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Sub sahara ball python

Just got her Thursday last week. She has pretty large follicles. We'll be ultrasounding hopefully next week. I'm hoping she mated in the wild, and that she'll have a bunch of volts giants or subsaharan giants, however people want to name them. To any nay-sayers, it's absolutely, without question a MUCH larger than regular ball python. I can't wait for her to get really big!
 
For all we know, it's just her age that makes her large.

Another large, reproducing female yanked out of the wild for the sake of the almighty dollar. So sad.
 
I dont think that is the case as I have seen 20 yr old pythons. Yes they are big but the head is not as big as I have seen on these.
 
I've kept females over 3000 grams in 48x32x18" enclosures. I enjoy seeing the big girls stretch out though. With bigger snakes come bigger rodents and it was a lot less stressful for me to watch them have plenty of room to make a clean kill.

As for the sub-saharan debate, I'm not sure what the deal is, but I know I have seen some giant ball pythons that swamp my biggest girls, more than double the size. I don't know why, but if we saw this with other animals, say horses twice the size as normal, it would definitely stem some interest.
 
Thanks Nick for the advice on tub dimensions. Time will tell hopefully in 3 or 4 yrs I can see If this " big gene" gets passed to others or the naysayers are right there is no such thing as a giant ball
 
I'm also quite skeptical as the this whole situation. I would still like to see this head though. I have a 4000+ gram girl who is just a monster but IMO she is just a big ball.
 
Im gonna pull few older female balls I have. My oldest is about 14 now she is maxed out as far as size not much has changed with her in a few yrs. I'm gonna try to get side by side shots. Hopefully wife will help with this. I gotta go out and ship out few balls after work. After I make and eat dinner I will snap some pics.
 
Here is a shot when I put her in her tub. There is not a whole lot to compare her to. Hopefully wife helps me snap some pics tonight
 

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Just for an idea, here's a shot of the head of mine. She really is way bigger than a regular ball. I can't believe people have to question this so much just because the name of "sub saharan" or "Volta" was given to it. I guess you just have to see it in person to understand...oh well.
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I had several just depends on what region they were collected who really know where they came from "but they all come from sub saharen africa"
 
Yes we know that but that seems to be the name that stuck does it make sense no. But do half the names made up for snakes make sense. When u say sub sahara snake most people know that it refers to. Big ball
 
I would be interested, ok, not really, but I wonder if all the big females called Sub Saharan come from the same location, or, based on their age, are just a group of large older females that someone slapped a marketing name on? I think ripping older female Balls out of the wild is a shame....but the practice will continue as long as their are buyers.

Dave
 
A quickie of my big girl.... she is 3750g in these pics and around 12 years old. Has been in captivity for at the least most of her life, she could be captive bred but I don't know, I just know she was a pet for most of her life. She should be having her first clutch this yr. She is massive and built entirely different than my other females who range 1300-2600g (hard to explain, but you can feel it) Huge head on her. I don't know if she is a "Sub-Saharan" but I do believe her size can be attributed to both age and genetics.

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here she is with a 1100g male Huffman.
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Ya that big head is probally a good indicator. I had a male few years ago was absolutely huge wanna say close to 4000 grams he died from old age. I had him since I was a kid. I should have breed him back then but I was not into breeding then.
 
"Sub-Saharan":)rofl:)...and I've also seen these BIG gene girls labeled Voltas, from a specific locale. While size is hereditary, thinking of this as a new gene is kind of ridiculous in my opinion. Logical thinking would lead me to believe...

1) These HUGE girls are older.

2) If they are in fact being collected from a specific locale, the possibility of it being an area that for whatever reason lacks in more formidable predators is a very real one. I would imagine that whatever is preying on ball pythons is very likely also preying on what ball pythons eat, which would, as expected, lead to higher populations of prey items for the ball pythons to eat. I'd compare it to a less stressful environment promoting maximum growth...along the lines of Kodiak bears and Komodo dragons. Sure we would still see giant examples of either, but not nearly as many and as consistently if they were to live in a more competitive environment.
 
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