Okay, first off I did not own this ball until about a week ago so don’t bother with the normal “don’t breed”,” don’t keep them together”, etc dumb stuff.
I just picked this normal female up at a surrender shop. She was surrendered with no information.
I do not have access to a scale atm to weigh her (I’m waiting on a replacement, mine broke. ) so some background for you from me, I have bred very few ball pythons in the past. I have had a few clutches. I HAVE an incubator, setting up proper rack systems for the hatchlings and adults as I was in the process of switching from glass to tubs and was going to go further into breeding ball pythons.
Now for the ball in question.
She is separated from my collection in a quarantine for the time being. She seems perfectly healthy, and friendly. She has not tried to strike, does not have head wobble, seems clear of mites (no soaking, and I have not seen any yet. I have checked quite thoroughly), her belly feels firm but she moves normally.
She looks almost identical to when my other normal is gravid, which is what makes me question if she is or is not.
She has a lumpy appearance when she lays in particular ways, I am TERRIBLE at palpating so I try to avoid it, but it feels kinda like there might be something but again I am very bad at it I usually rely on the lock/ovulation/prelayshed/etc. to know when I’ll be having a clutch. BUT since I just got this girl I don’t know what to expect. If she’s just obese that’s plenty fine I plan to quarantine her, slowly work her down to a healthy weight and then see if she would be a good fit for my projects. (I intended on getting a few normal females for a male I am working on proving regardless) if she doesn’t clear my project needs then I will keep her as a pet only, either way I’m happy with her.
She has currently been laying on the hot side, I saw two perfect coils yesterday with tail in the middle but nothing happened of course or I wouldn’t be posting. The pictures are not from her enclosure, I am keeping her in a quarantine tank at the moment. The pictures only showed what I was talking about with lumpiness better than the when she is in her quarantine tank. She is on paper towels with a hide, hot spot and cool spot are at average temps. She has a ceramic water bowl on her cool side to use.
She was laying coiled last night with her belly turned to the side. I have seen her run her chin down her back a few times which I’m not sure what that might be about, none of my others have ever done it. There was a little bit of shed stuck to her, like a minuscule amount of maybe pin head size. But she sorta looks like she might be shedding again with a tint to her, she also seems very light colored compared to my other normals.



So any opinions on her?