Ball Pythons

[Daahan]

I really want to get one of these and I was wondering if it's expensive to take care of and feed one. Any insight would be appreciated BG.

[Linliel]

i had a coastal carpet python and they're not hard to look after, but you have to be prepared to buy some expensive kit to set yourself up with (a good sized terrarium, good lights/ceramic heaters, timers, thermostats, etc.). I fed mine once a week as a baby and once a fortnight once he hit about 6 foot long. Ball pythons don't get that big so I'm not sure of the specifics, but you should be able to find some good keeping communities online that will have people happy to help you out. Just make sure you handle it a lot in a well controlled manner and it'll be quite tame

[Colenzo]

snakes dont eat often so no they dont cost a whole lot to take care of

[Linliel]

Yeah it doesn't cost as much as a dog or whatever, but you have to make sure you get a good source of good quality rats/mice/chickens (and don't feed solely chickens because they have very little nutritional value and are really just good as an extra snack to make the skin shine), which can be a bit more expensive than shit quality rats/mice/chickens.

[Ksandra]

I hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate snakes. So I tell you this Daahan out of love of the children we will have someday.

I dunno if this was a special case, but my old roommate had two snakes (fucking freaked me out constantly). she had a ball python and a boa constrictor.


The boa was like no maintenance, she even let it outside on the grass (would just lounge under her hat), and only had to be feed like once every 3 weeks and would eat anything.


The python on the other hand...it used to bite her a lot when it was hungry (which was every week). It had a hunger that couldn't be fed. It eventually wouldn't eat dead food, so she had to start buying live mice for it to eat, but then that wasn't enough and she had to start buying live rats for it to eat, and had to bring it to a feeding cage to watch it to make sure the rat didn't scratch the python's eyes out (I was rooting for the rat every time).

It got so expensive because the python seemed to be always hungry, and always biting because she was hungry that she eventually gave it up to a vet.


Now I know little about snakes nor do I care to know outside of they are the vilest creatures on earth, but you might wanna look it up and see if that was just a unique Ball Python, or if that particular type seems to be heavy eaters.


The Boa, even though he was a snake, was pretty chill, and was definitely the lesser of two evils.

[Linliel]

snakes should all be trained from a baby to take dead, defrosted mice. It's all a matter of training, really. If you don't pay attention to your snake you'll have a bitey aggressive snake. It's all about how you go about it. Sure they're wild animals but that doesn't mean they're not trainable to a certain degree. Especially when it comes to feeding.

[Ksandra]

snakes should all be trained from a baby to take dead, defrosted mice. It's all a matter of training, really. If you don't pay attention to your snake you'll have a bitey aggressive snake. It's all about how you go about it. Sure they're wild animals but that doesn't mean they're not trainable to a certain degree. Especially when it comes to feeding.

well I never went deep down to ask since I think they're gross, but I know for a fact these were like the 4th+5th snakes she had, and the boa she had longer than the ball, so I wouldn't say she wasn't good at training them considering how the boa turned out. She definitely paid a lot of fucking attention to them when I was her roommate. (watched a lot of tv with them around their necks which would freak me out ><; )


But obviously I wasn't there when they were babies so dunno if she went wrong somewhere, mostly just maybe need to look into if they are more aggressive than some other kinds. I know for other animals females tend to be more "active" as it were than males and the boa was male and the ball was female so that might have been it too.

[Kyo]

I have a black python and two balls, I hope this helps.

[Daahan]

The first encounter I ever had with a ball python was at a party back in college. The people who owned the place had one and the dude was carrying around with it him around his neck.

Despite the loud music and the 80 people poking it, the snake was incredibly docile. Also, when I talked to the dude at the pet store he said that ball pythons aren't aggressive and are tame.

I'll have to see if the pet store dude says if they can be aggressive and bite.

[Linliel]

honestly, each snake is different. And it has a lot to do with how much it's been handled, how it's been fed, how it was "brought up". Also sometimes they're just jerks. It's a bit of a luck of the draw type thing, but I handled mine a lot, though not much with lots of other people around, and I know that he would get a bit snappy if there were lots of people around because he would panic. He only bit me twice in my life, once when he was a little baby and once when my bf's dad was handling him (he was being a bit blase about it because he had several snakes and he panicked with lots of people around and lashed out at me since I was the nearest "threat").

It's usually neglect that makes them snappy though, especially some keepers if they get bitten once will label that snake "snappy" and then not handle it as much which just makes the whole thing worse.

[Rocl]

why arent there more penis jokes in this thread seriously

[Krye]

Why is your motto 'The more dick the better'?