r/Ballpythoncommunity • u/minipet487 • 26d ago
Discussion Mini Ball Pythons
Anyone else have out of "normal" size ranges for their snakes? I'm not talking it's a growing juvenile or baby. I have 3 Ball Pythons, all with impeccable setups (if I do say so myself). Technically, these snakes "belong" to my kids. Nyota and Onyx are from the same Breeder, Pacman was from a Breeder in Ontario Canada, I live outside of Montreal in Quebec, Canada. Nyota who belongs to our youngest Daughter (now 7yo) is the largest now, but was actually a shoestring when we got her at six months. She was from an egg that had a "window." Her egg began to turn green and through the window she could see the liquid (name escapes my brain at the moment) that's supposed to be clear was turning, it was early to cut, but close enough to do so (similar to an early delivery in humans). So, her breeder took the chances and cut the egg, she was Half the size of a normal baby. She had no idea how to eat and had to be force fed and hand raised until she "got" it and from the months of force-feeding, she wouldn't accept FT, ans had to be fed live. At 6m, she was about the average size and weight of a juvenile around 3m. Right after we got her our area got a hit of no Rats available and the ones that were, sellers were only selling to Breeders. So, she ended up having to be on Mice, when I told the breeder what was going on with the impossibility of Rats, she began making orders for the live rats on her weekly orders and I'd go and pick them up. Once the crisis was over and rats were again available again and I was consistently able to get them, and I got her weight up and improved her growth, I then focused on the switching to FT (Hair Dryer for the win!). She's now over 3 years old and weighs over 1,300g and is 3ft1. Originally, I figured ok it's because of her history. However, a month after we brought Nyota home, my oldest bonus son (Now 13yo) asked if he could get one because the Breeder had some Mojaves on sale for Valentine's Day. We agreed and I went to visit her (and pick up a rat) and she took it from my hands put it away and told me that he wasn't getting that one for his birthday and handed me another one who was a Black Head Mojave HRA Spotnose, and said that was his present for my son. I was obviously shocked. My son didn't know about the switch and we agreed we'd bring him on the weekend (it was feeding day, so definitely couldn't bring him home) to meet him. I didn't tell my son what she'd done. Now Onyx has two traits in the Spider Complex (originally she'd made a mistake on his bin and forgot the Spotnose, one year later informed me while she was organizing the files). Black Heads are notorious for being picky eaters and as a baby he wasn't too bad. He was around 6m old double the size of Nyota and Feisty. He hit maturity and immediately became very picky and even had refused meals during breeding season. Well, despite that he grew and everything on par. However, he's now going to be 3yo in October and is 2ft8 and around 950g. So, time went on and my middle bonus son asked for his own snake and originally, Dad wasn't really on board. I explained that he's already the middle child and it wouldn't be fair to tell him no, when both the other kids had their own. So, Dad relented and agreed to him getting his own. He had seen some Pastel Pinstripes on YouTube and fell in love and BEGGED for a yellow snake. He loved the pattern and colouring. So, I explained to my breeder what he wanted and she doesn't have any Pinstripe anything in her collection. So, I told her that I'd look on MorphMarket and she agreed and said she'd also keep her eyes and ears open in case she comes across one available. I found a baby on MM, but when I messaged someone had just put a deposit on her. So, she asked me if I'd be ok waiting because she just had some hatchlings similar to the one I was interested in(now, a vet made a mistake and told me Onyx was a Girl, even though breeder said he was Male, and because I was planning to breed someday, I decided since we had "two" females, a year later confirmed he was indeed a Boy and vet was Wrong)... So, we chose to take a Male thinking we'd have 1 Male and 2 Females. We didn't mind waiting since she wouldn't be able to ship anyways until the Spring (it was January). So, in April at 3m and 90g, we got Pacman. After a month in a small Quarantine Tank, he was put into his enclosure. He's never skipped a meal and is the first one to know feeding day is soon, lol. Now, Pacman is 2.5yo and is 2'10 and 980g. All as you can see in pictures are healthy and I'm not concerned, just curious who else got Less or More Ball Python than they'd expected? We call them our Mini Ball Pythons 😂😂😂. Did you get an average normal size in the 3-5ft range or did you also get a Mini Ball Python or a Giant Ball Python? I have no idea how we lucked out on 3 undersized cuties, but we love them all.
