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!!!