A Few Questions - New Owner

[Snakespeare]

I picked up a small female bumblebee yesterday and while I am not new to the hobby, I am new to ball pythons.My biggest question is if she is going to stay the same color through adulthood because no matter how long I searched, I could not find adult pics of yellow bumblebees. They were all brown. This brings me to my limited knowledge that some morphs with "freckling" (not sure of the proper term) tend to get dirtier as they grow. I think I read this in regards to champagnes in particular. Now, my girl looks pretty clean right now but she does have some "freckling" and I was told by the BP guy at the shop she's about 2-3 months old. I was also told that BPs won't take rats until they're close to a year old. I was planning on ordering 6 months of frozen feeders in advance and was really hoping to get rats but now I'm not sure what to do. I'm not sure if she's ever been offered one or if, because of that, they have only ever given her mice.

Any and all advice is appreciated as well as maybe a link or excerpt for "proper" feeder thawing!

[frostysBP]

They will brown out with age. And as far as the rats go I started most of my hatchlings on rats. You may wan to try before ordering a bunch.

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[pariahdog]

she's probably going to brown out i'm afraid the adult bumblebees i've seen are never as yellow as they are as juveniles. that's part of the reason I went with a firefly instead of a bumblebee, since the fire gene tends to brighten with age vs. the pastel which tends to brown out.

also I'm not really sure why he told you they can't eat rats until they're older. AFAIK they should be fine on rats their whole lives. do you know how much she weighs?

[Mp432]

This my my almost year old bumblebee, she is slowly losing her yellow.

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[ZiggiGirl]

I don't know hardly anything on morphs, and I'm new to the whole BP thing too, but I just wanted to say congrats on your beautiful snake!! She is lovely ️


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[TheSnakeEye]

My biggest question is if she is going to stay the same color through adulthood because no matter how long I searched, I could not find adult pics of yellow bumblebees.I was also told that BPs won't take rats until they're close to a year old. I was planning on ordering 6 months of frozen feeders in advance and was really hoping to get rats but now I'm not sure what to do. I'm not sure if she's ever been offered one or if, because of that, they have only ever given her mice.

99% of snakes "brown out" unfortunately. Especially when they have genes in them such as Pastel. Pastel for some reason, gets very dark as they mature, doesn't make them any less beautiful though. The way to minimize browning out is to buy a HIGH QUALITY animal... My Champagnes seem to remain about the same. My Pastel Champagne male breeder is BRIGHT BRIGHT yellow.

I was also told that BPs won't take rats until they're close to a year old.

This is 100% untrue. They can eat rat fuzzies fresh out of the egg.