New ball python strikes food!

[AlbinoBull]

I recently got a 5 month old pastel pied, my first ball python, and after letting her settle down a few days I tried to feed her for my first time ever. Ball pythons are nothing like garter snakes, so my previous experience in snake feeding means just about squat at this point!

I thawed her food, put a hair dryer to it for a short time, then got the feeding tongs and hoped she would strike. It took some time, this is her first feed in her new home, but she started to scrunch her little neck- then struck! I was so happy I could hardly contain myself! I very gently tugged her little prey a few times, causing her to tighten her grip and add another coil, then I put her hide back down and left her be.

While I don't know for certain yet if she ate it, I'll be sure to check later on as I don't want to disturb her while she's eating, the fact that she struck and coiled so tightly has me feeling very happy. I hope dearly she ate it!

Thanks a bunch to everyone in this forum for all your useful information on everything from how you thaw your feeders to doing that little "zombie dance" to gain the snake's attention!

[skatefastdieyoung]

Glad to hear you're happy with your animal.

[DVirginiana]

Glad your BP seems to be settling in.

What kinds of garters do you keep? I have easterns and blacknecks.

[AlbinoBull]

Thanks! She's so precious, I love catching glimpses of her whenever she happens to be out...which isn't often, as expected, but I take that as a good thing.

I had only one a long time ago that I caught in my backyard and cared for him (or her!) about...7 to 8 years. I'm unsure how old he was when I caught him, though. He was a western garter snake, and boy did I love him so much. He was such a sweetheart, never once bit me and no doubt is the reason I love snakes so much as I do today.

Oh wow, those must be gorgeous snakes! Do you breed garters or keep them as pets?

[DVirginiana]

Yeah, BPs are pretty much pet rocks. I like my BP, but I'll never not have garters. They're just so interactive.

They're mainly pets, but I'd like to breed one of my easterns some day. I've tried twice, but both times the female has died from complications unrelated to breeding (despite my getting the go-ahead from a good herp vet), so I might try breeding again in a year or two when a female with the right genetics comes along.

lol You should get another garter or two! It's breeding season, so babies are just starting to go up for sale You can never have too many snakes.

[DVirginiana]

Yeah, BPs are pretty much pet rocks. I like my BP, but I'll never not have garters. They're just so interactive.

They're mainly pets, but I'd like to breed one of my easterns some day. I've tried twice, but both times the female has died from complications unrelated to breeding (despite my getting the go-ahead from a good herp vet), so I might try breeding again in a year or two when a female with the right genetics comes along.

lol You should get another garter or two! It's breeding season, so babies are just starting to go up for sale You can never have too many snakes.

EDIT: Average life span for a garter is 8 years, so if it was an adult when you got it, it had a nice long life.


Editing the edit: Apparently my edit did something odd and made another post...

[AlbinoBull]

Pet rocks with the cutest faces...it's so strange going from such an active snake to one that hides so often. A good thing is I'm less worried about losing her when I eventually handle her; Hiss always scared me half to death when he suddenly decided to zip toward something! He happened to escape once out of his temp tank while his main one was being cleaned, despite having tape over the lid, and all of us assumed he was gone for good....then we looked at the Christmas tree near his tank, the one he always looked at longingly, and there he was right near the top. He was the best little guy!

Oh no, I'm so sorry for your losses...it's a tough thing to lose one. I wish you luck breeding them! Speaking of which, I once heard some reptile guy around here years back say the males have pointy tails and the females have the stubby tails. I'm unsure if that's true or not as Google won't give me any answers and I kind of now doubt some of what he told me given what I know now, but I'll bet you will know.

I'll have to someday for sure! There are so many snakes I'd love to try owning someday, from little hoggies to the fatty blood sausages that are short tail/blood pythons...but for now, I'll stick to my little rock and watch her grow. Someday when I have a better job (and more experience) I'll try my hand at many more! It's amazing how much joy they bring, even with the simplest of things.

EDIT: I'm glad he lived long...his death still bugs me, though, because it was in many ways my inexperience that killed him (which I why I waited years and researched years until getting another snake). He ended up with scale rot near his vent, and it still pains me that he could have lived even longer had I done something sooner than I did.

[DVirginiana]

OMG I barely handle my garters before they get close to 2 years old because of the small size and tendency to dart around. It's just so easy to grab too hard and hurt them.

It's not so much pointy vs. stubby tails as that males have really long tapered tails below the vent and females tend to have tails that get thin more suddenly. I've always had better luck looking at head shape; the males tend to have much smaller heads with comparatively large eyes and noticeably thin necks and the females have much broader heads and necks. Also males stay around two feet, and females tend to get to around three feet.

It sounds like you made a lot fewer rookie mistakes than most people do considering he lived above the average lifespan. It's always refreshing when someone bothers to do research before going out and getting an animal.
I've got one male who's 15, but that's getting into 'holy crap' territory, and he's already completely blind. Oldest I've ever heard of was 19.

One of my favorite things about BPs is the long lifespan. They can get up to 40 years easily.

[AlbinoBull]

Oh gosh, one time my mother found one in the yard years back while mowing the lawn and got so upset because she swore she ran it over and hurt it, but I actually didn't see much of a wound on it at all! It was so small, though, but it moved around and didn't show any signs of bleeding...it was the smallest one I had ever held! I don't see them around my house TOO often, but because of the frogs and mice, they are around. It fills me with joy seeing them, though I don't try catching them anymore like I used to.

I have a picture of him here, if you'd like to see if you can tell what he/she might have been! By the way, is the snake in your icon one of yours? It's a very pretty one. I love those big eyes!



I feel awful about it no less, but I'm glad he lived as long and happily as he did. He was always so curious about everything! He'd lounge on his vine or squeeze under his water dish rock thing all the time. I sadly didn't do enough research to help him, but at least now I know better than to ever get anything without researching every inch of that animal. I had my tub for the BP running about a month to ensure the temps/humidity stayed good before buying her, which so far seems to be working well. Fingers crossed!

Oh wow! Does he find food using his sense of smell now, or do you have to gently poke his nose with it or something so he knows exactly where it is? Is he still eating well or is it off and on? That's incredible! I hope he manages many more healthy years.

Same here, I adore how hardy they are and their long lifespan, not to mention the pretty colors they happen to come in and their amusing personalities. Losing pets is so tough, and I hope to have my new little baby for many, many years. Having her strike her food so soon makes me so happy, I was so concerned she might be stressed by one thing or another and not eat for awhile.

[DVirginiana]

Hm... Can't tell for sure, but my guess would be female based on the head and the girth of the body. Females are a little more heavy-bodied than males.
I'm not great with IDing species I don't keep, but it looks like Thamnohpis radix to me (there are tons of crazy common names for the different garter species floating around out there)

Yeah, he mainly finds the food by smell. As he was going blind I got him to associate a touch on a certain part of his neck with food, so I usually have to cut the head off a mouse so he can smell the blood, touch it to his neck, and he'll eat. So far no one else has been able to get him to eat since he went blind, so I think he relies pretty heavily on that little ritual being done a certain way before he'll eat.

Eating is a good sign they're settling in. Sometimes just the stress of a move is enough to cause them to go off food for up to a month.