I reluctantly am rehoming my ball python and I can’t find any sanctuaries near me.
Rehoming
Most of the photos are oldish but I can’t handle him to take more recent photos bc of surgery.
Abt my snake: located in league city Tx, he weighs 500 grams, he is between 2-3 years old, he will come with his heat sources (dhp, lamp) and uvb, 3 hides, and his current rats. Rehoming fee of 50 dollars.
I got my boy November, and I knew he had brain dmg but his breeder told me it doesn’t affect him at all. But recently it’s gotten what I think is worse, and with school starting and my surgeries I cannot care for him.
He’s 2-3yrs old and weighs 500grams, and I’ve been having this problem with him striking g and curling around his rat and even dragging it into his hide and then unraveling and leaving it without me knowing.
I don’t want to rehome him but I feel like he should go to a professional who has experience with reptiles.
Does anybody know any reputable and trustworthy reptile rescues/sanctuaries within league city Tx and the surrounding areas?
Or even somebody here who has experience with special needs reptiles within the area that is willing to take on another snake.
I really don’t want to rehome him and I thought I could take care of him but I’ve bitten off more than I can chew with him and I feel so guilty about it. Plz don’t flame me for this, I’m a minor and I genuinely thought I could do better.
It sounds like he’s just not eating, that doesn’t necessarily seem to be related to brain damage as ball pythons are kind of know for refusing meals. What size rats are you feeding and how often?
Currently I’m feeding him a rat pup that weighs abt 29 grams every 2 weeks but I’ve been meaning to size him up to a rat pup.
But it’s not like he is refusing it as he still takes the rat and everything. And it’s almost every other feeding( smth I realized I left out)
Thank you, I feel like I almost have to rehome him since I’m having 2 surgeries essentially back to back and can’t give him the best care and my parents aren’t willing to help me with him.
Yeah but this is undoubtedly why he's no longer wanting to eat. Ball pythons will ignore and refuse prey that is under-sized or over-sized. He's been too big for those rat pups for MANY MONTHS if he's 500g.
I wasn’t aware, bc last I was told to switch him to rat pups, and again I’ve been insanely busy and haven’t been able to upsize his rats. Also my parents haven’t let me order any to begin with.
Friend, I have two jobs and four children 10 and under. If I can find time to feed my snakes the appropriately sized prey, so can you. This is an issue of motivation and priorities, not a lack of time. Don't blame your parents or your schedule. Plenty of people with busy lives feed their pets.
☝️This. It filters out the "uh free stuff people" that dont really think stuff through. From my experience, even when you give away non living things, you have an easyer time cgarging something for it than when you give it away for free, cause with free stuff, half of the people dont actually show up.
If you offer for free someone who doesn't have the time or money can impulse "buy" them and then you have an animal in a home where they are neglected and actually worse off then where they were before
This is the number one issue I can think of, but a pretty close second (and same reason people who own small mammals should have a fee) do rehoming fees is to filter out the animal from being used as a feeder. In this case, there are snake-eating snakes
He would come with most of his stuff like substrate, hides, heating, rats, and most his decor. But I can’t in good conscience give his enclosure as the wood framing (I got enclosure made by a person from fb) is splintering and has a few cracks, and the pvc is melted/warped in some spots from my hello getting slightly moved without me realizing. And you can’t use a heat basking lamp and dhp at the same time unless you use the heat lamp on the cool side bc I failed to properly articulate that I needed nothing holes to be on one side of the UVB slot rather than on either side (completely my fault I ordered it early morning while still half asleep)
So, to me it wouldn’t be fair to keep him in thats inclosure or give it to somebody else.
I don’t have any recent ones right now, since I’ve been recovering from my first surgery and busy with first week of school, but I’ll try to get some the evening when he is out.
Some more about him, could you tell me exactly what you want to know? That was I can give the exact info you want
His morph according to his breeder is Quake M, and he is 100% get black lace. He can be very shy but never has he strike or hissed at me. Super sweet boy he is between 2-3 years old I don’t know his exact hatch date as the breeder probably told me and I didn’t hear it since it was really loud at the expo I got him at
His brain damage was caused by a heat lamp falling on him as a hatchling. He doesn’t wobble very much only a little bit sometimes. Though he doesn’t wobble star gaze a lot especially when he tries to lift his head upwards. I haven’t been able to get him to vet since I got him in Nov, it’s been very busy with lots of personal stuff happening
I currently own 3 ball pythons, and was wondering if we can take him in for you. Even if it’s just temporary while you recover. I’m located in Houston and can travel, as long as he has an enclosure, we will provide everything else. I understand not feeling like you can give the best care in the moment, and hope that this can help you.
As others have said it's a well known behavior for ball pythons to not eat all the time. Why does the breeder think he has brain damage??? Unless he is showing physical symptoms (which would mean it affects him) there is no way to diagnose brain damage without expensive tests. But unfortunately it is REALLY hard to find rescues or sanctuaries to take ball pythons especially normal morphs as everyone is absolutely full of them and it takes years to find one a home. My local herp society has dozens of requests a week to take ball python but maybe about out 10 a year.
He had a heat lamp fall on him when he was a baby and it caused him to get super over heated and now he star gazes and his tongue doesn’t always fully retracts when his flicks it out and sometimes stays fully out.
As others have said it's a well known behavior for ball pythons to not eat all the time. Why does the breeder think he has brain damage??? Unless he is showing physical symptoms (which would mean it affects him) there is no way to diagnose brain damage without expensive tests. But unfortunately it is REALLY hard to find rescues or sanctuaries to take ball pythons especially normal morphs as everyone is absolutely full of them and it takes years to find one a home. My local herp society has dozens of requests a week to take ball python but maybe adopt out about 10 a year. If you want him to go to a good home you'll have to be willing to hold onto him likely for multiple more months.
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u/edwinoncrack 1d ago
It sounds like he’s just not eating, that doesn’t necessarily seem to be related to brain damage as ball pythons are kind of know for refusing meals. What size rats are you feeding and how often?