Ball Python Appreciation Thread (lots of photos)

• Taycat wrote on 2014-07-26 13:06

  Quote from Yoorah;1235094:

  I think snakes are pretty cool, but as pets, they range from questionable to completely stupid. I mean, those pythons are cute while they're small. But what are you supposed to do with them when they get huge? Eat them [S]before they eat you[/S]? The answer to a lot of people seems to be to let them loose...
  
  I prefer this kind of python:
  

  [Image: http://i.imgur.com/leiFcJk.png]

  
  
  ignorance at it's best, tbh
  do some research before you make assumptions
• Username wrote on 2014-07-26 15:03
  I grill snakes, cut off their heads and put them on kebab's and tell chinese people theyre sushi.
  
  
  I hate snakes. Basically things that wanna be in my face.
• Yoorah wrote on 2014-07-26 19:58

  Quote from Hanna;1235157:

  Ball pythons only get to 3-4 feet and can't kill anything larger than a rat..
  I don't think it's your place to judge people for owning something you obviously know nothing about
  Larger snakes like Burmese pythons have killed 13 people in the US and 30 years. There are millions owned in the US. They're not hard or expensive to house or feed. The pythons in the Everglades weren't dumped pets, theyre there because a breeding warehouse was destroyed during Hurricane Andrew.
  
  In most of the US if you were to let your snake loose they wouldn't make it past the winter.
  
  http://www.gareptilesociety.org/burmese-pythons-myths-rumors-and-misunderstandings

  
  
  Your information is not correct. Ball pythons can in fact grow to 5-6ft. And even if your information was correct, it wouldn't invalidate the general statement:
  

  I think snakes are pretty cool, but as pets, they range from questionable to completely stupid.

  
  
  I put the smaller snakes in the "questionable" category as they are usually easier to care for. Even then, I find it repulsive that people kill so many mice, rats, hamsters and gerbils so that they can maintain their bizarre hobby of keeping exotic pets. The bigger snakes are in the outright "wtf" category, and just because these snakes usually die when released, it doesn't make it in any way acceptable.
  
  I also think it's pretty weird to have them as pets in general, but to each their own.
  
  I maintain that the Python programming language > python snakes. \o/
• Campylobacter jejuni wrote on 2014-07-26 20:37
  LOL, you aren't really worried about mice, rats, hamsters and gerbils?
  
  Dogs and cats are carnivores too and you need to kill animals to satisfy their need. But unlike snakes, we are feeding them animals on a level not so far away from us. Cows, pigs, game, you name it.
• Yoorah wrote on 2014-07-26 20:52
  Not worried. I just personally find the act repulsive. It's really unnecessary.
  
  You don't go out and kill animals to feed em to your dog. Most people don't, anyway. The meat used in dog food is generally produced from the less desirable parts of animals when they are processed for human consumption. Yay for efficiency.
• Campylobacter jejuni wrote on 2014-07-26 21:18
  It's not nearly as unnecessary as the ammount of meat we are eating and the ammount of meat we are throwing away.
  
  You don't need to tear down whole forests, especially tropical ones, to accomodate mice. Mice breeding is a lot more efficient than our meat industry, and feeding dogs and cats on top only exacerbates the problem. "They don't personally kill it" is a cheap cop-out. You still have untold numbers of animals killed who quite likely feel pain and grief on a level just like we do, that we industrialised this for our own sake so we could kill more and faster doesn't really make it better.
  And it's not for our nutrition, because we don't need nearly as much meat as we do consume, but for our pure hedonistic pleasure derived from eating meat. Also there is a lot of meat just thrown away. You don't throw away a mouse due to overcapacity.
  
  Also snakes are cold-blooded and accordingly need much less energy than dogs or cats. That means the total ammount of biomass used for feeding 100kg of snake is much, much lower than the same for 100kg of dogs or cats. This would make it vastly more efficient. Of course we need to consider that small mammals consume more per kg of biomass because of their increaed metabolism, but I'm positive that at most evens it out.
• Yoorah wrote on 2014-07-26 22:27
  Meat isn't over-consumed everywhere. Yes, it's pretty bad, but it's also a completely unrelated topic.
• Taycat wrote on 2014-07-26 23:39
  snakes are great pets for people with allergies
  they aren't loud
  they have no claws
  and they almost never bite you
• Campylobacter jejuni wrote on 2014-07-27 01:41

  Quote from Yoorah;1235261:

  Meat isn't over-consumed everywhere. Yes, it's pretty bad, but it's also a completely unrelated topic.

  
  That's beside the point. I was not talking about the places where it's moderate. I was talking about our societies. Generally you're right, it's inefficient. But pretty much all pets kept for pleasure are inefficient, unless there is a therapeutic value.
  
  It isn't, because it touches upon the same issues.
• Maenad wrote on 2014-07-27 06:56
  I can't believe this thread contains pictures of snakes.
• Hanna wrote on 2014-07-30 05:17

  Quote from Yoorah;1235234:

  Your information is not correct. Ball pythons can in fact grow to 5-6ft. And even if your information was correct, it wouldn't invalidate the general statement:
  
  
  I put the smaller snakes in the "questionable" category as they are usually easier to care for. Even then, I find it repulsive that people kill so many mice, rats, hamsters and gerbils so that they can maintain their bizarre hobby of keeping exotic pets. The bigger snakes are in the outright "wtf" category, and just because these snakes usually die when released, it doesn't make it in any way acceptable.
  
  I also think it's pretty weird to have them as pets in general, but to each their own.
  
  I maintain that the Python programming language > python snakes. \o/

  
  Yeah sorry I've been breeding the damn things for years and never have had one longer than 4 and a half feet long. I am far more qualified to speak on this issue than you are. "Can be" means they'd most likely get that big from power feeding, which isn't what responsible owners do in the first place.
  Also unless you're against the consumption of meat, I don't want to hear your speech against mouse killing, almost everyone I know including myself uses frozen/thawed mice that are killed with Co2 prior to feeding because it is safer for the snake. Feeding live food is dangerous for the snakes, because they're in a confined environment and the rodent could kill them, especially rats. Normally people don't feed live unless the snake won't take thawed mice.
  
  You've probably never even seen a snake up close, so what the fuck do you know?
  

  [Image: http://www.symantec.com/business/support/library/BUSINESS/ATLAS/images_v1/284711/invalid-argument.jpg]

  
  
  When it comes to tech, I will take your word as if it was spoken by the mouth of god, but you cannot beat me at my own game. You're free to have your unwanted opinion on my appreciation thread. (keyword appreciation), but I'm also free to laugh at how misinformed you are.
• Gaby5011 wrote on 2014-07-30 23:11
  Had a pastel ball python at my work who was super fucking sweet and kind.
• Yoorah wrote on 2014-07-31 01:06

  Quote from Hanna;1235874:

  Yeah sorry I've been breeding the damn things for years and never have had one longer than 4 and a half feet long. I am far more qualified to speak on this issue than you are. "Can be" means they'd most likely get that big from power feeding, which isn't what responsible owners do in the first place.
  Also unless you're against the consumption of meat, I don't want to hear your speech against mouse killing, almost everyone I know including myself uses frozen/thawed mice that are killed with Co2 prior to feeding because it is safer for the snake. Feeding live food is dangerous for the snakes, because they're in a confined environment and the rodent could kill them, especially rats. Normally people don't feed live unless the snake won't take thawed mice.
  
  You've probably never even seen a snake up close, so what the fuck do you know?
  

  [Image: http://www.symantec.com/business/support/library/BUSINESS/ATLAS/images_v1/284711/invalid-argument.jpg]

  
  
  When it comes to tech, I will take your word as if it was spoken by the mouth of god, but you cannot beat me at my own game. You're free to have your unwanted opinion on my appreciation thread. (keyword appreciation), but I'm also free to laugh at how misinformed you are.

  
  4 ft is the upper value for a male. Females are quite a bit bigger than males. And even if you were right, 4 ft is still pretty big, yo.
  
  Regarding meat, the argument's already been made.
  
  I have seen plenty of snakes--I've lived in various places around the world. xd
  
  Many don't realize that these snakes live for 30-40 years. That's a lot of commitment for a "pet," which people usually don't fulfill. One can bring up many points on why snakes make questionable pets.
  
  I know that this is a snake appreciation thread, and I do like snakes as stated in my first post. I just think people shouldn't have them as pets. As someone who has been/is involved in breeding and selling them to anyone who orders em online, I'm not surprised of your dislike for this opinion.
• Taycat wrote on 2014-07-31 01:13
  the thing it boils down to is that you continue to argue about this
  okay, so you don't think we should have them as pets, so what?
  just stop arguing
• Gaby5011 wrote on 2014-07-31 05:26
  One we had a while ago.
  
  

  [Image: http://puu.sh/ayqKH/59e2a8e0aa.jpg]

  
  
  Sorry if it's sideways. And for poor quality/lightning.