Newbie moments

[Dianne]

I'm pretty sure Craig was referring to feeding baby ball pythons with pinkies, since that is protocol at some/many of the Petsmart/Petco stores and what is often told to buyers there. Ball pythons should be started with hopper mice, not pinkies, since they are much larger as babies and typically eat small adult mice after the first few meals. (Hatch weights are somewhere around 40-70g I think? Something like that.)

Pinkies are definitely needed for baby corn snakes as they're too small for anything larger for a while. Congrats on getting yours to eat!

Dianne, you just beat me!

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Great minds think alike!

It still amazes me how many stores provide misinformation....pinkies for bp’s, hot rocks are okay as are unregulated heat sources...particularly UTH. I know there wasn’t a lot of info available when I started in this hobby (read obsession lol), but we did have books, a few good stores/mentors, and lots of trial and error. Today there is so much information available online that even a little dedicated research can weed out the misinformation. Everyone will still make mistakes, that’s just life...sometimes stuff happens.

[Craiga 01453]

OK, I'm going to have a newbie moment here... You mentioned in your thread "feeding pinkies", and it seems you're saying everyone should know thats a bad idea? So... I'm open to a learning moment; is there something wrong with feeding snakes pinkies? I just recently got two young corn snakes and I was pretty excited when they both took their F/T pinkies like champs. If thats wrong, what is the alternative?

-C.

I apologize, I should have specified feeding pinkies to BPs. Of course, feeding pinkies to most species of colubrids is the proper prey until they outgrow them.
I was generalizing, but if we're nitpicking I should say I did not mean rat pinks either

[callen727]

Sorry, totally didn’t mean to be nitpicking. I’m still new to this and hungry to learn anything and everything I can. I appreciate the feedback very much! You guys are all awesome. When I think of what it must’ve been like to raise snakes without google and forums such as this one, I kind of feel like we newbies today have an unfair advantage. But, I’m ok with it.
Thanks again everyone!

-C.


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[Craiga 01453]

Like Craig, I’ve been keeping since before Google or internet forums. I bought my first boa in 1991, and had him until he passed last year at age 26. As for newbie mistakes, back then I used unregulated heat lamps and then CHEs. No-one I knew or heard of was using thermostats for something like that back then. ‘Regulating’ was tinkering with the wattage until you were using a bulb that didn’t get your hot end over the desired limit - measured by plain old mercury thermometers stuck to the tank or cage wall. Luckily the store I used was not a fan of heat rocks, even though they carried them.

Very true! Thermostats were unheard of back then. I had to experiment with different wattage bulbs, moved them further and closer to the tank, laid them on the screens, used blankets wrapped around the sides of tanks, etc...to get decent temps.

[Mc.mischievous7]

I'm pretty sure Craig was referring to feeding baby ball pythons with pinkies, since that is protocol at some/many of the Petsmart/Petco stores and what is often told to buyers there. Ball pythons should be started with hopper mice, not pinkies, since they are much larger as babies and typically eat small adult mice after the first few meals. (Hatch weights are somewhere around 40-70g I think? Something like that.)

Pinkies are definitely needed for baby corn snakes as they're too small for anything larger for a while. Congrats on getting yours to eat!

Dianne, you just beat me!

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Wow! I didnt know that. I thought feeding pinkies to BP when they are hatchlings was normal. I am quite sure I saw a youtuber breeder who was feeding his hatchlings pinkies. Lol.

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[Dianne]

Very true! Thermostats were unheard of back then. I had to experiment with different wattage bulbs, moved them further and closer to the tank, laid them on the screens, used blankets wrapped around the sides of tanks, etc...to get decent temps.

Craig,

It sounds like we were applying many of the same tricks. When I think back to those days, sometimes I’m amazed any of the more delicate species survived. We were all just winging it until we got something close to right. Back then the only thermostatically controlled ‘cage’ in my house was a tropical fish tank.

Luckily the Colombian redtails, bp’s and most colubrids were pretty forgiving. That’s probably what has kept these species so popular in the pet trade to this day...reasonably easy to care for and great dispositions.

[Craiga 01453]

Today there is so much information available online that even a little dedicated research can weed out the misinformation. Everyone will still make mistakes, that’s just life...sometimes stuff happens.

No doubt, we were ALL beginners once. And we're all still learning.
But with literally a world of information at our fingertips, some mistakes could/should be very easily avoided. It takes 2 minutes to research what took weeks when I first started out.

[Craiga 01453]

Wow! I didnt know that. I thought feeding pinkies to BP when they are hatchlings was normal. I am quite sure I saw a youtuber breeder who was feeding his hatchlings pinkies. Lol.

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You may have. That doesn't make it right. The internet is an amazing tool. But it's also a vessel for misinformation to spread like wildfire.
There are also exceptions to every rule, and some BPs may have birth defects or other reasons they need a few pinkies to get started. I honestly don't know.

It's very important to cross reference multiple sources before believing anything to be true. It's so easy for somebody to spread info on the internet that is 100% horse plop. Abraham Lincoln himself was quoted saying that you can't believe half of what you read on the internet. Hehehhee

[Mc.mischievous7]

You may have. That doesn't make it right. The internet is an amazing tool. But it's also a vessel for misinformation to spread like wildfire.
There are also exceptions to every rule, and some BPs may have birth defects or other reasons they need a few pinkies to get started. I honestly don't know.

It's very important to cross reference multiple sources before believing anything to be true. It's so easy for somebody to spread info on the internet that is 100% horse plop. Abraham Lincoln himself was quoted saying that you can't believe half of what you read on the internet. Hehehhee

That is true.

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[Zincubus]

What was "your" newbie moment as a BP owner?

What was your first snake? (Insert Picture if you like)

~ My newbie moment was thinking I had his enclosure perfect according to my research. Come to find out I have to fix his enclosure little by little.

~ My first snake is a Mojave BP!

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It's a beaut !


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