grankin01
Addict and proud of it!
The other day a friend from work called me and said that the humane society where he lived had a Ball Python. He also said it was about three feet long (he was a tad off 
). I called them up and asked about the animal. They had fed it 2 mice the night before (it hadn't eaten in about a month and a half). The animal was active and acted healthy. So I packed up and headed out. When I got there they had the tank on the floor next to a dryer (admittedly they didn't have anywhere else to put it). The tank was an absolute disgrace due to the previous owners neglect. There was at least a couple of months (and this is being nice) worth of feces all over the place, balls of shedding, there was no hide at all, and they had a UTH INSIDE the tank with green carpet style bedding and bricks above it. The UTH wasn't regulated in any way. There was a branch inside that had been screwed to some landscaping 2x4s that I'm surprised the animal didn't cut itself on and the water dish had been ignored so long that it had green stuff growing in the bottom of it.
Okay, now to the good news. The animal itself seems very healthy. It's very active and constantly cruises it's tank, it's tongue goes a mile a minute, and it has a nice rounded shape with no visible backbone. It's weight is 1679g and it's about four feet (maybe a little more) long. It must have been fed in it's enclosure because the first time I reached in to get it it turned around and opened it's mouth. After that it hasn't offered to strike at all and has let us handle it freely.
I have obviously cleaned the tank. I threw away the branch thing and will be getting something proper to replace it with in the future. The best I could do for now for hides was two 12 pack soda boxes. I know BPs like it cramped to a point but these hides are better than none at the moment. The first couple of pics are of the tank and snake before I cleaned it so please don't think this is the way I keep my animals. It most definitely is not. The last one is after a good cleaning with bleach water and a garden hose and some new bedding.
Just FYI, I didn't clean the tank the day I got it home because it had just eaten a little over twelve hours before and after the stress of a car ride I didn't want to give it anymore reason to regurge. As much as it pained me to let it continue living in filth for another day I chose what I thought to be the lesser of two evils. You'll notice I did clean the water dish though.
The whole deal cost me $6.36 (the price of the mice they fed it) and some gas. That is for a 55gal (I'm guessing) long, UTH, lamp, snake, and water dish (which needs to be upsized a little) so I don't think it was a bad deal ... especially for the snake.
). I called them up and asked about the animal. They had fed it 2 mice the night before (it hadn't eaten in about a month and a half). The animal was active and acted healthy. So I packed up and headed out. When I got there they had the tank on the floor next to a dryer (admittedly they didn't have anywhere else to put it). The tank was an absolute disgrace due to the previous owners neglect. There was at least a couple of months (and this is being nice) worth of feces all over the place, balls of shedding, there was no hide at all, and they had a UTH INSIDE the tank with green carpet style bedding and bricks above it. The UTH wasn't regulated in any way. There was a branch inside that had been screwed to some landscaping 2x4s that I'm surprised the animal didn't cut itself on and the water dish had been ignored so long that it had green stuff growing in the bottom of it.Okay, now to the good news. The animal itself seems very healthy. It's very active and constantly cruises it's tank, it's tongue goes a mile a minute, and it has a nice rounded shape with no visible backbone. It's weight is 1679g and it's about four feet (maybe a little more) long. It must have been fed in it's enclosure because the first time I reached in to get it it turned around and opened it's mouth. After that it hasn't offered to strike at all and has let us handle it freely.
I have obviously cleaned the tank. I threw away the branch thing and will be getting something proper to replace it with in the future. The best I could do for now for hides was two 12 pack soda boxes. I know BPs like it cramped to a point but these hides are better than none at the moment. The first couple of pics are of the tank and snake before I cleaned it so please don't think this is the way I keep my animals. It most definitely is not. The last one is after a good cleaning with bleach water and a garden hose and some new bedding.
Just FYI, I didn't clean the tank the day I got it home because it had just eaten a little over twelve hours before and after the stress of a car ride I didn't want to give it anymore reason to regurge. As much as it pained me to let it continue living in filth for another day I chose what I thought to be the lesser of two evils. You'll notice I did clean the water dish though.
The whole deal cost me $6.36 (the price of the mice they fed it) and some gas. That is for a 55gal (I'm guessing) long, UTH, lamp, snake, and water dish (which needs to be upsized a little) so I don't think it was a bad deal ... especially for the snake.
