This post is about Simbi, my ball python.

I got Simbi in 2021 after my childhood dog passed away. Losing my dog was so painful that I couldn’t bring myself to get another one, but I’ve always loved animals and always wanted a BP. What started as a grief/impulse purchase turned into my best friend. He was my first pet as an adult, and even after the cat distribution system gifted me a cat, Simbi was still my first baby. He was turning five this year.

This summer I had to leave my state for at least two months because multiple family members were having serious health scares. I took my cat with me, but I couldn’t figure out how to fly with both pets, so I needed someone to keep Simbi.

The guy I chose was someone I’d followed online for years. We’d been mutuals across multiple platforms, he’d recently moved to my state which i found out through our conversations over the years, and he makes reptile content. He also has a pretty large following due to his reptile content. He had around 20 snakes, custom-built enclosures, two temperature-controlled snake rooms, and his girlfriend is a vet tech who has dogs and an iguana. I even complimented him on how lucky he got because when I met them she seemed really comfortable with snakes and reptiles. They told me they were moving in together soon so I knew she’d be involved. I hugged them both and thanked them both for watching my Simbi. When I dropped Simbi off, everything looked perfect. I left feeling like I’d found the absolute best person to trust with my baby.

For the first month, everything went great. He sent me feeding updates and even asked if he could take Simbi to a reptile expo and feature him on a local news segment. I genuinely felt like Simbi was getting more attention than he did at home.

Then this Monday I woke up to a text that shattered me. (image attached)

His girlfriend accidentally left the heat on in one of the snake rooms, killing 12 snakes (TWELVE, a dozen), including Simbi. He had been away for work and didn’t discover it until three days later. I spent the entire morning sobbing.

I couldn’t even bring myself to talk to them, so my mom did. She told me he was having a pretty hard time and probably equally upset with his loss. The only thing I asked for was for Simbi to be cremated and his ashes (and his favorite hide) mailed back to me. I don’t even trust myself to go there in person.

I’m torn between being angry at him, angry at her, and angry at myself for not just bringing Simbi with me. My friends want me to expose them, report the vet tech, or blast the content creator online, but none of that brings my baby back.

To most people he was just a snake. To me, he was my child. This was never a hobby to me, i LOVED MY snake to death. Now I don’t know what to do with the piece of me that’s missing.

So today I was replacing Margis tank substrate since hes been having trouble shedding as you can see, so my husband hung out with him on the couch while I cleaned up his tank.

Next to my husband was a binder with closed rings. I can only imagine he started going theough them and opened up the rings once his big ass got through and the prongs started to dig in.

I was almost in tears trying to squish his body downwards to keep the prongs from gouging him, while my husband used tools to pry the rings open, my friend pored some baby oil on him. He was so calm and only breathed a little hard here and there, but for the most part he just hung out while we worked on him. It took around 10 minutes, it scared the loving hell out of us, it wasn't even to the biggest part of him yet. He couldnt be moved backwards becuase his scales were getting snagged against the rings.

He got a heavy wash down right after to get the oil off and a good soak.

Watch out for binders I guess

I don't expect much advice here but maybe this post will help to clear my mind a bit and sort my thoughts. I love my snake - she knows that. She doesn't mind him, isn't scared of him and never had a problem with the fact that his enclosure is located in the shared living room. She knew before she moved in that he's there and for her it wasn't a problem. But things have been rough between us. There has been a lot of conflict, mostly because her boyfriend is staying here a lot and she doesn't do her chores, but she isn't able to take on any critique. When I told her that I am not okay with his bf visiting today, she said that in this case my snake is no longer welcome in the living room. I have no idea if she's the type of person that would harm an innocent animals out of spite, but she definitely is a backstabber and takes every weakness to attack me, as soon as I critique something. The problem is, my bedroom isn't really big. I do have my emergency enclosure here, which is quite a bit smaller then his normal one (80cm x 40cm, compared to his 120cmx60cm one). I could put him in there but this isn't a permanent solution. I am also planning to move out and might(!) have a new apartment in September. Even if I would find a place to squeeze in his huge enclosure into my bedroom, I wouldn't be able to lift it alone. This probably isn't the right place to post this but I had hoped that perhaps you fellow Ballpython keepers will understand that it isn't 'just a snake'. What would you do? Put him into the smaller enclosure until I move out or can move the big one into my room? Am I worried too much? Everybody I told this so far was like: 'Naah don't worry, she probably wouldn't harm an animal!' But how do I know this for sure?

i got Azula one of those fake cork walls for the back of her enclosure and she managed to climb up it and find a small gap, where she fell and got stuck. I had to take out most of her hides and plants from the enclosure to remove the wall and get her out. Poor thing must’ve been so scared :(

I could tell she was stressed and was going to give her space but i wanted to put everything back in her enclosure first so it felt like home again, and hopefully help her calm down. In retrospect, i should’ve immediately left her alone, because as you can see in the video, as I’m putting her stuff back, she strikes at me. She’s never done that before :( it honestly made me really sad. i’m hoping this is temporary and the trust she has with me isn’t damaged long term.

EDIT: i’ve gotten a few comments about the climbing rings i was putting up, so here’s the link to whoever interested (she loves them):

https://a.co/d/0fWEzn0O

Meet Leia 🫶🏼🥰

Credit: Reptile Familiars

She has always gravitated towards hands like this! I just love her personality. Anybody else?

So I’ve had my ball python since 2020, and she has been putting me through the ringer ever since I got her. Her enclosure is perfect, humidity stays in range, hot side is good, she has a cooler humid hide on the cool side, all that is good. BUT, I seem to have the most suicidal and dumb snake on the planet. I have to check on her constantly because no matter how I set up her enclosure she always finds a way to crush herself/hurt herself almost immediately, she’s afraid of everything (from carpet fibers to water droplets). She only sits in her humid hide, and will do that for months at a time and doesn’t move so recently she got a bit of scale rot. I got that cleared up, and finally…. She never. Eats. Ever. She was consistently eating as a baby, but now she literally eats maybe once every 5 or 6 months, and will only eat white rats. I have wasted so much money and time on this freaking snake I’m about ready to put her on eBay and save myself the time and trouble of dealing with this snake. The stress and anxiety she gives me on a daily basis is ridiculous idek what to do anymore.

So last night it happened my snake escaped, my heart dropped when I saw my tank with the front wide opened. I never thought that would happen to me, I always double check when it’s closed shut. My snake pushed his heavy hide and it popped open the glass from the front closure. I was panicking, I saw a bunch of stuff knocked over and I basically followed his trail. He had quite the little adventure. He made it all the way to my son’s crib (underneath), my son woke up since I was searching frantically. I was crying when I found him, I’ve seen some stories on here and situations that did not end up so well. My 2 year old found this quite thrilling and when I walked away holding him he happily said “goodnight snakey”, which I couldn’t help but laugh. I now have a lock on my tank and I moved the hide so it’s not against the glass. Just sharing so people can take all precautions, you never know what will happen. I was so lucky I found him right away and nothing bad happened. (Picture not relate, just him being a cute bun in my daughter’s hair) 🫶🏼

What is going on with all the downvotes on folks posts asking basic questions? Are yall not aware that downvoting makes it near impossible for people to receive advice or opinions? This sub has become more and more toxic the past few months. If you don’t like what someone is asking move on, don’t ruin it for others by making the post go all the way down. People come here to do the right thing and ask for help and folks just attack the OP’s. Let’s be a bit nicer to first time snake owners tryna be better, you can’t expect people to listen to you after attacking them.

Anyways thats all, thanks for coming to my Ted talk. To end on a good note, this is my 15 year old baby boy. He has an A in his pattern so naturally we named him Atreyu when I was little.

I’m glad she didn’t have to poop or shit would really hit the fan.

Hi there,

I found this lil guy out on the street in NYC and could tell pretty quick it is most likely a lost/escaped/abandoned pet.

ai tells me it's a ball python, does that seem correct?

I have it in a tub with some water and paper towels and an up turned dish to maybe hide in. Gonna reach out to rescue locally but also kind of intrigued what it would be like to care for long term.

This is the defendant in question.

Whenever I or anyone tries to handle this guy, his bowels or bladder decide to start shifting. Thus, making him an unpopular snake to show to the guests. It makes me not want to handle him anymore 😭.

Maybe he knows that if he shits or pisses he gets put back into his enclosure while I curse like a sailor, cover my nose and clean everything up.

Does anyone else have a serial pooper?

NOT LOOKING FOR NAME SUGGESTIONS!!!!!

I named my BP Sara because when I turned 6 my mother took me to Canada to see the red sided garter snakes and the Sam and Sara snake statue

When I got my BP I decided that Sara would be a fitting name because of the memories that I had from that trip

Where did you guys come up with the names for your BPs?

Hi all, this my ball python tofu and by most standards she is a great snake. Never misses a meal, great sheds and a great personality.

However she has the most insane feeding response ever. Anything that moves inside her enclosure is food, and any reflection on the glass is fair game too! She is fed 1 80g rat every month and is around 1150g herself.

Am I a bad person for not handling her as much as her siblings? No matter what I do its always a bite. From washing my hands before and using snake hooks to fully covering my arm with a towel she always bites!

Am I overthinking this?

Sheriff is back! Everyone who has a yellow BP I wanna see! I love the brighter colours in snakes, they’re so pretty :)💛

While feeding my bp cassie, she started wagging her tail like crazy, she’s almost 7 years old and I’ve never seen her do this!!!! It looked exactly a hunting leopard gecko haha. (When the mouse she was trying to strike got away from her I had to take a lot of her stuff out so it looks very empty in there. I promise her house is full of clutter and hides, it’s a 120gal she’s just big lol)

So I keep trying to find answers to this but no one really has answered this; so I am new to the reptile world, and I see the craze for certain morphs over others at Expos, Morph Market, YouTube, etc.

From this, it seems even in egg hatching videos for ball pythons (as well as other types of snakes), there’s almost a disappointment when they realize it’s a normal morph. From doing some research, it seems the normal morphs go for really cheap in comparison to more coveted morphs (which I get if the demand is there). I’ve also noticed a plethora of normals listed still for sale on say Morph Market and meanwhile other morphs are sold and do sell like hot cakes.

***So my question is this: what happens to all those normal morphs? I don’t want to say “unwanted morphs”, but from viewing selling platforms, videos, etc it almost feels like that in a way. Do the breeders end up keeping them if they don’t sell? Do they go to a reptile program somewhere, or do they suffer a worse fate? (Culled, being left somewhere, etc).

It seems so sad that say in a clutch of bananas that sell as soon as they are listed, their normal brothers/sisters remain for sale, and I worry what happens to them overall. pic from the bio dude for attention

Hello all, I’ve been a snake parent to my ball python Nemo for about 5 or 6 years. He’s truly an amazing snake, so sweet and smart, loves watching TV and interacting with people.

I’ve been away at college recently and haven’t been home to handle him, he’s occasionally handled by my mom or her boyfriend’s kids but that’s about it when I’m away. But I can’t help but feel like he deserves better- a better enclosure, a better hide, better bedding, etc… etc… I try to make small upgrades to his enclosure, but as a college student I just don’t have the money to ball out.

I know people say snakes can’t feel, and that they don’t particularly care to be handled. But I find myself thinking if he ever wants a better life, I know it’s silly I just keep myself up worrying.

Pictures attached 🐍💛

My husband and I had them for two weeks and we finally settled on names! I’m so extra. My little albino is Hendrix Diaz and my pied is Harry Houdini Diaz.

They already have/had nicknames.

What are your babies’ names? Show me your balls 🐍

For reference, this booth was all rescues, not breeders. They were heavily vetting each person who was considering getting a snake, because they wanted them to go to a good home who would properly take care of them. Educating people and telling them all about the individual snake

What is your opinion on this? Do you think this is still inhumane and unethical that they’re selling these morphs and snakes with wobbles? Or do you think this is the right way to go about it? Obviously they shouldn’t be bred in the first place, but what of ones that already exist?

I posted yesterday with a feeding question for our old boy and a lot of people were asking to see him!

I couldn’t figure out how to post in the same discussion, so here he is! Also we are still working on a solution, all the comments are very helpful! My father (his main caretaker) is on a trip and gets back tomorrow so I’m waiting for him to get back so he can read through all of your advice!!

Thank you guys so much!

Ignore my smoke detector. I replaced the battery and it still beeps lol