I'm new to the forum and ball pythons although not new to herps in general. As a youngster, I kept several different herps and had amassed quite a collection at one point but lost it due to placing my trust in the wrong person. Some of the reptiles and amphibians I kept in my youth included:

Corn Snakes
Rat Snakes
African House Snake
African Egg-Eating Snake
Columbian Boa (Red-Tail)
Savannah Monitor
Green Anolis
Thai House Geckos
Green Tree Frogs
Grey Tree Frogs
Argentinian Horned Frog
Brown Basilisk
Red-eared sliders

After losing my collection (which was rather disheartening), I became wrapped up enough in my junior and then high school social life that I never thought of keeping anything else until I reached university, when I it wasn't feasible to keep anything due to moving back and forth from home to school every year. Well, I finally graduated in May and am now just as ever fascinated by herps.

I had always wanted a Green Tree Python and there is a breeder not too far away from me, but having not kept anything substantial for almost a decade I decided I'd best spend a year or two rekindling my husbandry skills before making such a significant investment. I fell in love with the appearance of boids after the red-tail I used to have, but since I may move a few times due to employment as I am only just a fresh graduate, I decided to keep something that wouldn't demand quite as much space when full grown. The logical choice of course, was a ball python.

Although the animals I kept as a youngster always thrived, in retrospect I may not have taken as good care of them as I could have. I'm amazed at how much information I can find about herps on the Internet and as a result, I'll pay much more attention to detail this time around. For instance, where I would have just been content with a nice hot lamp before and a regular fish mercury thermometer I'm now using a human heatpad and a digital thermometer to monitor both ends of my ball python's temperature gradient. Also, I always fed live prey in the past but thanks to this forum and various other sources I won't be doing that anymore ;p I only received my ball python on Tuesday, and I learned from the breeder that he hasn't been able to switch him to prekilled yet so I'll feed live the first few times to get him well acclimatized, but I'm already looking into getting some carbon dioxide so I can humanely euthanize his prey a few meals down the road.

Anyway, I just wanted to say I really appreciate a great resource such as this, and I look forward to interacting with all of you as I learn about my new ball python.

[Smulkin]

I can very much relate to your situation - had a long interim period and marriage and kids and it was by the wayside for a while.

Much respect for your intent to temper your desire for a GTP by "ramping up to it" with less demanding herps. My wife (Smynx) dreams of owning one as well and in time we'll be able to plunk down the moolah to indulge.

Great to have you aboard and again hats off to your research and ability to make yourself work up to the GTP.

[Marla]

Welcome to the forum! I think it's great that you've done your research and are getting back into the swing of things before jumping to a snake as challenging as a GTP. The internet definitely makes it a lot easier to find good, up-to-date information on herp-keeping, and I've learned a lot myself about errors I made in my early days. Anyway, glad to have you join our community.

[green_man]

Welcome!
Props to ya for waiting on the GTP till your a bit more savy on herps. Ball pythons are great, you wont regret it.
I had a bearded dragon and two corns before I really started studying husbandry. Im glad I at least picked easy pets first. Im happy to see you havnt made my mistake and looked into the pets needs BEFORE buying one.
Nice work.
Cya round!

[JLC]

Welcome to the forum! Sounds to me like you'll be a valuable member of our community and I look forward to hearing/reading more from you! I have a GTP dream, too.....someday....

[hhw]

I remember first finding out about GTP's in Reptiles magazine many years ago and then drooling at the prospect of them. Thanks to kingsnake.ca I've discovered there's a GTP breeder only an hour or two away and a 2nd one a ferry ride and a similar drive away. (I live in Vancouver, British Columbia). I'm a bit iffy on having live animals shipped and I'd want to see what I'm getting before I lay away all my savings on one, lol! Anyway, at least one of the two GTP breeders will be at a show in about a month or so which I'm definitely going to check out.

My other dream herp was a green tree monitor (I love the brilliant green colouration, especially when there's bluish tinges), but through what I've learned I'd probably be better off with an ackie. One of the above two breeders has ackies too, isn't that lucky? Anyway, either is now somewhat within reach, but I'll put it off until I'm confident that I can offer them great care (and can afford them ).

Thanks for the warm reception all! I guess we can have fun discussing our GTP dreams down the line, lol!

[hhw]

By the way, I've decided to name my little guy Ippo (which means 1 step in Japanese, also a character from an anime I saw recently), since he seems to like to take things slowly. It also aptly describes my return to herpetoculture.
The first day and night he did nothing but hide in the box at the warm end.
The 2nd night (last night) he came out for a few minutes to take a poop.
Today, he switched to the other hide box, which was a relief because I was worried he was too scared to switch back and forth between the two to regulate his temperature properly.

I'm planning on feeding him tommorow, unless someone would advise I put it off longer to give him more time to acclimatize (He last ate over a week ago on Wednesday)

[JLC]

I think Ippo is a cool name! Very appropriate!
I don't think it would cause any harm to try and feed it. Some acclimate much faster than others. Worst case scenario, is you waste a mouse and have to wait another week or so before trying again. But it also won't hurt the snake to wait a few more days. It's completely up to you and whatever your instincts tell you is best for Ippo.

[RobertCoombs]

Hey hhw , I assume your talking about Don Patterson maybe ? if so there is probably not a better choice as far as where to buy a new Chondro ,one of the best in canada

[hhw]

Yep, Don Patterson & Henry Piorun. There's a reptile show coming up in Abbotsford http://www.a1pythons.com/show.htm that I am planning to attend; I'm certain Henry Piorun will be there and hopefully he will bring some GTP's. I was planning on e-mailing Don Patterson sometime soon to see if he will be there as well. I've never been to a reptile show before and I am quite looking forward to the experience.

Do you live in the lower mainland as well?