I lost two baby ball pythons this summer. I got a whole bunch of them from a breeder and I'm beginning to think there were a few of them who'd never eaten (they were all very young). I suppose they never recovered from the stress of the shipping. It hurt and made me feel like I hadn't done everything I could have, but now that I look back I'm pretty much over it. I have my own girl who's going great, and she was from the same litter.

I'm paranoid as well, though. I have recurrent dreams of my snakes being cut in half or otherwise injured. The cutting in half is the most usual fear, though, and I wonder why on earth - how much more likely wouldn't it be for the snakes to die in other ways, like *knocks on wood* getting stuck on duct tape (not that I use it, too paranoid) severely, getting stuck somewhere else in their cage, escaping and going into all sorts of dangerous places, or getting some disease.