I recently stumbled upon your site here the other day and thought it was a pretty neat source of information. I've got two normal ball python females - one is almost 4lbs and 3foot7inches named Valentine. The other is about 2lbs, 3foot, and named Romeo (both we had hoped would be male but ended up female. oops.)
I've always loved reptiles from the get-go. When I was very little my family had three bearded dragons which we had to adopt off because of a move where we wouldn't be able to take them.
However my love for snakes came later, in my fourth grade year of elementary school. For my elementary school, at the time, it was tradition to have an end of the year - last day of school event for the k-4th while the 5th graders had their own event for 'graduating' elementary school. That year they brought the reptile man and in our great gym hall we all sat on the floor and watched as he handled these reptiles with ease. At one point he brought out a jouvenile, 5ft long Reticulated python male. He asked who wanted to hold it - of course every child raises their hand and I didn't think he'd ever pick me. Well he picked me. I got up and stood up in front of everyone, in a frilly easter green dress, and he put this (at the time massive!) snake over my shoulders. Right as he let go he then proceeded to tell the audience that sometimes, with bigger snakes, if they're trying to look you in the eye you shouldn't look at them back because they might take it as a threat and strike.....This male was trying to look me in the eye.
As scared as I had been then, years later i'm still in love with snakes. At one point I met Romeo - at the time 1 year old. She was healthy and doing great, and i wanted one for myself since she was owned by a friend! For christmas of 2010 my mom buckled and gave me the beautiful Valentine(who appears to be a normal but has vibrant yellow and burnished bronze coloring). This last april I turned 18 and coincidentally the owner of Romeo wasn't taking very good care of her due to lack of time, and was trying to find her a safe home where she would be treated well. So for my birthday my dad bought Romeo and her setup for me. Romeo at the time was very scrawny and her scales were downright dull.
I'm happy to say that Romeo is now feeding regularly (and heavily) after a territorial phase where she wouldn't wait for me to feed her in her "kill-box" and was striking at me in her tank. She was just being impatient, because she realized she was being fed regularly and whenever she wanted. Thankfully she never actually bit since I had a makeshift snake-hook to keep her head clear while I grabbed her and put her in her feed-box. She's now got her shiny iridescence back and is back to being a sleek, shiny and getting fatter ball python. I'll never breed her though - her growth was shunted a bit too much for me to ever feel comfortable putting her through that.
Valentine however - is a gorgeous girl and already 1700 or so grams... I won't breed her for a couple years yet due to lack of space and resources, but a friend has a large 4ft long male 'freak' ball python named Medusa that I might set Valentine up with to see what they make.
I've talked here more about my snakes than me, but that's because I love my darling girls with all my heart. But about me - I'm an artist that recently graduated highschool, and am in the process of going to college. I work with various different mediums (digital, woodburning, pencil, india ink, you name it.) and love to create fantasy creatures and make them seem like they could thrive if plopped into the real world. I'm just here because I love my snakes - and sometimes I need a bit of help with them and I only have one friend now with ball pythons, and she is in the same position as i am; learning.
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