Anybody here with Balls???

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J

John Boy

Guest
Morning Folks,
I'm wondering:

Who's got Balls here? I just had the Camera out for a little All-Star-Shooting! If you have Balls too, let's have a ball!:poke:

Here are some of mine:

Molly, my brand new Calico:

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Calico magic:

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Fagin, Pastel het. Pied:

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Fivel, the mouse-walker, and by rights a Mystic Potion:

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And one with the family, and Ingrid, a Piebald!

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And finally: some fine art:

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Well, that's all for now! What do you think?:D
 
Wow

What a collection of ball pythons!!!

When I was in the zoo biz I would always recommend these over Burmese since these stay small and are generally very tame.

My oldest son has one that has done very well for him. But that is great breeding:clap::clap:
 
Never heard of Ball Python's but after some google'ing I found out what this topic is about.

I can only say that I'm impressed by the wonderfoul colours and patterns your small friends are covered with John. Fivel is espescially wonderfull, I really like it's colours! :D

A question though how large do they actually grow?

I have an interest in reptiles but I'm restraining to getting into that hobby. Allthough the thought of getting a Gekko keeps coming up in my mind on a regular basis.
 
Marc, I've been reading for about 2 years, before getting started. I guess it's a good way to do this, since there's more to it than just buying the animals. Balls stay small, girls will get up to 2-3 KG's, boys stay smaller!!!

There's good stuff happening on Youtube about this, the 2 I watch every time are:

http://www.youtube.com/user/ralphdavis?feature=grec_index

http://www.youtube.com/user/jkobylka

and Snakebytes:
http://www.youtube.com/user/SnakeBytesTV

All these people supply first grade information, some with a more serious aproach, Brian and his crew with a bit more fun to it... But: They'll all teach you the basics!
 
Never heard of Ball Python's but after some google'ing I found out what this topic is about.

I can only say that I'm impressed by the wonderfoul colours and patterns your small friends are covered with John. Fivel is espescially wonderfull, I really like it's colours! :D

A question though how large do they actually grow?

I have an interest in reptiles but I'm restraining to getting into that hobby. Allthough the thought of getting a Gekko keeps coming up in my mind on a regular basis.

Leopard Gecko's make great pets, and they are also being bred with a lot of color styles.

Many years I knew a guy in Texas who bred several color forms of rhinoceros vipers. But I wouldn't recommend them as pets!!
 
Beautiful Pythons!

...and now, thanks to Rick, I have to go check out Leopard Geckos too. :wink:
 
Wow... love them all. Unfortunately, Singapore do not allow exotics.. if not I would have kept lots of them..
 
I love ball pythons, but I already have too many snakes. I used to breed corn snakes. Now I'm down to 3 corns, 2 of my own breeding (1 albino and 1 heterozygous normal/albino) and the albino patriarch. I also have a black Sonoran king snake and a grey banded king. I love snakes, but enough is enough....over 2 decades of killing mice and cleaning smelly poop is too much. These things live forever too....Its so much easier, or at least convenient, to keep leopard geckoes and tortoises. I've tried to breed T. horsfeldii tortoises, but my male can't figure out how to do it..........
 
Eric,
We all seem to have the same concerns. It seems the normal way to get started with corns, to grow into balls, and (in serious cases) ending up with retics and boas. For my part, I’ll never end up there. As a matter of fact, adult balls still scare the hell out of me, and I much rather had, that balls stayed the 100-200 grams size animal. But that’s just me being me…
My biggest obstacle before getting started was: their food (mice & rats), enhanced by that fact, that it’s better to feed them life-foods over frozen. In the U.S. its standard procedure, but here in Europe everyone tries to talk you into much healthier life-rodents. After all, there’s the fun/hunting part within life food also…
As a total beginner I came to the point, where I just accepted that things are handled differently, depending on “what continent you’re talking to”. The other thing I’m quite squeamish about is getting bit. Don’t ask me why, but they are snakes. That basically boils down to: you have to be scared of them!. Yeah, today I realise that’s just me, or a lot of balls... and not the facts.
For the first few days handling my (now) 7 balls I was shaking, until I realised: that I was a total idiot about it, and being sacred was pointless, since I don’t get bit, because I had been paying attention to Justin (Morphs 101) and Brian (Snakebytes) and was handling them the proper way. That doesn’t mean they’ll never get me from now on, but at least I can handle them now, without near enough fainting. Odour and bad smelling things was another point. Since my bunch are all kids, the size of available poop every once in a week is not really an issue. The stuff pretty much dries up in their cages before I come along to spot-clean. What remains a bit of an issue is feeding them life mice. I’m at the point where I start feeding frozen/thawed food as well. Keeping life mice stinks more than anything else. So, I’m trying to get away from that, especially since I’m planning to grow the collection a bit further, planning to ultimately start breeding in about a year or so. We’ll have to wait and see. As far as I can see it’s pretty important to have done all your homework! With a life-expectancy of round about 35-40 years!!! Balls certainly are a long term investment, as well as a considerable responsibility. Another aspect is money. Getting into the colour-morphs you’ll be talking rather considerable $$$, so again it’s important to know what you’re doing. But even if someone just wants their one normal 20 bucks ball-python, they need to get their setup right, to be successful. From what I’ve seen and learnt over the last few weeks I can say: Balls are totally amazing animals. They have amazing personalities, and handled to proper way, they are totally relaxed as well as inquisitive and patient with us humans. And they don’t bite you, unless you force them to… I’m hooked!!!


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Wow, they're so beautiful! I used to keep ribbon snakes and littel brown snakes when I was a kid. Haven't had any for decades now. I could get into these; but, the feeding of rodents puts me off a bit. I checked out the Internet and there's a breeder close to me. What a setup he has! ....And the colours of his snakes! .....And the prices! Wow! He ended up quitting his job to raise ball pythons! http://http://ballpython.ca/index.html
 
For the first few days handling my (now) 7 balls I was shaking, until I realised: that I was a total idiot about it, and being sacred was pointless, since I don’t get bit, because I had been paying attention to Justin (Morphs 101) and Brian (Snakebytes) and was handling them the proper way. That doesn’t mean they’ll never get me from now on, but at least I can handle them now, without near enough fainting.

Things are like this, no matter what you are afraid of. Once you overcome your fears you'll see there was no reason to be afraid, only you didn't know the "thing" and you didn't know how to handle it yet.

Good job fighting the fears, so far! :)
 
They are beautiful!

I like the wild critters in their native lands - comes from being up to my eyeballs in invasive things here on the farm. One native species we prize here on the farm are the black snakes. Wonderful mousers and ratters. I have one who does a wonderful job keeping the starlings out of the porch roof.
 
I've always loved snakes...used to catch them as a kid...loads of garters, plus water snakes, 5 ft long black racers, and rarely, milksnakes. But I hate feeding them. I won't stick frozen mice in my freezer with food, so I buy them live...kill them for the corns...they are hand raised and incompetent at killing, but the king snakes have to have them alive. But as bad as the poop is,,,nothing is worse than the puke! Especially after its been in them a few days!!!!
 
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