Hi guys! As some of you may know, I got a ball python! His name is Pip and he is 8 months old. He was sold to me as a banana chocolate leopard pastel lace :D!
I thought I’d share some pictures of our first handling session!
Is this good for a first handling session? The whole time he was exploring and tongue flicking. He only got a bit nervous at the start and when I put him back in his enclosure. Does he look healthy? Thanks!
He’s a great looking little BP for sure! Congratulations and love the name! . Has he eaten yet? If not I would not handle him too frequently until he has eaten for you at least 3 times, 4 times is better but 5 consecutive times is even better! Sometimes bps take a bit of alone time to destress from the shipping trip and then being introduced to a completely new environment. This is your main goal.
After that you’ll be able to enjoy one on one with him a bit more. Again congratulations @dolls_sweet_exoticsss! He’s a sweetheart!
You might want to post a description and photos of the enclosure and its parameters, and also whatever info you got on the snake (feeding history, at least). These are the issues that cause problems for new keepers, and are worth double-checking early on.
Thank you so much! He took his very first meal perfectly this past Wednesday, and I made sure to give him a full 3 days of total alone time to digest before taking these quick pictures today. I’m definitely spacing out his handling so he can keep destressing, I appreciate the congratulations! But now that you mention I’ll wait a while before handling him again too! Thanks for always being so kind caron! And I got him from a Reptile expo so he wasn’t in the mail :>
Thanks for the tips! His breeder gave me his full history they said he ate October 14 and he already ate perfectly this past Wednesday so he’s a good eater lol he has never missed a meal with the breeder. His enclosure sizes and setup are all matched to his current weight, with a hot spot right around 89°F and humidity sitting at 64% on digital gauges. I’m just letting him rest in his clutter now, but I appreciate you looking out! I cant get a picture right now sense im away But he has loads of fake plants, hides, and corkbark/wood etc !
Okay, I did. It’s a PVC. This is my haul so far, XD! I still plan to get more plants, maybe one more hide, and some more cork bark :D! Sorry for the bad pic I don’t have any more at the moment lol I also have coco chips I plan to add later :D! Right now its in my storage room away from my current reptiles it will go in my room after 6 months if he seems healthy ^^! I’m working on making it look more neat later lol Im working on getting as much clutter as I can XD I counted he has 7 fake plants 4 pieces of wood/cork bark and basic essentials lol, currently Pip is 24 inches long and his breeder told me he is on extra large mice frozen thawed !
Oh silly me I have already forgotten your post about Repticon! That’s great news that you were able to speak with his breeder as well and he didn’t have to go through the shipping process!
Great news that he’s eating well for you so far!!!
Lol it’s alright, thanks Caron! I’m glad he’s eating. He’s a great eater for sure—he came out right away and grabbed the food with no hesitation XD Am I allowed to say where I got him? If not, I’ll remove this part lol. I got him from “Python Prodigy.” I believe they have a MorphMarket shop too. They said he was handled a lot because he has a good temperament lol. He’s a cutie.
A little tangential, but worth mentioning: overall and in almost every case, expo sales are more stressful to animals than shipped sales.
Shipped, they go in a dark, padded, somewhat temp controlled box for less than 24 hours.
At expos, they are often less temp controlled, under bright lights (all day, when they should be sleeping) with people lifting and possibly handling (and occasionally dropping) them. They quite possibly spend more time away from their home enclosure – packed up night before; multi day expos. Animals are packed and unpacked more hastily than when shipped – since packing for an expo involves many more animals than a typical shipping day, and at the end of the expo the only concern is a shower and bed. The animals go through all this a bunch of times until they finally sell. Bigger vendors ship all their animals to expos, where staff meet them – those animals go through both the FedEx shipping process and the expo process.
All that is aside from the pathogen transmission risk of expos; whatever biosecurity lapses a breeder/vendor might have back at the ranch, expos add indirect exposure to every other critter at the expo.
Yes you make very valid points in your post @socraticmonologue John. I was not taking into consideration what reptiles endure when they are presented at expos. Lots of “behind the scenes” activity getting them to and from as well as the less than ideal exposure to/of them to gawkers, weekend outings with the kids, inexperienced handlers, and so on with a good percentage of people having no intention to buy, just looking for kicks and grins.
Additionally as you mentioned, is the possibility of the reptiles being exposed to mites, and other dangerous bacteria floating around in the air and the hands.
Thank you for shedding this light on the subject! I have not gone to an expo in years and now I don’t think I will ever go to another one!
Well, hopefully not because of what I said. I think there’s value in expos (which might be a fun topic in its own thread), and I was only intending to counter the ‘shipping vs expo stress’ thing.
Oh no worries John! You just confirmed what I had already decided I suppose after attending the last expo several years ago. I remember walking around noticing what appeared to be unhealthy animals very poorly presented. The specific ones that caught my eye were the leopard geckos. I just remember seeing skinny little Leos in tiny containers. For some reason that has haunted me…..
. Has he eaten yet? If not I would not handle him too frequently until he has eaten for you at least 3 times, 4 times is better but 5 consecutive times is even better! Sometimes bps take a bit of alone time to destress from the shipping trip and then being introduced to a completely new environment. This is your main goal.
And I got him from a Reptile expo so he wasn’t in the mail :> 
!
