From 1 to 7 in 24 hours

[Kenidi]

I'm a little over my head in ball pythons right now, but trying to make it work. I had one bp, Altas, a pied male that I was hoping to breed down the road (only about 300g right now) and decided it was time to get him a future girlfriend. After spending a while looking online, I decided on a black pastel albino het pied female, and drove a few hours to buy her. On the way back home, I get a call from my local PetsMart that someone is trying to drop of a bunch of snakes because she didn't want them to eat her dog, and PetsMart was trying to see if I would take them. That's what I get for being known as the snake girl. I assumed that since this person was concerned for her dogs safety, that these would be large snakes that I don't have set-ups for, but I figured I would go take a look and see if I could at least help her get them somewhere safe. Imagine my surprise when I show up and see 5 ball pythons, two around 900g and around 300g... they were not going to eat anyone dogs. By the time I got to the store she was talking about just letting them go in the parking lot, so I felt I had to intervene and take them from her. She gave me the 20 gallon tank they were all being kept in... together, and the tiny water dish and half log. She had no heat at all for the tank.

Thanks to this forum, I was able able to determine I ended up with a pastel, a pastel butter, a pinstripe, an albino, and a pastel banana. According to the prior owner, they are all female except the pastel banana. I am not good at sexing so I have no idea) I currently have them in 28qt tubs in my guest bedroom (except for the two I owned that , but I need to start thinking about a rack soon (any suggestions are welcomed) as well as figure out what I want to do with them as far as breeding is concerned. They all seem healthy enough with the exception of some stuck shed, so hopefully they can recover from their traumatic experiences.

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[Jellybeans]

Nice batch of snakes! You have quite the collection now
But I wonder how such an idiot of a person ended up with them to start with.....

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[Kenidi]

Nice batch of snakes! You have quite the collection now
But I wonder how such an idiot of a person ended up with them to start with.....

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As far as I know, she got them from a local breeder but I guess knew nothing about them.

[Neal]

Nice pickup. If you want to get the sexes verified look for local breeders and see if any are willing to sex the snakes. Don't let somebody who is a want to be breeder or claims to know what they're doing try it. I'm not saying they don't know what they're doing but you want somebody who is experienced to do it.

[Lord Sorril]

1 to 7 is a big jump-especially since they are not hatchlings. If they were eating live then you have your work cut out for you...

That is quite the story: I totally believe it. I gave my aunt a big Dubia colony with over 1000 adults. When my uncle found out: 'Not in my house' he said....and immediately drove it to the nearest pet store and dropped it off (they offered him store credit-but he turned it down). I would have liked my bin and heating pad back if I knew he was going to ditch the entire colony...ahhh well...at least they have had a reliable supply of dubias there ever since...

[Kenidi]

Nice pickup. If you want to get the sexes verified look for local breeders and see if any are willing to sex the snakes. Don't let somebody who is a want to be breeder or claims to know what they're doing try it. I'm not saying they don't know what they're doing but you want somebody who is experienced to do it.

Yeah I will have to find a local breeder or maybe take them to my local exotics vet to have them sexed. No matter how many videos I watch about how to sex them, I’m still not comfortable doing it.

[Kenidi]

1 to 7 is a big jump-especially since they are not hatchlings. If they were eating live then you have your work cut out for you...

That is quite the story: I totally believe it. I gave my aunt a big Dubia colony with over 1000 adults. When my uncle found out: 'Not in my house' he said....and immediately drove it to the nearest pet store and dropped it off (they offered him store credit-but he turned it down). I would have liked my bin and heating pad back if I knew he was going to ditch the entire colony...ahhh well...at least they have had a reliable supply of dubias there ever since...

Sorry to hear about your dubias. I don’t understand why people do this. At least your local pet store took the colony and put it to use though. PetsMart would have no idea what to do with it.

From what the previous owner said, they were all eating live. The largest one was eating rats, but everyone else (including a 900g female?) was on mice. I don’t think she had ever tried f/t. They all seem pretty hungry though so I am going to give f/t a try. Worst case scenario, my local exotics shop sells live feeders, and while I don’t like the idea, I understand a fed snake is better than nothing.

[Avsha531]

Sorry to hear about your dubias. I don’t understand why people do this. At least your local pet store took the colony and put it to use though. PetsMart would have no idea what to do with it.

From what the previous owner said, they were all eating live. The largest one was eating rats, but everyone else (including a 900g female?) was on mice. I don’t think she had ever tried f/t. They all seem pretty hungry though so I am going to give f/t a try. Worst case scenario, my local exotics shop sells live feeders, and while I don’t like the idea, I understand a fed snake is better than nothing.

I took in an adult BP last year and was told that she would only eat 4 live mice. I rubbed a mouse on a f/t small rat and hit it with a blow dryer and she took it immediately. Maybe try the blow dryer trick to start...

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[Kenidi]

I took in an adult BP last year and was told that she would only eat 4 live mice. I rubbed a mouse on a f/t small rat and hit it with a blow dryer and she took it immediately. Maybe try the blow dryer trick to start...

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My oied is very particular about how he likes to eat, so I have to blow dry everything he gets it he won’t even look twice at it, so I was planning on blow drying whatever I offered to the new guys. So far I haven’t had issues switching a live eater to f/t (knock on wood) so I am hoping it would be too difficult. Rubbing a mouse on the rats is a great idea. I will have to try it if I’m having problems. There needs to be an easy de mouse perfume to just spray on the rats lol

[Avsha531]

My oied is very particular about how he likes to eat, so I have to blow dry everything he gets it he won’t even look twice at it, so I was planning on blow drying whatever I offered to the new guys. So far I haven’t had issues switching a live eater to f/t (knock on wood) so I am hoping it would be too difficult. Rubbing a mouse on the rats is a great idea. I will have to try it if I’m having problems. There needs to be an easy de mouse perfume to just spray on the rats lol

LIGHTBULB...

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