General opinion about my bp...size,feeding, etc.

[TanyaL]

I offer the second one after they down the first one. You want to catch her while she is still in hunt mode. If she heads into her hide immediately following and parks her butt in the doorway in the classic "do not disturb", then chances are she will not take the second.

But once she takes the first... if she is still flicking and hovering around then it is worth offering the second one.

I have some that go out of hunt mode really fast, others that can stay in it indefinitely (cochons!).

Maybe I waited too long before offering the second one. I'll have to think about what I'm going to do, rather it be mice or rats. When I do, I'll plan to stick with it.

She does have a reduced pattern, but not enough that I would say she is a reduced pattern - as that tends to imply that is is genetic. She has enough dots that it is likely purely random and abherrant. But I do love the broken head stripe... often the head and neck pattern are places where you will see genetic markers.

But that being said... any het recessive snake looks like a normal... only way to know for sure is to breed it out and see. But if you are going to breed her... you may invest alot of time and energy to find out that her traits are not genetic. When you could simply pick up a nice dom or codom male and produce morphs right away.

I would suggest... if you want to enhance her reduced pattern in her offspring... pick up a male normal that is similar and selectively breed. You may find out that you do hatch out a lovely clutch of reduced patterns.

And if you do not... there is nothing normal about normals. They are stunning and have amazing variance.

Bruce

I have no intentions of breeding. I don't buy my animals to breed them. I figure if I want another, I'll buy or adopt another one. Breeding is just not for me. I couldn't be bothered.

I absolutely love her. It doesn't matter if she is reduced, banded, het for anything, or whatever! It really doesn't matter to me. She is still going to be cared for as if she was worth $20,000!

[Bruce Whitehead]

I absolutely love her. It doesn't matter if she is reduced, banded, het for anything, or whatever! It really doesn't matter to me. She is still going to be cared for as if she was worth $20,000!

Best thing any captive snake could want.

[Somed00d]

Here are my questions…
1. Does she sound thin? I’ve been feeding her large adult mice (25 – 30g) every 7 days. She won’t take them before 7 days and won’t take two at once. She is a 7-day, one serving feeder. Her feeding response is great!

She sounds a tad thin, nothing to worry about though.

2. Just yesterday, I offered her a small rat because the mice just didn’t seem like they were bit enough as far as her girth goes. The rat was 52 grams (YIKES) but was the same as her girth. Based on the suggested 10 – 15% of her body weight, is a small rat too much, maybe a tad smaller? She didn’t take it and that’s my problem! Could it have been because she is used to white mice and not black and white rats? Was it too big? What do you think? And, what can/should I do? It’s been 8 days since her last feeding if I’m not mistaken. I know shame on me! I should keep better track but I’ve got so much going on lately!

I would try rat pups to switch her over. 20-30g.. What you can do is feed her a mouse and as soon as its almost gone (feet sticking out) stick a rat pup in there and she will take it too. You can also do that with mice if you want her to take more than 1 at a meal. Just don't over do it. The second mice/rat should be dead of course.

3. If a snake does not take the prey when offered, why should you wait until the next scheduled feeding before offering again?

Its about stress.. Ball pythons stress out easily. But if she does take it on the second attempt I don't see it as a bad thing. I find when I try too soon the snake starts to panic and tries to flee.. I wait 12-14 days after a refusal.

4. I’ve seen many pictures of younger BPs that have the ridge on their backs. Foster has it too. At what age/size would you expect them to round out? Or, should you not see a ridge at all? She is filled out on her sides, it’s just the ridge on her back that you can see.

Don't worry about it. She is eating well for you just keep feeding.

5. As far as her pattern/markingsgoes…she does not have the alien eyes like most normal bps do. She has a few spots but none of them are side by side. I think in one area one black spot is above the other but even then she does not have a lot of ‘eyes’. The majority of her brown spots are clear. Does this make her a reduced, somewhat reduced or as normal as they come? Also, most of her brown spots connect from one side to the other. Does that mean anything?

I think her pattern would be considered banded probably not genetic.