# Anybody here with Balls???



## John Boy (Nov 27, 2011)

Morning Folks,
I'm wondering:

*Who's got Balls here?* I just had the Camera out for a little All-Star-Shooting! If you have Balls too, let's have a ball!oke:

Here are some of mine:

Molly, my brand new Calico:







Calico magic:






Fagin, Pastel het. Pied:






Fivel, the mouse-walker, and by rights a Mystic Potion:







And one with the family, and Ingrid, a Piebald!






And finally: some fine art:






*Well, that's all for now! What do you think?*


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## Wendelin (Nov 27, 2011)

Love'em all, but Poop is missing


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## Evergreen (Nov 27, 2011)

They are all fantastic, but my favorite is Fivel !


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## Rick (Nov 27, 2011)

Wow

What a collection of ball pythons!!!

When I was in the zoo biz I would always recommend these over Burmese since these stay small and are generally very tame.

My oldest son has one that has done very well for him. But that is great breeding:clap::clap:


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## Marc (Nov 27, 2011)

Never heard of Ball Python's but after some google'ing I found out what this topic is about. 

I can only say that I'm impressed by the wonderfoul colours and patterns your small friends are covered with John. Fivel is espescially wonderfull, I really like it's colours! 

A question though how large do they actually grow?

I have an interest in reptiles but I'm restraining to getting into that hobby. Allthough the thought of getting a Gekko keeps coming up in my mind on a regular basis.


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## John Boy (Nov 27, 2011)

Marc, I've been reading for about 2 years, before getting started. I guess it's a good way to do this, since there's more to it than just buying the animals. Balls stay small, girls will get up to 2-3 KG's, boys stay smaller!!!

There's good stuff happening on Youtube about this, the 2 I watch every time are:

http://www.youtube.com/user/ralphdavis?feature=grec_index

http://www.youtube.com/user/jkobylka

and Snakebytes:
http://www.youtube.com/user/SnakeBytesTV

All these people supply first grade information, some with a more serious aproach, Brian and his crew with a bit more fun to it... But: *They'll all teach you the basics!*


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## Rick (Nov 27, 2011)

Marc said:


> Never heard of Ball Python's but after some google'ing I found out what this topic is about.
> 
> I can only say that I'm impressed by the wonderfoul colours and patterns your small friends are covered with John. Fivel is espescially wonderfull, I really like it's colours!
> 
> ...



Leopard Gecko's make great pets, and they are also being bred with a lot of color styles.

Many years I knew a guy in Texas who bred several color forms of rhinoceros vipers. But I wouldn't recommend them as pets!!


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## Lanmark (Nov 27, 2011)

Beautiful Pythons!

...and now, thanks to Rick, I have to go check out Leopard Geckos too. :wink:


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## paphioboy (Nov 27, 2011)

Interesting company you keep..


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## SlipperFan (Nov 27, 2011)

If only they weren't snakes.....


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## AquaGem (Nov 27, 2011)

Wow... love them all. Unfortunately, Singapore do not allow exotics.. if not I would have kept lots of them..


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## Eric Muehlbauer (Nov 27, 2011)

I love ball pythons, but I already have too many snakes. I used to breed corn snakes. Now I'm down to 3 corns, 2 of my own breeding (1 albino and 1 heterozygous normal/albino) and the albino patriarch. I also have a black Sonoran king snake and a grey banded king. I love snakes, but enough is enough....over 2 decades of killing mice and cleaning smelly poop is too much. These things live forever too....Its so much easier, or at least convenient, to keep leopard geckoes and tortoises. I've tried to breed T. horsfeldii tortoises, but my male can't figure out how to do it..........


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## John Boy (Nov 28, 2011)

Eric, 
We all seem to have the same concerns. It seems the normal way to get started with corns, to grow into balls, and (in serious cases) ending up with retics and boas. For my part, I’ll never end up there. As a matter of fact, adult balls still scare the hell out of me, and I much rather had, that balls stayed the 100-200 grams size animal. _But that’s just me being me… _
My biggest obstacle before getting started was: their food (mice & rats), enhanced by that fact, that it’s better to feed them life-foods over frozen. In the U.S. its standard procedure, but here in Europe everyone tries to talk you into much healthier life-rodents. After all, there’s the fun/hunting part within life food also… 
As a total beginner I came to the point, where I just accepted that things are handled differently, depending on “what continent you’re talking to”. The other thing I’m quite squeamish about is getting bit. Don’t ask me why, but they are snakes. That basically boils down to: you have to be scared of them!. Yeah, today I realise that’s just me, or a lot of balls... and not the facts. 
For the first few days handling my (now) 7 balls I was shaking, until I realised: that I was a total idiot about it, and being sacred was pointless, since I don’t get bit, because I had been paying attention to Justin (Morphs 101) and Brian (Snakebytes) and was handling them the proper way. That doesn’t mean they’ll never get me from now on, but at least I can handle them now, without near enough fainting. Odour and bad smelling things was another point. Since my bunch are all kids, the size of available poop every once in a week is not really an issue. The stuff pretty much dries up in their cages before I come along to spot-clean. What remains a bit of an issue is feeding them life mice. I’m at the point where I start feeding frozen/thawed food as well. Keeping life mice stinks more than anything else. So, I’m trying to get away from that, especially since I’m planning to grow the collection a bit further, planning to ultimately start breeding in about a year or so. We’ll have to wait and see. As far as I can see it’s pretty important to have done all your homework! With a life-expectancy of round about 35-40 years!!! Balls certainly are a long term investment, as well as a considerable responsibility. Another aspect is money. Getting into the colour-morphs you’ll be talking rather considerable $$$, so again it’s important to know what you’re doing. But even if someone just wants their one normal 20 bucks ball-python, they need to get their setup right, to be successful. From what I’ve seen and learnt over the last few weeks I can say: *Balls are totally amazing animals. They have amazing personalities, and handled to proper way, they are totally relaxed as well as inquisitive and patient with us humans. And they don’t bite you, unless you force them to… I’m hooked!!! 
*


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## John M (Nov 28, 2011)

Wow, they're so beautiful! I used to keep ribbon snakes and littel brown snakes when I was a kid. Haven't had any for decades now. I could get into these; but, the feeding of rodents puts me off a bit. I checked out the Internet and there's a breeder close to me. What a setup he has! ....And the colours of his snakes! .....And the prices! Wow! He ended up quitting his job to raise ball pythons! http://http://ballpython.ca/index.html


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## NYEric (Nov 28, 2011)

NIce. I keep Leopard geckos.


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## Yoyo_Jo (Nov 28, 2011)

SlipperFan said:


> If only they weren't snakes.....



oke: Better snakes than spiders!

Gorgeous, I say!


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## biothanasis (Nov 28, 2011)

Very beautiful!!


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## Wendelin (Nov 28, 2011)

John Boy said:


> For the first few days handling my (now) 7 balls I was shaking, until I realised: that I was a total idiot about it, and being sacred was pointless, since I don’t get bit, because I had been paying attention to Justin (Morphs 101) and Brian (Snakebytes) and was handling them the proper way. That doesn’t mean they’ll never get me from now on, but at least I can handle them now, without near enough fainting.



Things are like this, no matter what you are afraid of. Once you overcome your fears you'll see there was no reason to be afraid, only you didn't know the "thing" and you didn't know how to handle it yet.

Good job fighting the fears, so far!


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## bullsie (Nov 28, 2011)

They are beautiful!

I like the wild critters in their native lands - comes from being up to my eyeballs in invasive things here on the farm. One native species we prize here on the farm are the black snakes. Wonderful mousers and ratters. I have one who does a wonderful job keeping the starlings out of the porch roof.


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## Eric Muehlbauer (Nov 28, 2011)

I've always loved snakes...used to catch them as a kid...loads of garters, plus water snakes, 5 ft long black racers, and rarely, milksnakes. But I hate feeding them. I won't stick frozen mice in my freezer with food, so I buy them live...kill them for the corns...they are hand raised and incompetent at killing, but the king snakes have to have them alive. But as bad as the poop is,,,nothing is worse than the puke! Especially after its been in them a few days!!!!


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## Justin (Nov 28, 2011)

I love them. Ball Pythons are great...wish I had one. 

I used to keep tarantulas, had a lovely Pinktoe that just died of old age at 15 years old. Such a gentle creature.


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## T. migratoris (Nov 29, 2011)

I've had a handful of Ball Pythons over the years - including some good sized ones (one was somewhere between 4 & 5 feet). Wonderful creatures. We made feeding live mice & rats a ritual (dimmed lights, soft music, etc.) which took some of the yuk factor away, at least for my wife. But our house simply gets too drafty to keep them without more elaborate heating facilities.

My son got a lot of joy from a neat little garter snake. We had it for many years ... it ate feeder goldfish 6 or 8 at a time. We'd hold the live goldfish by the tail and Bill (the snake) would sidle his way around the cage & "sneak" up to the flopping fish as though he were hunting. He'd eat them right out of our hands.

Snakes are great pets. Highly recommended.


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## Dido (Nov 29, 2011)

Why you dont feed sauges, they are great and have all nutrients in, you get them for every size. 
Only warm them like frozen mice and than you feed it, you can get them for every size of sneak ( nearly) not fro the really big ones where you need a small pig.....


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## Clark (Nov 29, 2011)

Love your pets/livestock.
Plenty of native snakes here, back in the day.


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## Eric Muehlbauer (Nov 29, 2011)

Not all snakes are willing to eat those sausages....in fact, I hardly ever see them mentioned or advertised anymore. It was a big deal when first introduced, but here in the US at least, they seem to have disappeared. I heard too many reports of no success with them. I gave up breeding corn snakes in part because live pinkies are such a hassle to get, and I was having too many hatchlings die because they wouldn't accept frozen, only live.


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## John Boy (Apr 21, 2012)

Just to keep this up, here's Fivel, my Phantom Potion as a picture uptate, he's one Hell of a great Snake and growing up!, at 489g's and happy as a puppy with two tails.
I'll try and do pictures of the others as well, it's interesting to see them change as the grow older.
Fivel is such a natural infront of any camera, I just guess he knows he's the prettiest Phanom Potion out there, so cameras to him... are quite agreeable!


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## rdlsreno (Apr 21, 2012)

I like them!

Nice!

Ramon


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## Erythrone (Apr 22, 2012)

Very nice pets!


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## NYEric (Apr 23, 2012)

Interesting color. That is one thick house-snake!


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## John Boy (May 19, 2012)

Here's another one joining the family....

Meet Rosinante:


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## SlipperFan (May 19, 2012)

Someone put it into a bucket of bleach...


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## John Boy (May 20, 2012)

This is how it works:

Buy a normal (classic) which will cost anything form 30-60$, dip it in bleach until desired shading is acieved, and sell it as Pied for 1000$....

That's a decent bit of profit I'd say....


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## likespaphs (May 20, 2012)

will the coloring stay similar as the snake grows or is there a chance that color will appear where it is now white?


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## NYEric (May 20, 2012)

John Boy said:


> This is how it works:
> 
> Buy a normal (classic) which will cost anything form 30-60$, dip it in bleach until desired shading is acieved, and sell it as Pied for 1000$....
> 
> That's a decent bit of profit I'd say....


Humor!


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## John Boy (May 21, 2012)

For the most part, they will stay like the hatch. 
There's some little chance, and it does happen with animals starting out with the tiniest of black/coloured dots, that these dots will grow into nickel size, or even bigger. As a rule: I'd say that a Pied starting out as a 90% white animal... will stay like that, where there individual spotting/dotting, chances are that these will grow in size over time.

With Rosinante it's easy, She's got colour from Head to neck, and she got about 5mm colour on the very tip of her tail, followed by a (as of now) little spot containg around 5-6 scales, so: that will almost certainly stay, like it is.


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## Justin (May 21, 2012)

love 'em.


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## goldenrose (May 21, 2012)

I could see where one could get hooked on these!


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## John Boy (Jun 1, 2012)

A year or so from breeding, she’s giving the “hugging the water-dish” a go! ;0))


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## John Boy (Oct 20, 2012)

Sorry this has gone off the radar for a while...

Nevil, DH Albino Pied scale-shot. Born as a twin with 22g's (which is rather nothing). This picture was just taken at about 60ish gramms.............

I just try improve my Nikon skills at the moment. Here's a scale-shot, Nevil (DH Albino Pied) on an egg-shell backdrop. *What do we think?* To soft a colour? not enough depth?






*By the bye: Nevil is going into shed, so his colors aren't quite right (by rights...).*


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## KyushuCalanthe (Oct 21, 2012)

Crazy colors on these! It has been many years since I kept any snakes and none were as flamboyant as yours.


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## John Boy (Oct 22, 2012)

You think mine are *flamboyant?* Let me show you the 2012 front-line-breeding. These 2 are personal favourits so far:, and it goes without saying that neither is available, and both should be world firsts.....


Orange Dream Yellow Belly Banana (a 3 Gene -Banana- Combo!), made by Versus Creation







The GHI Mojave made by Xclusive Snakes:





*Might be time for you to start up again Tom, clearly: Genetics on Balls have gone mental!!!*


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## Dido (Oct 22, 2012)

Interesting colors. 
when can we expact a blue like on the vanda side......


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## John Boy (Oct 22, 2012)

The answer as we see these genetics unfolding is quite simple:

*The Sky Is The Limit!*


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## John Boy (Dec 31, 2012)

Some more *of my own* animals:

*Super Pastel Special:*






*High White Pied:*






*Albino pos. het. Pied:*






*Pinstripe:*


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## goldenrose (Dec 31, 2012)

FASCINATING! I'm somewhat neutral towards snake but these could sway me, the patterns/marking are too cool!


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## NYEric (Dec 31, 2012)

Nice. If I stop any of my 3 hobbies I would jump back into Leopard Geckos for sure. Thanks for sharing.


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## John Boy (Jan 18, 2013)

More updates, some of these guys are near enough adults, and by this time next year, I'm sure going to able to show you guys some eggs... (which I'm reaaaaaalllllyyyyyyyyyy looking forward to).

Oliver:





Matilda (currently engaged to Feivel):





Speaking of which....:


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## Marc (Jan 18, 2013)

John Boy I like your balls


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## Ozpaph (Jan 18, 2013)

Oliver is just weird. Was he always like that or does the colour 'drop-out'?


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## SlipperFan (Jan 18, 2013)

These are all so very beautiful, but I just can't get enthused about snakes.


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## Eric Muehlbauer (Jan 18, 2013)

I LOVE snakes! I used to breed corn snakes, and I still have 4....3 corns, 2 albino (1 is the patriarch, the other his granddaughter), and 1 heterozygous albino. I also have a gray banded king. But as much as I love snakes, after decades of keeping them, I've had it. Sick of getting mice, sick of stinky poop, and really sick of the occasional semi-digested mouse barf. But I am attached to these guys, especially the ones I raised. But...they live forever....so I guess I'll be caring for them for some more years....


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## Ozpaph (Jan 18, 2013)

Eric Muehlbauer said:


> I LOVE snakes! I used to breed corn snakes, and I still have 4....3 corns, 2 albino (1 is the patriarch, the other his granddaughter), and 1 heterozygous albino. I also have a gray banded king. But as much as I love snakes, after decades of keeping them, I've had it. Sick of getting mice, sick of stinky poop, and really sick of the occasional semi-digested mouse barf. But I am attached to these guys, especially the ones I raised. But...they live forever....so I guess I'll be caring for them for some more years....



Sounds worse that the in-laws..


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## wjs2nd (Jan 19, 2013)

Ozpaph said:


> Sounds worse that the in-laws..



Depends on your in-laws, haha oke:


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## John Boy (Apr 9, 2013)

I got downstair's kids fully, and utterly hooked. It's a joy seeing them handle my snakes! No fear, just a very pure, and careful interest. Lucky for them they "weren't feared" yet....











*A very rare sleeve-dweller-snake B) *





My newest investment:

May, my stunning Pastel Piebald


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## slippertalker (Apr 9, 2013)

when I first saw the title, I was thinking of Paph Harrisianum "G.S. Ball" which is also known as Harry Balls by some......LOL.


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