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Does this ball look in bad shape?

Alaya

Alaya

Crazy Alaskan
I checked out petfinder today and found this: http://www.petfinder.com/petdetail/21424366

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I'm not experienced with balls, but is that snake way too thin? If it is I'm going to go and check it out today. I am not interested in keeping a ball myself (I won't feed rats to a snake) but I have been involved with a lot of rescue over the years, and would be interested in bringing it to a healthy weight and body condition than finding a good home. It looks pitiful to me, not even rolling up into the characteristic ball.

Would I likely be stuck with the need to feed live? I would like to feed f/t if at all possible, I'm not comfortable with live. But, if I take on a snake, it is my responsibility to provide it with proper care.
 
That ball is in gross shape! awful awful!!!! If its not dead already, then its just waiting for the body to catch up with that fact. Not sure that one even has a chance. :( I think its chance went a long time ago. poor thing!! my god!
 
I guess that means I need to go and get it...

Gonna buy a dimmer first, I don't have room on any of my herpastats to put another heat pad in the right range, though I do have a ten gallon with a heat pad.

What should I do? Let it swim for a bit them leave it alone for a few days? It will be kept downstairs away from my collection upstairs, with proper sanitation done after handling (what is that? Does just hand sanitizer when I touch it work?).

How warm should the hot spot be? Hide on both hot and cold I assume, with water. I have lots of aspen (that stuff lasts forever).
 
I feed both my balls F/T, both switched over easy. How ever I have one ball that will slam rat pups, and the other bp will NOT touch rats, so looks like im stuck feeder her mice for the rest of her life most likely.

As far as the one in the picture, looks like it has a stuck shed to me or is dehydrated. The neck looks "crinkly". Its does look flabby in that picture. Both of mine were underweight and flabby but put on weight and were healthy in about 2 months each. That is kind of a crappy picture, if it was better quality it would be easier to tell.

Also as far as rolling into a ball, some times they dont ball up normally. My female balls up in a perfect ball but my male some times will only ball up his front half (hes a bit strange any way haha) but then again he is not timid at all and is quite confrontational himself and is ready to strike before hiding lol.

Thats my .02
 
Ps, I keep my hot spots at about 90F, and try to keep the humidity between 30-50% and so far they both have had good sheds. I also use Coconut husk substrate to help keep up humidity. I am actually thinking about setting up a humidifier for my bps like I did for my water dragon on a timer to keep the humidity up during our dry dry winters.

I keep 2 hides for my bp with a few rocks and vines hanging for them to climb on (mine climb them all the time. And since it looks so dehydrated I would definitely get a big enough dish for him to soak in if he chooses too (although mine never do, but good to give him that option). Also I use UTH on my bps too, like I said above, I use a dimmer and keep them at right at 90F on the hot side. Since I heat with fire wood sometimes at night it will drop to 85F on the hotside.

Good luck :D I hope he pulls out of this for you. I know I really like both of my Ball pythons. Funny how the same species can be totally different though. Jess my female, total sweet heart,never strikes or acts up. I even let my 2 year old pet/hold her with no problem. Now my male.....ya the kids are not allowed to go near him, hes too grumpy and strike happy with any fast movements.
 
Want another ball python? I'm driving past your area both next week and towards the end of December and would be more than happy to drop it off. I'm not interested in keeping a python myself, I just hate to see any animal in a bad condition.
 
hmm. My wife might be a little peeved with me LOL, but if you let me know when your going to be coming down I can try to meet up with you. Im kinda not ready for another snake atm I Dont have the set up for another snake atm but I may be able to scrap up something. Let me see what I can do and I will get back to you on this.
 
I will bet money that snake will not survive. It looks like the non feeding import babies that never thrive.

I don't mean to sound harsh, but needs to be euth'd. When balls start to look like that it's the point of no return. By the time the head and body look limp and smooshy like that it's game over.

If you have zero experience with balls, I do not recommend trying to rescue one. I have an immense amount of experience with them, and that is one that has gone past the point of recovery.
 
I have him home, and he does not look nearly as bad in person. They took him to the vet, and soaked him to remove his retained shed and got most of it off. He still has a bit near his vent and neck. He took a f/t weanling mouse for them no problems. His story is he was found in an apartment complex in bad shape and no one claimed him. I think he will pull through with some proper care and regular meals.

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He's absolutely adorable.

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But really thin.

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I soaked him to help him with the shedding. I wasn't sure what temp to keep the water at, but figured 85 was decent if the warm spot is 90.

I have him in a 10 gallon now with a saltine box and a heater on a light dimmer. I'm staying home and close to the thermometer so I can be sure to not have it over heat, and figure out where it needs to be set. I've never done the light dimmer thing before, I don't see it as a permanent solution. My house swings temps too much. I need to figure out a water dish and a better hide, I wasn't ready to take on another snake.

I suspect he may be she, but I'll worry about popping another day. They never checked sex, just randomly said male.

If your interested AllAlaskan I'm driving down the Parks on the 22nd of December or so. Would give you plenty of time to convince the family and put together a setup. If your not I'm sure I can find a good home up here. I'm just no ok with feeding rats, so I would not make a good long term owner.
 
Well good. That picture made him look ghastly.

What are you using as substrate? It needs paper towels so you can monitor the bathroom habits.

I hope it does well.
 
I have him on aspen, I can switch in a day or two. I don't want to go in and stress him out more right now. I figured I'd try to feed on Tuesday with the rest of my snakes. I'm going to be out of town from Wed-Sun for Thanksgiving, but he will be checked daily by my petsitter.
 
I could tell from the pictures he wasn't to bad off. I work with baby balls all the time at work. Most of the imports haven't even had their first shed yet. The collectors incubate the eggs and send babies as soon as they hatch. It's on the importer to get them fed....
 
I'll actually recommend not using aspen for balls. Aspen seems to keep the enclosures drier, which is great for corns, but I've found that balls do well with 60-70% humidity, making cypress mulch a much better choice. The aspen won't harm him, but I like mine to be more humid. He looked really awful in that first pic, I would have sworn that snake would be dead by the time you picked it up. Hope that it goes well for you. If it is a male you may never have to switch to rats. I feed mine ASFs which are not really much larger than a jumbo mouse, he gets one most weeks and two others. Right now however he has not been eating, and the ball-python forum folks have suggested I move him to a smaller cage >.> Apparently they are not like corns where more space is good.
 
If aspen makes the enclosure dryer I will clean it out today! We're in a cold snap, this week we've been down to forty below zero several times. When it gets that cold this air simply cannot hold water, and our humidity plummets to the point of being painful for us. With my sand boas and corn I don't worry too much, but I am worried about him. I need to find a spray bottle that has never had bleach in it.
 
Well I have an extra 10 gallon I could use for him for now till I could get him a bigger cage. I think i can also pickup another heat pad (thank God for PFDs haha) so if you let me know when your coming down next I can take him in. Just let me know ahead of time when your coming down, im short a vehicle right now so we are bouncing my wifes car between us atm. If your still wanting to find him a home.

he does look skinny, but so was my jericho when I got him last spring. Now hes a porker loll. he is a good looking boy too.

Does he look big enough to eat a full size mouse or is he still a bit to thin? I ask because I also have some rat pups atm that are the size of full grown mice.
 
Sent you a PM Allalaskan - more appropriate than making everything public.

I have kinda fallen for this little guy. He is adorable. I just don't feel like its right for me to impose my no-rat rule on a snake that should be eating rats. He does get the award for being the cheapest snake to enter my house, they charge $37 now for exotics at animal control (no idea how they came up with that random number).

The tiniest tip of his tail, less than 1 mm, that seems to have been frozen or something at some point. I really don't think its enough to be an issue. It doesn't seem to be infected or bothering him.

Motley - I've been a lurker on your thread and was thinking of your boy today!
 
Haha, ya I actually was just fixing to send you a PM about this, then read this and just replied to your PM. Also I think the tip of the tail your talking about is normal. does it look like a small kind of hard "spike" for lack of a better word? Like the tip of the tail is all hard? If so, both of my BPs are like that and were like that when I got them.
 
That describes it perfectly, so maybe he wasn't frozen. He probably had to withstand some cold temps though, he was found well into winter. He's curled up in his yogurt house and very uneasy, he doesn't seem to have liked the change. Its definitely a step up from the busy hallway at animal control, so I'm sure he'll calm down. He was really calm at animal control.
 
Um...
Balls come from Africa... hot and dry, not exactly humid. With a large waterdish they are fine on aspen, all of my current snakes are on aspen (I do live at sea level) but I would just like to warn you that too much humidity leads to disaster, that is how my first ball died in a friends care, because she thought that Lil needed misting twice a day... o_O
You will want to keep him warm and preferably dry to prevent an RI until he's gained a little more weight.
 
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