World's luckiest first time ball owner!

[End Times]

I just thought I'd share the excellent transition I have been having with my new snake. This snake is fantastic, a pleasure to handle and thus far problem free! Allow me to elaborate with a brief timeline:

Tuesday, July 5, 2005

Adopted "Hercules" from the North Bay Humane Society. Previous owner apparently moved away to fight forest fires, leaving the snake in his mother's care who wanted nothing to do with it. She surrendered it to the Humane Society on July 4, 2005. Woman claimed that the snake is 1.5 years of age and that it ate a live mouse approximately two weeks prior. She stated that the snake was named "Hercules" and that it was originally purchased at Pet Valu in North Bay. The woman seemed to think the snake was male, but without having it probed it is impossible to know its sex at this time.

Wednesday, July 6, 2005

Handled Hercules for a few minutes today. The snake appeared comfortable with its brief time out of its enclosure and was perfectly tame. I kept the handling session extremely brief in order to not stress the animal out.

"Hercules" is currently housed in a 35 gallon aquarium with a steel cage top. If there are any problems with husbandry in the future, the snake will be moved to a rubbermaid container for easier control of temp and humidity. Warm side sits at around 96 degrees while the cool side is sitting at 85 degrees. I'd like to see both ends a couple of degrees cooler, but with the hot summer we're having it likely won't happen for awhile.

Thursday, July 7, 2005

Hercules defecated today. Visually, all appears well. No visible parasites or anything. I've taken a sample to see about having a vet test it.

Saturday, July 9, 2005

"Hercules" accepted a live mouse today! I'm so glad that he/she accepted food the very first time I offered it. The snake waited patiently in its hide, never twitching a muscle as the rodent pranced about the aquarium and poked its head into the hide several times. Finally the mouse entered the hide and "Hercules" struck. After swallowing his/her meal, "Hercules" curled up in his hide above the UTH. I'll now leave the snake in peace for a couple of days to allow it time to digest.

Monday, July 11, 2005

Stretched "Hercules" out today and measured him/her. The snake is 37 inches, perhaps a little longer as I was unable to get a small kink out of his neck without forcing.

Friday, July 15, 2005

I decided to transfer "Hercules" to a rubbermaid after doing more research. To date, I haven't had trouble with the husbandry in the tank, but I figured I might as well take the plunge and get it over with as I intended to eventually move the snake into this more suitable style of housing anyway.

Saturday, July 16, 2005

This afternoon I weighed "Hercules". The snake came up to 900 grams.

Later in the evening, I decided to take the plunge and begin the battle from live to F/T. To my extreme surprise, "Hercules" accepted a frozen medium rat within seconds of it being offered! I am thrilled that I converted him so easily to F/T!



Man, could it be any easier?!? This snake is awesome. Totally tame, went from live mice to F/T rats in a single week, and after being transferred from an aquarium to a rubbermaid only the day before! The snake struck, constricted while I gave the rat a few "death wiggles" to make the snake feel like the "big man" and then devoured it in front of my wife and I as we sat maybe 3 feet away with the lid off of the rubbermaid!

Sorry about the long-winded post, I'm just so excited that my snake is doing so well. Being my first, and the fact that I got it from an unknown source, had me a little worried. But all is well, just glad I did so much research prior to getting it and since acquiring it as well. Thanks to all of you who have helped me out here on sSNAKESs!

[havenbounce]

Congrats on the adjustments Herc seems to be achieving with ease. Sounds like he might have had f/t before. Glad to hear he took to it quickly.
So do you feel like a "proud papa"?lol
Ginnette

[mykee]

Congratulations, but your hot/cool spots are both too high. Drop your hot spot to 90-95, and your cool spot to 78-80.

[Edmond Y]

From what I can see is you are a very good pet owner. Your record is excellent. I feel happy for your snake to have you with him.
Edmond

[greenman1867]

Thats great, congrats and welcome to the world of Ball Pythons :)

[End Times]

Congrats on the adjustments Herc seems to be achieving with ease. Sounds like he might have had f/t before. Glad to hear he took to it quickly.
So do you feel like a "proud papa"?lol
Ginnette

Thanks. Apparently, he's eaten nothing but live mice his entire life (according to the woman that surrendered the snake to our shelter) so I was quite surprised when he/she took to it so quickly! And yes, I think I do feel like a "proud papa"! lol

Congratulations, but your hot/cool spots are both too high. Drop your hot spot to 90-95, and your cool spot to 78-80.

Thanks, Mykee, and yeah I know it's a little warm in there, but we're having a massive and unusual heat wave in my area so getting it lower is damn near impossible without installing an air conditioner in the room where the snake is!

From what I can see is you are a very good pet owner. Your record is excellent. I feel happy for your snake to have you with him.
Edmond

Thank you. Yeah, I decided to keep a detailed record of the snake's activities right from the beginning, it'll make things easier for me later as I intend to get more and figure if each has a record of sorts it'll be simple for me to know who fed/shed/crapped when etc.

[Rikki]

Very nice, im glad he is going to have a good home :)

[Briawna]

I am gonna get a ball python soon im so excited

[HumphreyBoagart]

That is awesome that your ball is doing well for you, it's not always easy getting them to switch over. My guess is that it snatched up the f/t rat because it was so damn hungry. If it is just over 3 feet, 1 mouse is way too small for it. It probably would have eaten an apple if you offered one.
Like Mykee said, it is too hot. You can not just wait until the weather gets cooler for the heat to go down. Your snake could be cooked by then. That is just irresponsible if you ask me. You know it's too hot, but you're going to just wait until the weather cools down!?! So in the winter when the enclosure is too cold, are you just gonna wait until the weather gets warmer, instead of adding more heat yourself? And just so you know, I have seen digital thermometers that are as much as 3 degrees off, so your 96 could very well be a 99. You need to adjust the temperature now. Well actually, the temperature should have been adjusted before the animal even went in the enclosure, but we won't get into that.
If you are planning on getting a bunch of ball pythons, I highly recommend getting the husbandry right on the one you've got for now, and then maybe think about getting more. I am not trying to be a **** either, I know that you want what's best for your snake, I just want what's best for your snake too. And best is cooler.
Good luck,
Craig

[End Times]

Um, first of all, get your facts straight. My temps are now fine, and I was not waiting for summer to be over, I was waiting for a rather unusual and unexpected heat wave to be over, which it now is, thereby returning my temps to where they ought to be. Oh, and it's not like my temps were sky-rocketing, I hardly think that a Warm side of 96 and a cool side of 85 for a couple days would prove lethal to a snake from frigging Africa. And irresponsible? Do YOU have an air conditioner in YOUR snake room? Yeah, didn't think so.

And I know one mouse isn't enough for a snake of this size. Thus the reason I switched it to rats. It was the previous owner that was feeding live mice to it. I fed it one, and only one, mouse upon first acquiring it just to make sure it had some nourishment in it before I began the F/T battle (which luckily for me turned out to not be a battle at all).

Don't take this too personally. I just think you were jumping to some conclusions there with that post.

[HumphreyBoagart]

Sorry Buddy, I was only going by the "facts" that you gave me. :med2teeth
And yep your absolutly right, I don't have an air conditioner in my snake room. It's actually a central air unit that is outside, but there is a register in my snake room. :med2teeth
I think that maybe YOU took it a little too personal, I never said that you shouldn't feed it mice cause they're too small, I said it was probably soo hungry from being fed too small of prey items. :med2teeth

Cya :med2teeth

[nita]

chuckle, I have an airconditioner in my snake room, happens to be my bedroom too. LOL, they aren't that expensive actually. Glad your enjoying your snake and I'm sure he will do fine for you. Nice that he switched over so well for you, want to send some of that luck my way please!!