Snakes

[Kalrine]

Yes ball pythons can be a bit more difficult to take care of but I personally have never had that many issues. You simply have to pay attention to their needs and everything should run fairly smoothly. The only snake that I have issues sometimes with going off feed is my big guy, but he already needs a little extra attention since I basically rescued him from him first home and sometimes he has issues. But he is also the most gentle giant I have ever known. I have allowed kids to handle him and have done educational talks with him with no fear of him striking.

What it really comes down to is how well you know your snake. Believe it or not but all snakes have personalities. I have 3 ball pythons and each one behaves differently and likes different things within their tanks. I personally have found the work rewarding. I love having my fat lazy babies. I wouldn't trade them for anything.

Yeah, I guess I just really had too many bad experiences with bps. I do like them, they really are cute but I'm just scared of doing something wrong and ending up hurting the snake in the end if I were to get one. I'm happy with my little corn and I don't have space anyway to care for another snake at the moment. he grew so much since I got him two years ago <3

also a little question: everytime it's feeding time I lightly tap on his tank a few times. I do this to let him know I'm not feeding him if I don't tap on his tank and this way he doesn't bite me out of mistake. are you guys doing something similar with your noodles? c:

I haven't ever heard of someone doing that actually. My snakes generally know if it is feeding time or not based on scent. With my big boy all I have to do is set the paper bag down next to his tank and he immediately comes out of his hide as if he knows what is about to happen. My snakes always seem to act differently when I open their tanks to put in the rats vs when I open their tanks to pick them up. I've honestly never worried about being bitten (even with my female who can be a bit jumpy). I just pay attention to their body language.

On eating: I've had a couple BPs; some have been fantastic and never failed to eat a single meal (even pre-shed), but others are absolute nightmares. I've had a couple rescues brought to me that were just awful. One that I kept, Cleo, who even came from a reputable breeder, regularly went months off feed. 6 months is the average, 9 was the longest. Despite keeping her in ideal conditions, she's simply one of the worst eaters I've ever dealt with. I've had her maybe 3-4 years and it's still been another 6 months since she ate. But she has improved; previously, she would eat nothing other than live african soft furred rats. After two years of trying she gradually but finally switched to f/t normal rats. Her attitude for when she wants to eat is still terrible, but she maintains a chubby healthy weight and has never had any health issues. I offer her a rat every two weeks; most of the time she ignores it, but when she hits it, she hits it insanely hard. Nevertheless, she's by far my friendliest, sweetest snake, and BPs really have the best personality; they're not very difficult to keep either, so if a new owner gets one with a sound history of good feeding, I think they'd be fine.

On the matter of handling: I always feed my snakes late at night so they know I'm not going to give them food when I open the tank during the day. Even Sidious, a carpet python mix who previously was extremely aggressive, was quick to figure it out. Now the only time he jumps out of the tank is at night, lol. As soon as I open the tank he (and one of my other snakes who's almost as enthusiastic about eating) climbs up on the ledge in a flash & gets ready to strike out of the tank. Good thing he's pretty accurate, because he can strike most of his body length just by sitting there (he's around 6 feet). I have to hold the rat out with long tongs and when he bites it, pull him with it back into the tank so I can close the lid.

oops this got long

[-sMiLe-]

Tubs are great! Many breeders and hobbyists have found that tubs are great and even better than glass enclosures. A snake will do just as good in a tub, if not better, than another in a huge glass enclosure. Especially ball pythons, they are very shy, glass makes them feel very insecure. Not all, but I know many ball pythons who are not at all comfortable in glass, mine included.

I got my tub at Walmart, here's the link:
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Sterilite-10 ... k/43393262
There is also a completely black one too, which is actually cheaper than the clear one. For shy snakes.
Here's a pic with Khaa in it, just to show how big it actually is:
http://imgur.com/a/5404H
Baby pic, but this is big enough for Khaa to stay in for his whole life. Breeders use tubs smaller than this for their adult males. It may not be big enough to hold adult females comfortably though, since they get sooo much bigger than males.


As for bedding, you might have to go through some/experiment, see what works for you and your snake! I used to use aspen, as you can see from that photo, but not anymore. Its just too messy, and I moved since that pic and live somewhere with carpet. I can't be bothered with vacuuming up all that aspen, especially with a snake who likes to soak the cage up every few days. Paper towels or newspaper with me, clean up is so simple and easy and Khaa does great on it.

I do like the idea of the tub, but I feel like I would make the tub temporary while I'm building the enclosure or something, haha. But it's just how I am, I want to spoil my BP.

But I like that idea for a young ball python, then as he grows, build a real enclosure. Depending on how they are, haha. If it's a active BP I would definitely build an enclosure like I was originally planning to. But if I don't have to build an enclosure right away I won't, especially with how cheap the tubs are.

[Kalrine]

I haven't posted pics of Sidious in here for a long time, so:




My (around 6 feet long) carpet python mix boy. ^^

[taurus ;]

He's gorgeous!! Even though carpet pythons are among the few snakes that I am scared of and would never go near irl, they're very beautiful and I always like seeing pictures of them online ^^

What thing that I'm am sooo confused about, is how carpet pythons start out so tiney tiny and then grow up and get so huge. I feel new/inexperienced snake owners could completely mistake a carpet baby for a corn, king snake, something like that.

EDIT;
Also forgot to add Khaa went into shed!! I wear glasses, my vision isn't that good and I'm sooo horrible with noticing when he goes into shed, he still eats while he's in shed and everything. Even if I don't notice until his eyes go blue, its usually ok since I keep his humidity to where he can shed comfortably. The one thing that will tell me if I don't see it is his attitude. Khaa is just....mad at the world when he's in shed. He bit me three times and all I did was change his water ;; Ofc he has soaked his cage in pee, and I hate leaving him like that in there, but he's not letting me get anywhere near him.

[snowdrake]

♧ the last raven, I'm not scared of being bit or anything. kaa isn't fully grown and his teeth are tiny, in addition, he usually never bites unless he's mistaking my hand for food. only happened three times in the whole time I've owned him and honestly I never bled more than a single drop of blood. it's simply something I've 'taught' him and he doesn't seem to mind. I think it's pretty handy, if you feed your snake at random times they will immediately know when it's feeding time. I have no way to put the little bowl next to his cage so he sees it. honestly I doubt he'd even notice it xD

@ kalrine
I guess I'm just a little scared of doing things wrong. I've simply had too many bad experiences with bps in the past and until I've gotten more experienced with keeping different snake species I'll keep away from them. not that I'd have enough space and money for another tank anyway lol
personally I'm against tubs due to multiple reasons (you can see my opinion in the "annoying things people do to/with your pets" thread. though, be prepared for a very... strong opinion), so that's also not an option for me.

sidious is adorable!! I'd love to own a carpet python one day but I'm quite far from being prepared enough and having the time and money for another snake (school sucks). the next snake I'm thinking of getting once I can afford it is either a sand boa or a boa constrictor. as for the constrictor I'm thinking something smaller, definitely not a red tail. I'll probably go for a longicauda or a crawl cay. question to all: which one would you rather go for?

here are two pictures of kaa:

[blueh]

ahhhh my boys are so pretty

[The Last Raven]

i haven't shared any of my babies recently. They have all gotten really fat. Even my little Mushu.


Loki - m - 1267g


Darcy - f - 894g


Mushu - m - 474g

[Kalrine]

oops, awfully late reply, and long post.
@halogen. @hinode
thank you!
Sidious was very aggressive at the beginning due to complete negligence of handling for 2 years, but he calmed down with regular handling (still on a daily basis, considering I usually have him with me for hours). If I leave him alone for more than a few days he goes back to being aggressive. He does have very, very big teeth and an attitude though... so despite going out with me the most, he's the only one I don't let people hold, lol. Still my favourite though; he's got the most personality out of any snake I've ever met. When I take them to the park & the other snakes try to wander off, Sid slithers around close for about 15-20 minutes and coils up as fast as I've ever seen a snake coil when he's had enough of exploring. Don't know if he actually recognizes me (I highly doubt that, considering most snakes only recognize habits, not people, even if there are a couple snake species that seem more clever) or he just likes the warmth. And another thing I'm not sure is typical with some snakes, but worth mentioning: he absolutely hates the snake bag. All the others love it (8 snakes total): it's warm, it's safe, they can't see dangers, but he cannot stand it. He thrashes like you wouldn't believe until I open it, then he just gets out to sit on top of it. At this point I don't even use it, I just let him coil up on the car seat and he sits perfectly still the whole drive. I'll try to get a pic of that too sometime.
Got a pic of him coiling at the park & an extra of him angry that I tried to put him in the bag:



As for the boas:
I lean towards longicauda. Largely because of appearance and the supposedly docile temperament I hear about; however, both are such rare species of snake, I very rarely see them. I think the crawl cay is even rarer than the longicauda. But the longicuada is apparently a pretty forgiving boa and prefers temps on the cooler side, which are good things imo. If you find a breeder, let me know! lol I'd definitely be interested in one should it appear. Have you considered a caye caulker boa though? They're pretty similar to the crawl cay, but easier to find.

On a note mentioned earlier in this post: how intelligent do you guys think snakes are?

[FLYBOY]

Hey, I have a question. If I have a separate feeding enclosure for my snake, how large should it be? I always feed mine outside of his ordinary enclosure so he knows not to strike at anything entering that space, and so he doesn't accidentally swallow any of his bedding. I have a small tank (I think that's the word?) I use to feed him in and he's always done fine for it but now that he's getting a bit larger I'm concerned it might be too small for him to comfortably eat in. So does anyone know if there's some good ratio of the snake's size to the size of the feeding area that I should be gunning for?

[snowdrake]

Hey, I have a question. If I have a separate feeding enclosure for my snake, how large should it be? I always feed mine outside of his ordinary enclosure so he knows not to strike at anything entering that space, and so he doesn't accidentally swallow any of his bedding. I have a small tank (I think that's the word?) I use to feed him in and he's always done fine for it but now that he's getting a bit larger I'm concerned it might be too small for him to comfortably eat in. So does anyone know if there's some good ratio of the snake's size to the size of the feeding area that I should be gunning for?

I always feed my corn inside of his tank. he's never had any problems with swallowing bedding or striking at anything else other than the jumpers. even if your snake swallows some bedding it shouldn't be a big deal (unless it's big bedding bits like pieces of wood, as I have), snakes eat dirt in the wild all the time because their prey is dirty. as for the size I'd say your snake should be able to at least somewhat stretch out it's whole body. it's just a temporary enclosure so it's not particularly important for it to be able to roam around.

@kalrine
I think I'll go for the longicauda then as well! I am a beginner with boas after all and they seem like they are easier to care for than the crawl cays. the cay caulkers are also amazing, though! I already know a breeder, but he is german (like me, I don't really like snakes being shipped over). if you know how to talk german I can send you a link, though cx