Re-Homing Ragnarok, an emotional weekend.

[Godzilla78]

A lot has been going on for me, as I have been prepping for my snake breeding project. Behind the scenes, I built a new custom breeding rack, and I am shopping for my last 2 snakes to round out the project plan. (a new thread on the custom built rack coming soon)

Well, after months of deliberation I have decided to re-home Ragnarok, my first adult normal. I have a lot of good memories of her (thought she was a 'he' for the longest time! lol). However I only have so much time and resources and have to make room for the new additions to the breeding project. The other thing that is interesting is that it seems Ragnarok just hates rack-tub life, as she constantly tries to escape her tub. I raised her in a 40 gallon terrarium, and it seems she imprinted on that kind of space as her home, because she just won't accept a rack life! I moved her back to her glass tank, and she seems content. She also likes to come out more than the other snakes, and wander around the home, she is the perfect 'PET' snake! She would make a great pet for someone just getting into snakes, that wants an already established snake, in an already established terrarium! She very much enjoys coming out and is very tolerant of being handled, which is exactly what most snake pet-owners want.

I advertised her on craigslist, complete with her terrarium, for a decent re-homing fee, to make sure I got a serious person. A 16 year old girl's dad responded that his daughter has been RESEARCHING snakes for weeks and really wants one, and saw my ad. She liked that the snake is already "tamed" and comes established and with a complete terrarium.

I am in the process of typing up a detailed care-sheet to send with her, as I notified the new owner that most pet stores "have no idea what they are doing!"

It is funny, I had almost no feelings at all advertising her and then getting ready to re-home her this weekend. But I cleaned out her cage this morning and interacted with her, and got a sinking knot in my throat, trying not to cry. The emotions hit me, but I know this is for the best and the new owner will be so thrilled to get her new pet for Christmas!

I will probably re-post the care sheet here for others to read.

Good luck Ragnarok! It was a joy to raise you to adulthood!

[rufretic]

I feel you, I have about 10 that need to be sold/rehomed but I continue to procrastinate and I can't figure out why lol. None of them have any special attachment or my favorite or anything like that, I just am not in any hurry to move them out of my care, I even have a buyer for 5 of the hatchlings but yet I just can't seem to let them go. I'm sure it will get easier once that first time letting go is over but for now it's hard to let any go. I'm guessing I'll be much more motivated in the spring when I have 10 clutches eating up all my rat production haha. But I agree, that first one is hard It's a good feeling knowing she will go to a family as a pet and will probably get more tlc than she would get as a breeder so that should help soften the blow. Stay strong

[bcr229]

I know it's tough. With my favorites I let the new owners know that if for some reason they have to rehome the snake, because people's circumstances do change, I would like first right of refusal on it. That makes it easier to see them go.

[hilabeans]

Oh man, I got a sinking feeling in my stomach just reading your post! I bet it is hard. But I'm also betting her new owner will just love her, so a good home awaits. Plus she'll have the familiarity of her current tank. My teen daughter calls her snake her "son" and absolutely adores him, and I'm hoping the same for Ragnarok.

Stay strong!

[Godzilla78]

Ball Python Care-sheet

Housing and Heating

The main consideration in keeping your ball python healthy is providing her with a warm, safe home. Ball pythons spend a majority of their lives hiding in cave-like structures or burrows. In their natural environment, they live in these borrows to protect themselves from predators, to regulate their body temperature and to ambush their prey from a hidden space. They only come out of these borrows to get water, to mate, or to find food IF no rodents happen to come by their burrow entrance.
In captivity, you as the owner will replicate this burrow house system. Since you will feed the snake yourself, the snake will never have any reason to come out of the burrow, except to get water, explore, or because she just recently urinated or defecated in there, in which case it will need to be cleaned up before the snake will want to go back in there for obvious reasons.
The 40 gallon glass terrarium this snake comes with will be sufficient for her whole life. (20-30 years lifespan typical of captive ball pythons, she was born 2015.) One side will be the “hotspot”, this is where I have placed the heating pads which are regulated by the thermostat. The heating pads keep the temperature of the corner burrow, (or “hide” as they are called by hobbyists) around 88-92 degrees Fahrenheit. 90F being the ideal hot spot. The hot spot is very important and some snakes will spend most of their time there. This is because they need that heat to help them digest and metabolize food as well as regulate other bodily functions. The other side is the “cool side”. Sometimes the snake will want to cool off for various reasons, and 88-92 degrees F will be too hot for them. This is when they will come out and seek a cooler burrow. The ambient air temp of the cage needs to be 84 degrees F maximum and 77 degrees F minimum at all times! I usually aim for 80 degrees cage temperature. Keeping the cage too hot can result in illness or death. Keeping the cage too cold, can result in illness or death as well.
Since temperature regulation is so important, the heating pads are on a thermostat to keep them around 90 degrees and from getting too cold or too hot. To measure the temperatures, I highly recommend an INFRARED THERMOMETER or “TEMP GUN.” This looks like a little laser gun and you can point it at the hotspot of the cage and instantly read the temperature with the digital readout. You can buy one online, or pick one up at a hardware store for about $30. There is a very basic ambient air temps thermometer included with the cage, but nothing is included to read the HOTSPOT temperature of the heating pads, expect for the thermostat itself.
For the ambient air temps of the cage, I have wrapped the cage with metallic-coated bubble-wrap insulation, and provided an insulated screen-cover to keep the ambient heat from the heating pads from escaping. Since I have insulated the cage, As long as the ROOM TEMPERATURE IS ABOVE 75 F, THEN NO AMBIENT HEATING SOURCE IS NEEDED. In the summer time, if you can keep the snakes room warm, then you are good. In the winter time, I use a space heater in the snake’s room to keep it above 75 degrees.
This is not practical for many people. If you cannot keep the room that warm (75+), then you will need a secondary heat source to keep the ambient tank temps up. Most people use a heat lamp. I can provide a 75 watt heat lamp, with a second thermostat for an extra $40. I would highly recommend this, if you cannot keep the room temperatures above 75, or you do not have another plan to keep the tank warm. No matter what heat source you use, IT MUST BE REGULATED BY A THERMOSTAT OR YOU CAN OVERHEAT AND KILL THE SNAKE.

Humidity and Substrate

Ball pythons are adapted to live in moderately humid environments. They are not amphibians and don’t like very wet conditions as frogs or salamanders do, but they are not lizards either, and they do not tolerate arid, dry conditions well. MOST PEOPLE KEEP THEIR BALL PYTHONS TOO DRY!!! If you end up using a thermostat-controlled heat-lamp to keep the cage ambient temperatures warm, you will notice the cage being dried out quickly from the heat lamp. There is a very basic hygrometer included in the cage which as served me well to read humidity conditions, but I would recommend to upgrade to a higher quality hygrometer which will be more accurate in helping you regulate the humidity. The current substrate in the cage is ZOOMED brand 100% cypress mulch for reptiles. This is great at retaining moisture and slowly releasing humidity. It is also great for absorbing odors from any poop or pee from the snake. The screen top insulation cover is not only for keeping heat in, but also for trapping humidity. If you keep the room temps above 75 degrees, and don’t use a heat lamp for ambient heat, you will find the humidity will stay up for days on end naturally from the ZOOMED cypress mulch. You will probably end up needing a heat lamp this winter, in which case you will need to mist down the mulch daily with a water spray bottle. Another trick is to use a wet towel laid over the screen instead of the insulated bubble-wrap top I have provided.
A lot of serious snake keepers use coconut husk, compressed coconut fiber as substrate and it is very great at humidity and odor as well.
You can also use aspen shavings, I personally didn’t like aspen, but many people use it.
If you find using the mulch to be messy, you can even just use newspaper, or other paper as substrate but the problem is that it won’t release moisture into the air like the much will.
DO NOT USE CEDAR OR PINE SUBSTRATE AS IT IS TOXIC TO SNAKES.!

Feeding

This adult female eats small to medium sized rats, She prefers to eat live rats, but will also eat frozen/thawed rats, if they are properly thawed out and then heated up and offered with tongs. Feeding live rats is very simple. You simply buy a live rat, put it in her cage, and if she is hungry she will strike the rat and constrict it to death within seconds, She will then swallow the rat whole. Pythons can swallow huge prey, so do not worry about her choking! Always supervise a live feeding, to make sure the rat doesn’t bite your snake. If the snake is not hungry, it will NOT KILL THE RAT, and if you leave a live rat in there for too long, it may eventually bite the snake.
Feeding frozen/thawed rats is more tricky. The good part about feeding frozen/thawed rats is that you can buy them in bulk in a bag cheap, then store them in your freezer. Also, you don’t have to worry about a rat biting your snake! Below is a video link to feeding your snake frozen/thawed rats.

https://youtu.be/mF09iMLG8NM

IMPORTANT: This adult female is currently in her winter fast! This means that she hasn’t eaten in 9 weeks and might not eat again for awhile. THIS IS NORMAL! Ball pythons can go without food for weeks and months. It is very common for adults to do this in winter time.
When she is NOT FASTING and eating normally, I feed her once a week. Eating once a week a small rat is all she needs to be healthy and happy. Sometimes though, she will go “off-feed” and this can be frustrating as a snake owner. When she goes “off-feed” you continue to offer food once/week. If she refuses the food, you WAIT ANOTHER WEEK! Do not attempt to feed the snake again a day or two later after she has refused food! Just wait a week. If they still haven’t eaten for a month, then offer EVERY 2 WEEKS. Eventually she will resume normal eating. This is the most common frustration of new snake owners, and they don’t realize that healthy adult ball pythons can go for months and months without eating and be just fine.

Shedding

All snakes and reptiles shed their skin. You will notice her belly gets pink first, and then her scales will look less bright. Then her eyes will turn cloudy-blue. When her eyes are cloudy-blue, she is about to shed. LEAVE HER ALONE during this time. They do not want to eat in shed, they cannot see and do not want to be picked up while in shed. Jus leave them alone. She will need extra humidity during shed, so make sure the humidity is above 60%. You can mist the cage down with a water bottle, and lay a wet towel on the screen to help boost humidity. After she sheds, she will be ready to eat again, and behave normally.

That is all you need to do!
Keeping a ball python is very easy, and fun,
ENJOY!

[Vipera Berus]

Rehoming is the most difficult part of keeping animals. I've only had to rehome a single pet rabbit but I seriously doubt it will ever be easy.

[Pezz]

great caresheet. hope the doom snakes new owner loves her as much as you did.

Sent from my LG-M151 using Tapatalk

[SDA]

You didn't actually give the humidity range... OCD OVERLOAD!!!

I'm sorry you are releasing one of you own but I am sure it will go to a loving home.

[Craiga 01453]

Wow, I got chills and a bit choked up reading this. Thinking of you and Ragnarock, and wishing her a happy life in her new home.

[tttaylorrr]

awe, this was so bittersweet. i wish her the best! your care sheet was good.

i'm hoping this means your breeding plans will be going as you want. good luck to both of you!!!