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[bonus41]

here is a new baby i picked up from Winnipeg reptiles yesterday, hes a normal male ball python,







I'm hoping for him to chill out, he is very nippy striking at anything and also leaving marks 3x the size of milo the corn snake did

 

[Crewella]

Awwwwww - I love ball pythons, though they can be very shy ..... hence the name.  They have the cutest faces! 

Make sure he has places in his vivarium to hide away. 

[RedwoodsMama]

 Congrats Bonus on your gorgeous new baby! What is "HIs" name ? He does have gorgeous markings, very pretty. What is his size as the photo gives no clue. How old is he, I know very little about snakes but like the way they look.

     Only problem I have with snakes is that I could not feed a live animal to another as it's meal. I can't even feed worms to my fish without feeling guilty and sad for the worms afterwards. If they are freeze dried blood worms, it is easier. I know that the pet stores sell what are called, "Pinkies" ( baby, very young still Pink naked little mice to reptile owners, such as for pet snakes. ) I also know people buy "feeder goldfish" for their bigger fish, turtles, etc, and even more disturbing to me, is that some places, ( none around here luckily.. ) use to sell rabbits to snake owners for food, the really large snakes, and I mean full grown adult rabbits. And of course there are rats and other large rodents for food. I know there are some places now that sell frozen dead mice and such for snakes, but some snakes will only eat live prey.   I know it is natural and does not bother some people, but being a vegetarian, and someone who even moves snails and fuzzy caterpillers off roads and sidewalks when I see them, I could not feed a live animal however small to another one.
           I wouldn't mind owning a snake , not a really big one of course, just a smaller one, if I could feed it plant life or frozen pellets or something that did not resemble a live animal. I love the patterns snakes have on them and I know they do have lovely feeling skin, not what you would expect, not slimy or scaly or hard, really smooth and they are so so strong, more than you would expect. I did own a box turtle, Myrtle the turtle, and she was such a nice turtle. She loved strawberries in particular and was a lot faster than you thought. Somebody stole her from me years ago, and there was no way to prove they had taken her either.

             Thanks for sharing the photos of your new baby. I hope you don't get bitten. Do you still have your other snake, forgot the type?
                                                           RWM

[fancyfont]

He's gorgeous! Love the markings.

[kat]

Such a pretty little fellow.    Beautiful 

[Lunamione7]

He is so cute!

[bonus41]

So far he has no name yet, i seem to have troubles naming now a days from naming all the hamsters and other creatures at the pet store. He's a 2011 hatch so just about a year, I'd say he's about 3 feet long and about 3 inches in girth just at looking at him he's been very timid and shy. i always feed frozen/thawed to the snakes; Fuzzies mice for the corn, and wen rats for the python, i never fed live before (excepts super worms) but i think i could handle it but rats can get very aggressive towards the snake a rat bite could easily get infected. plus i think i would end up keeping half the feeder mice for pets. we had a couple incidents at the pet store when i guy bought 4 fancy show rabbits but never came back for any supplies, later on he bought 6 more for his niece, later on a good customer asked where all the rabbits went we told them that this guy bought 10 rabbits... they told us that he is a close friends with this guy and told us that he was using these rabbits as feeders for his 17 foot Burmese python which is not only illegal to own here it's also illegal to feed live animals with out putting the creature to sleep first...   

[Crewella]

It's legal to keep Burmese pythons in the UK (too cold - they don't survive if they escape) but it is illegal to feed live prey animals.  Thankfully.  As you say, it can also be dangerous for the snake as well as pretty cruel. 

[RedwoodsMama]

 I am so glad to hear that it is illegal to feed live animals, like rabbits to snakes where you live. I don't know the rules here in the US. I had a terrible memory as a preschool teacher back in the late eighties or early 90's. A pet store that is no longer in business, lent some exotic frogs and other snakes, reptiles to our school during the curriculum on reptiles.( The frog actualy ate rats, etc, very scary to think children could put their hands in their and get bitten by it...( he didn't tell us just how nasty this frog could be.. ) Before bringing the reptiles to our school, he invited our school on a field trip to the pet store and to see what they had. What we did not know at the time, was that when we got there, he was in the process of feeding a "cute little bunny" to a big Boa Constrictor.  I mean HUGE! The first four or five kids got there in time to see the snake grab the bunny and start to coil and wrap around the poor bunny and begin the slow torture of suffercation and all the suffering that goes with it. One little girl screamed, another little boy hugged my leg and hid his head crying.
A couple of the kids just stood there not knowing what was going on..I hurredly escorted everyone out of there before the remaining 22 children and other teachers could witness what was happening. I was very upset. Imagine children going home to tell their parents what they witnessed....the nightmares that could and did follow, including my own. I protested that this was not appropriate for children this age, and certainly not without parent's permission to what their children would be seeing. ONe teacher thought it was "natural and healthy" for children to see "life as it is", natural selection. Bullcrap...... Life is creul but not at this age, children should not be subjected to it, and I as a parent would be mad and upset to think that a school chose to do this without my consent. I am the one that has to deal with explaining to my crying child about why the bunny was crushed with it's eye popping out and screaming...I have to deal with the nightmares, bedwetting and other acting out from this stress....................bad choice. I am glad that pet shop went out of business.
          Just my opinion, but I am glad that their are rules and rights for animals. Life is cheap and I know other animals need to eat, but thank God that the "food" animals have rights to humane treatment as well. Thanks for telling me about the rules where you live Bonus and Crewella, It is nice to know some people do care about the etchical treatment of animals.      RWM

[bonus41]

the poor kids, i remember awhile ago when i first started working at the pet store. A kid to small to read the words "Employee Only" followed me in the back with out me noticing, and ran out crying when he saw me counting out frozen mice for a customer. He believed that pet stored kill there animals. The sad part was his mom wasn't even in the mall with him she was down the highway at walmart. so i sat down and took out a bunny to cheer him up, his mom didn't show up till 2 hours later, when this kid was just 5. It kinda upset me that she just left him on his own in a mall full of people..

[Lunamione7]

I have never owned a snake but I had a pet blue tongue lizard for a long time. He was wild but one day he just decided to let himself into my kitchen and never left. I shooed him out the first few times but he kept getting back in and I couldn't work out how so I made him a house out of a cardboard box and fed him banana on a stick. He would lick the stick like a lollipop and he would only eat if I put the food on the stick first, would not eat from bowl.