Royal/Ball Python thread (Python regius)

Hi all, thought I'd start a thread for discussion and pictures of the popular royal python all in one place. I know there's definitely a few people on here with them, so I want to see your pics!

I'll start with a few shots of my new and first royal that I picked up recently. She's female, a little over 2 months old and a spider morph. Trying not to disturb her too much.









I've tried to feed her a couple of times now but she's refused, I know these have a reputation for being fussy feeders. I think she still needs to settle in more yet, it's only been just over a week and her records say shes eaten really well previous. If anyone has any feeding tips let it be known!

Yay, finally a proper royal thread. Been keeping my pics reserved for this.
I picked mine up last saturday. She's was sold as a normal, but looking at the color pattern there are signs of white/albino genes in her so she could be a het albino.

She haven't ate yet either but as she was imported, I'm sure she's pretty stressed still. Now I'm just leaving her stay alone with minimum handling until she doesn't start eating.

I don't know the exact age, but probably not much different that Jay's female. She's at just over 100 grams now.

Jay, you pics make me feel shame of mine, so after she gets settled down, I might try a more "professional" photoshoot on her.

For now, this is what I have for sharing











Jay, yours is gorgeous! I like the pattern on her head.

Aw, gorgeous mate! Definitely something extra in there, quite light colouring for a normal and like you said there's some white highlights there.

Cheers, don't feel shame about those pics, they're fine. I needed to get more in focus like yours, blurs nice but not on the subject lol I'll get some more when shes settled in more. Yeah her head pattern is part of the spider thing and the dot in the middle.

I reckon yours is a similar age to mine too, she's weighing 150g but the breeder was heavily feeding her to get a good start. On the records she ate 2 rat pups one day then another 2 two days later. Got a pic of her on my hand I'll post when I get home for size reference but it was before she shed. She shed a couple of days ago now (or probably should be molted on this forum ) Looks like yours could be coming up to shed too, got that kind of blue hue on the black.

Wow great pics guys

Thanks Bex.

Jay, yeah, it's like normal, but not really You can see that the usual "circle" pattern is completely missing.
I've looked up for some het albino pics on the web, and indeed her pattern seems closer to that, then to a "normal" pattern.
That's not so important after all, it's ours and we love her.

Btw. as of last night, she's got a name too - Kali

Your right mate and people get too obsessed with the colours of these, the snake is still the same lol still trying to decide on a name for my girl. It could possibly be MJ, spidermans girl, "Mary Jane" or "Mari Juana"

Yay! So happy she finally ate last night! I can finally stop worrying now and get some rats inside her, hopefully means she's settling in too.

Cheers Bex

Aw congrats on the fac t she ate i know how that feels lol

Yay, congrats mate! Can't wait til mine starts eating. I'm gonna try tomorrow again, just to give her one more day with no annoying Are you feeding her with frozen/thawed, or alive ones?

Thanks you's Yeah feels good to stop worrying now, I know you had a really long wait for yours to eat.

Yeah a frozen/thawed rat pup, don't think I really agree with livefeeding unless that's all it will take. Cruel to the rodent and puts the snake at risk of injury. I'd have thought you felt the same mate as someone going to snakes and keeping rats as pets first Take it you wont be using your own rat pups lol

I'm lucky that the guy I got the snake from breeds rats which is handy.

Sounds like a plan mate, that's what I did. Left her completely alone for a couple of days and her tub covered up. Then really late last night with dim lights and no noise I offered it to her and she slammed it straight away.

Haha, no won't be giving mine. I actually have just female rats at the moment. The males smelled quite a bit and they were just breeding too much, lol. A friend of mine has the couple now, I just kept 4 from their pups.

I'm against livefeeding aswell, mostly because of the risk of injuries.

So you kept her covered all the time? I think I'll cover her up then. There's not too much light anyway in my living room as I always keep the blinds down, but still...

Well I did half uncover her during the day to let some light in the tub. Gotta remember they nocturnal burrowers so wouldn't ever be out in the light anyway but should always give a light cycle. The main reason I done it was she had come out of racks at the breeders and they're pretty covered up most the time in the rack but think it will probably help with the stress of any royal, in dimmer conditions. I think they just need to feel settled in, safe and secure.

Well here's proof of the pudding Nothing special because didn't want to risk putting her off her food but she ate none the less.

Nice video. She's so sweet when she eats
I must try to get something myself when mine eats.

Your vid reminds me that I must work out a hide for her.. I like those half-logs, but I can't find them here, unfortunately.

Cheers mate! Ha, she weren't sweet when she struck and constricted it lol that was as she started to swallow it.

I've got a hide on the cool side and hot side. To be honest I'm not sure the half logs are the best as they like to feel secure all around them, the hide on the cool end is better, those exoterra ones with a small door, she squeezes in there nicely.

Got my fingers crossed for you that yours will slam the rat on your next attempt

Here's those pics on my hand for size reference, this is before she shed so looking a bit dull, you can tell by her eyes.

Are you talking about these? http://www.exo-terra.com/en/products/snake_cave.php

Btw. what method did you use to heat the rat pup? That is, if you did heat it..

These ones mate, the medium size ones, so you can still lift it up easily if necessary and I think my fat snake will get stuck in that little hole of the snake cave lol

http://www.exo-terra.com/en/products/reptile_cave.php

As for defrosting I've been letting them defrost naturally. Then for the first 2 attempts that she refused I was heating it up with the hair dryer as this is what the breeder told me to do and said they get used to the noise meaning food but I think the noise was stressing her out, last night it was like 1 in the morning so didn't use the hair dryer. I put the pup in a plastic bag and left the bag with the rat in in hot water for a few mins and then a little longer with just the head under water to make it hotter. Only hot water from the tap, not boiling. Used the bag to keep the rat dry and the ratty smell on it. Worked a treat

A few snaps from last night. She's looking nice and bright after her shed now, tried to show the colours as true as possible.

















Any joy with feeding yet Dolby?

Awesome colours bro. The white/yellow belly combination reminds me of ice cream with exostic fruits lol.

No luck feeding her yet. Tried on sunday, even dropped the mouse by accident, but even with it's guts half out, she didn't show any interest.

I think I'm going for an alive one today to see if she takes it. If she does, then I'll work from there to get her used to frozen/thawed. If she doesn't, then she'll probably get force-fed over the weekend. Not too happy about feeding a live one but do prefer that over stressing her with force/assisted feeding.

Haha cheers mate, I'm happy with her.

That's a shame, hopefully you wont have to resort to force feeding. Did she show any interest like tongue flicking and checking it out? Also are you feeding her in the place shes settling in to? You can leave a defrost rat in over night I heard sometimes works, also remember as quiet and as stress free as possible.

I'd probably leave it a little longer untill force feeding, just keep an eye on her weight and if she starts losing weight then I'd think about maybe assist feeding. I reckon live feeding as a last resort will probably work though, at least you have the option to, not your own pups are they mate?

Haha, no, not my own pups. Don´t actually have any.. Will pass from the petstore after work and take a rat pup or small mouse (depending on what they have).

No interest whatsoever, I´ve been leaving the feeder in her box always the whole night. I read somewhere that it´s easier if you first feed live, then pre-killed, and only then frozen. Will probably do exactly that if she does take the live one. I´m pretty sure the breeder has been giving her live ones anyway. As long as she takes her food, and I´m able (even if on a longer timeframe) to switch her over to frozen, I´ll be happy

Oh, and yes, I´m feeding her in her own enclosure, trying to minimize handling. I figure moving her into a separate feeding enclosure would stress her out more.

Hmm well it sounds like your doing everything right mate. At first I was taking mine out and putting her in a seperate tub and she refused but fed in her own tub.

Your probably right, best to try live and at least it will get a meal inside her, then you can work on getting her to eat defrost. At least if she refuses a live one it's not wasted like a defrost.

Well, the good news is that she seems hungry and willing to eat.
Got a mouse last night from the pet shop, unfortunately they didn´t have smaller that adult ones so that kinda messed up the whole situation.

It took her a couple of minutes to make her first strike, but in the middle of constricting the mouse got away. The second strike some 5-10 minutes later was successful. Kali was struggling atleast 3 hours to eat it, but probably it was just too big. The fact that she tried to swallow it bottom first, didn´t help much either.

I´m gonna try again today with either a defrost one (hoping she can associate it to the one last night, and find out it´s food too )
If it doesn´t work, I´ll search a smaller live one the next days. Just want to get her eating, and then work from there to get her used to defrost. If it´s necessary, I´ll give her for a couple of week to my friend as he has pretty good experience in getting snakes to move from live to frozen.

Nearly mate! At least you know she wants to feed. Mine smashed another rat last night and noticed she got it down pretty quick so your mouse must have been too big. Hopefully she'll snap up a defrost for you, then you can get her on the rats as they're better in the long run.

I don't think you should worry, sounds like only a matter of time before she gets on the feed.

Yeah, I know rats are much better, shouldn't had given away my breeding couple, lol.
Nothing gets wasted though, my female beardie takes gladly all defrosts the BP refuses

Btw. how do you offer it to yours, do you just throw it in the enclosure, or you wve it infront of her or something?

Hah greedy beardie! Never thought of that to be honest, not sure they would take them, they love their supers!

Yeah I've been dangling it by the tail just out side of the entrance to the hide she's in, she comes flying out at it lol give it a wiggle, make it look alive. I'l try to video the strike next feeding but another just quick one here from last night.

cool vid i love watching snakes feed is she quite shy lol she always seems to be trying to hide in your pics lol shes looking good after her shed though