New Ball Python and Owner! PICS

So I met a girl at my work last week (I work at PetCo) and she was trying to find someone to take her female ball python. Long story short, after a week of trying to meet up for me to pick her up, I finally got her lastnight! So I put her in her enclosure (sweater box) and left her alone for a few hours. The girl told me she hadn't fed her in almost a month and that she only ate live, but I figured that she might take F/t if I teased her a bit. I dangled the mouse for less than 5 seconds and the results are as follows, lol:









She seemed a tad bit hungry even after the first mouse, so I left the second mouse in with her and it was gone within 30 minutes. I plan to start using F/t small rats, seeing as she seems to love to eat, lol.

She is approximately 3 years old, 1,160grams. The girl I took her from said something to the affect of "I forget to feed her sometimes...." So I figured that it would be the best thing for me to just take her, lol.

Now, I know she has some stuck shed. I have upped the humidity for her in hopes that it will come off without too much intervention by me. I got off more than 80% of the patchy stuck shed before I fed. I'm a total BP newbie as far as morphs go. I'm mainly a Gecko breeder (*hence the website name). I took a shot of her belly, which I think is called "Blushing"? I'm not 100% sure.



I was just wondering what you all think about her. I absolutely adore her. I never thought I'd like snakes so much until I got her.

She is a supposed normal, but I think she may be het for something? I have no idea what, but her colors just seem to be totally different from any normals I've seen? Opinions? The girl bought her at a show in Oklahoma 3 years ago for $110 as a hatchling, that makes me wonder.

I named her Sable, she just looks like a Sable to me, lol. Although she did strike at me after she swallowed the mouse and I almost had a heartattack. I'm not used to how quick these are! lol

Tell me what you guys think!

No het females would sell for a price that low...
It all looks great, just an above average normal...
One concern I have looking at the picture.. it looks like the entire floor of the tub is wet. Thatd be bad, it could cause scale rote, and maybe URI.. Id provide a humid hide, much like you would with geckos, rather than misting...

Originally Posted by ByRandom

She is a supposed normal, but I think she may be het for something? I have no idea what, but her colors just seem to be totally different from any normals I've seen? Opinions? The girl bought her at a show in Oklahoma 3 years ago for $110 as a hatchling, that makes me wonder.

From the look of her, probably normal, het for wild type...sorry, the whole there's something going on with this one just gets to me (That has nothing to do with you, though). Its a nice looking snake, be happy with it.
The term blushing refers to lightened areas in the dark brown pattern. she does have a little, but not a tremendous amount from what I could see in the picture. (look along her dorsal stripe, esp in the second picture to see what I mean)

As for the het issue, $110 is cheap for even possible hets...especially a female a few years ago. Once you thin the chances down sufficiently, though, you really can't charge for the possibility. Heck, it is possible to get hets from a group of CH babies...or even imports (remember, there have been imported pieds and albinos...some of their siblings would have been hets). However, simple recessive genes are not identifiable until the trait is expressed (you can't tell a het albino from a normal by looking at it). If they were, it would take the guesswork and luck out things, and do away with the terms 66% het, and possible het.

So, you have a nice looking ball python . And, she eats f/t. , and she was free. (now, if you got a date out of the deal...)

Originally Posted by hhmoore

From the look of her, probably normal, het for wild type...sorry, the whole there's something going on with this one just gets to me

i hate that silly line too...

she's a very lovely snake, and it's great that she will eat F/T! i wouldn't get my hopes up converting her to rats too quick, but you could probably do it. what kind of a tank/setup is she in? i agree with the scale rot issue, balls aren't swamp beasts, they need humidity not dampness. they live in deserts, so the climate is generally dry, they get the humidity from living underground in the daytime. but she looks like a great little snake, good luck with her, and be sure to post pics of her as she gets bigger, and ask if you have any questions!
ps. for the price, she may have just been a pretty baby, most babies sell for around $80 and females seem to be a little more than males, so not a bad price for a healthy captive bred normal. Thank you for taking her into your home, i hate people who neglect their pets by not really caring about them.

Just for the sake of accuracy, BPs are not desert dwellers. They occupy savannahs (think big, flat field of grass) and jungle borders within their range. Since you have her in a plastic container, misting the substrate (paper towels, in this case) will creatly increase the humidity. This is great for removing that stuck shed, but can lead to problems, as mentioned. For now, leaving her with the p-towels wet overnite is not a bad idea...just change them in the morning - afternoon. From that point, simply having a water bowl in with her should maintain adequate humidity. If not, you can periodically mist one side of the enclosure lightly - to moisten, not soak, the substrate. I would do that during the next few shed cycles, just to be on the safe side

Just to respond to everything.. Whew, one work day and so many replies, I feel all fuzzy in side, lol.

Originally Posted by Southwick Herps

One concern I have looking at the picture.. it looks like the entire floor of the tub is wet. Thatd be bad, it could cause scale rote, and maybe URI..

The floor is actually wet due to whenever she constricted and rolled about with the mouse, she actually ran into the water bowl sloshing some of it down onto the paper towels. I figured that it wasn't a big deal as I was looking to increase the humidity with hopes of her shedding the patch of skin (about 1 foot long and a few inches in diameter), also she seemed a little dehydrated to me as I was removing as much shed as I could that wasn't stuck so much. I know I didn't put that in my last post, I was just trying to hurriedly type it out so I could get to work.

Originally Posted by hhmoore

sorry, the whole there's something going on with this one just gets to me (That has nothing to do with you, though).

The only reason I asked was because the girl perked my interest whenever she couldn't remember what she bought her as. After about 5 minutes of "Um" and "Uh" I threw out "Normal?" and she said something like, "Uhh.. Yeah, maybe.. I can't remember". So I was just asking, believe me I don't think of her as anything other than a beautiful little girl. I'm thankful to have found her.

Originally Posted by hhmoore

get a date

And if I did, I think my girlfriend would kill me.

Originally Posted by darkbloodwyvern

what kind of a tank/setup is she in? i agree with the scale rot issue, balls aren't swamp beasts, they need humidity not dampness.

She is in an almost four-and-a-half foot sweater box, heat-pad on one end. I have one large hide on the heated side for her to crawl in, as well as one on the cooler side. Her water is at the moment 1/4 on the heatpad in order to create a little bid of humidity.

Originally Posted by darkbloodwyvern

wouldn't get my hopes up converting her to rats too quick, but you could probably do it.

Yeah. I plan on getting a frozen mouse and kind of rubbing the rat down with it. Try to get some of the scent on them. Then store the others with the mouse in hopes that it will try to get her to change over. I don't think she'll have very many problems with changing over. She's a fiesty little girl.

Thank you all very much.