CapeFearConstrict
Wilmington, NC
Male, 32
I've been working with ball pythons for over ten years now. Two years ago I decided to breed them as a business. I run a small operation. Currently I have approximately 100 snakes in my breeding program and hope to produce over 200 babies in the 2013 breeding season. I've always been fascinated by reptiles, snakes in particular, and being able to work with them every day is very satisfying.
As far as I know, there are no pythons that are cannibals. There are some other species of snakes, such as the king snake or the king cobra, that do eat other snakes.
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If you provide them with the proper environment (enclosure, bedding, heating, humidity, food), then they pretty much do everything necessary for breeding on their own. You simply put the male and female together and let them do their thing. As for knowing when they've copulated (aka, "doing the deed"), the first time they copulate, they stay that way for 12-24 hours. Talk about stamina! Basically, the tips of their tails lock together and the male inverts his hemipenes and inserts them into the female. It's hard to miss the first lockup of the season between a pair if you check on them 3-4 times a day. Additional lockups between the two will be shorter, but still usually several hours in length. Females really only need a few lockups if they are building their follicles in order to successfully produce eggs. I try to get my pairs to lock at least once per month until ovulation.
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If you go to my website (link is at the top of this page) and check out my YouTube videos, I have some where I unbox snakes I received in the mail. You can see exactly how they get packed and shipped.
If properly packed, the snakes won't jostle around too much in transit. The boxes are also labeled as fragile and containing live animals, so most people handling them will be careful as well.
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A green liquid coming from his heat pits? That's definitely not normal. I have no experience with that, nor have I ever heard about anyone else experiencing it. If it continues, I would suggest taking him to your vet.
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I don't know how necessary it is, but it definitely doesn't hurt. I usually feed live, but occassionally need to feed frozen/thawed. When I do feed frozen/thawed, I typically wiggle the prey item in front of the snake for a few seconds to simulate movement. Typically, if the snake is going to eat, it will strike the prey and constrict. I don't typically keep moving the prey item after that happens, but a couple seconds of movement to simulate a struggling prey certainly won't hurt.
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I have no hands on experience with either of those species. I would recommend seeking out advice from keepers of those species. Feeding habits can vary widely between different snake species, so any advice I can offer may be useless at best and even potentially destructive to your cause.
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There have been no recorded incidents of a ball python killing a human. Ball pythons only constrict prey. If the snake does not believe you are prey, it will not constrict with the intent to kill. A snake may hold on tight to your arm (or your neck if you have it draped over your neck) if it feels unsupported, but it won't be with the intent to harm. A ball python will never mistake your sleeping son as a food source. If a ball python escapes, it will look for a warm, tight, dark spot to hide and wait for a rodent to pass by.
Your son has a greater danger of dying from falling out of bed than from a ball python.
Odds of dying from falling off a bed, chair, other furniture: 1 in 4,238
Odds of dying from a constrictor snake: 1 in over 5 million
Constrictor snakes kill, historically, 1 person every two years. Falling off furniture kills over 500 people every year. These numbers are easily verified through a web search.
A ball python is a great pet for kids of all ages. Don't let irrational fear keep your son from enjoying such a wonderful pet. Good for you for actively looking to find answers!
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