Long story… help identifying

[frawoo]

Long story but here goes!

Disclaimer - I am a total novice. I realise some of what I did/didn’t do was not what a lot of you. Confirmation bias and google had a lot to do with my decisions along the way.

Back in April me and my daughter bought a ball python for her birthday.

It was in a dingy pet shop and housed with loads of other ball pythons. It was sold to us as a 2y male.

I spent a long time creating a nice environment for “Timmy” (my daughter chose this name)

Timmy would not eat. I tried everything. He lost a fair bit of weight but I kept trying different prey and methods. Eventually after shedding Timmy began to eat large mice! Bingo! Then a few weeks later he didn’t want to leave his hide.

I went away for a few days and a friend came to check on him. He still wouldn’t come out to eat…

When I came back….

Timmy… had laid eggs. A miracle of modernity? Or miss sold as a male!? Haha

5 eggs total. And suddenly Timmy is ravenous always coming out for food.

I’m panicking. No clue what to do, total novice. What I thought was a male snake, lays eggs after 3 months!?!

I decide SHE should look free her own eggs, maternal incubation. Loss on google to support this. In retrospect probably an error. But I’m a pet owner not breeder, love this snake and so does my daughter so we want her to rear her own babies!

Skip 48 days…

Been checking the eggs now and again and leeping humidity high. They seem ok but I’m worried. I’m a novice. Pluck up the courage to candle, super late in the day. Didn’t want to move them so managed to do it in situ. And yes veins.

3 days ago one hatched.

Then it stayed just the head out for 30h and Timmy is going wild crawling all over it and the eggs, my daughter thinks the babies are getting squashed.

So I removed them and cut the remaining 4 eggs… I know I know…

2 had not lived. Sad news but Timmy was small and I figured the fact any survived was a miracle.

But then I realised, Timmy was housed with loads of other “males”…

WHOS THE DAD?

Are these some crazy morph combo weird blend of genes?

Maybe you can help…

Please don’t tell me all the things I’ve done wrong, I WILL NEVER DO THIS AGAIN.

Thanks in advance and much love. Frawoo

[armiyana]

Mistakes happen and you have been on one heck of a rollercoaster! I’m so glad that Timmy (Timmothea?) is doing better and that you seem to have 2 pretty good looking hatchlings so far!

Identifying will be much easier when they are both out of the egg and have had their first shed. Also if you want to post a pic of mom we can let you know if she looks to have anything.

As a warning…this can happen again. Ball pythons can retain sperm and use it again for the next season. Then it’s rare but they can still produce viable eggs through parthenogenesis.

Hatchlings can be a little tricky to get started sometimes, but the best thing to do would be to separate them out from mom and get them started in a small plastic storage box or ‘tub’. They usually won’t eat until a couple days after they shed. I start my little guys on rat fuzzies or mouse hoppers.

[frawoo]

Amazing, thanks! They are in a separate box now here is a pic of Timmy

Really appreciate your reply

[caryl]

You and your daughter have really had a wild intro to snake keeping!

Just fyi, we can’t see the photo of the Snake Formerly Known as Timmy. Please try again and let it finish uploading before posting.

[frawoo]

Thanks Caryl. Have done so x

[lavender-herps]

That is one roller coaster of a snake keeping adventure! I’m just here to agree with @armiyana , nothing much else to say here XD