My name is Jason Harwell.  I am a small hobby breeder located in Magnolia Texas, 77354.  You can contact me at jasonharwell@earthlink.net or call/text me at 281-387-7665. To avoid any confusion, I own a small electrical contracting company and answer the phone as Affordable Electric.  

 

I have kept and bred many different animals in my life and I enjoyed every one of them.  I dabbled in ball pythons for a while back in the late 90's along with several other species, but since 2007 I have been raising and breeding strictly ball pythons.  For me they have been the coolest of them all, with so many combonations of genes out there and so many jaw dropping animals produced.  They stay a managable size and are easy to care for in a relitivly small space.  What could be better?!  The only problem is ... they are like Lays Potato Chips ... you can't get just one.  Its almost like an addiction.

 

 

A bit of experience I would like to share .....   

 

There are many different husbandry practices that work for different people.  Sometimes you just have to experiment to find what works best for you and your animals.  Below are some of the things I have learned and experienced over the years that work well for me.  Hopefully some or all will work for you.

 

 

#1.  Don't purchase animals until you have a home for them to go in to.  Set up your cage and check temps/humuidity ahead of time.  I find ambiant of 78-82 with hot spot of 85-89 with 50-55% humuidity works well for me.  If you plan to have a few snakes, a rack system can't be beat.  

 

#2.  All heat sources need to be monitored with a good thermometer, not the cheap dial type and controlled by a thermostat.  You can get by controlling with a dimmer, but I do not recommend it because you will have to adjust it as the room temp flucuates.  Never leave a heat source unregulated.  

 

#3.  Do not put any tape or anything sticky inside the enclosure.  If somehow you do get something sticky on you're animal, olive oil or cooking oil will help get it off without hurting it.  

 

#4.  Go online, do some research, read several care sheets, and ask questions before you start buying.  There are many sites to choose from, for example ball-pythons.net has a nice care sheet and a forum to ask questions in.  Just remember everything you read on the internet is not necessarily true.

 

#5.  Unless you want a pet only and have no intention of breeding, start purchasing females first.  They take much longer mature and get up to breeding weight than males.  One male can breed multiple females.   Also remember that just because an animal has reached breeding size/age does not mean that it will breed.     

 

#6. Start slow.  Don't buy too many animals until you have cared for a couple for at least 6 months.  I see a lot of people jump in with both feet and buy up a bunch of animals.   Suddenly they are overwhelmed, because it becomes work when you have too large of a collection.  Then they sell they as fast and cheap as they can to get out of it.  Start small and try to produce what apeals to you.  Grow slowly. 

 

#7.  Ball pythons can be picky eaters at times.  Don't panic.  Check your husbandry.  If your husbandry is correct, an otherwise healthy animal will not starve itself to death.  I have had animals go off feed for over 6 months with no ill effects other than no weight gain.  Sometimes even your best feeder will go on a hunger strike for unknown reasons.  Many times it occurs right at the 1000 gram mark.  If you have an animal stop feeding do not attemp to feed more than once a week.  They will start eating again when they are ready.  Offering too often will not help the process.  My method is to offer a little smaller than usual feeder once a week until they resume feeding.  

 

#8.  Never put a hungry/thirsty or freaked out live feeder in with your animals.  Make sure the feeder has had access to food and water immediately prior to going in with the snake and do not hurt/scare the feeder in any way.  Do not leave them unattended for long periods of time.  30 minuites max and always make sure it was killed and eaten.  If it was not, remove it from the enclosure.  Don't attempt to feed again for another week.    

 

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