I have this snake as a pet. He's a Ball Python and actually makes a great pet. His name is now Buddy. When my sister and I first bought him to have as a display at work (we worked together) we named him Striker. He was called that for a couple of years. Now that the company has closed and I have happily taken over the snake, I decided to rename him with a less vicious name. I didn't want him living up to his namesake one day. He did try that two times hence. Once when I was feeding his mouse to him, he thought my arm was the mouse ... and struck at me, but missed. He had a wild look in his eye and tried it a second time as I was just walking past him. That, I'd have to say did unnerve me a little. I've always had a respect and healthy fear of snakes, but never frightened by them. That somewhat took me back a notch. After the initial feelings got back down into my legs and my heart steadied, I was ok and understood the reason for the attack mode. He just thought I was the mouse..hahaha. One other time He tried that on me was when I was foolishly picking out his dead skin from his cage while he was sleeping under his log. He woke up, thought my hand was a food item and tried to strike it. I learned my lesson once again. After those two times I have a larger awareness of letting sleeping snakes or hungry snakes lie, or at least make your presence known to them before rudely waking them up. Isn't it like that with people too?
The only real maintenance I've had to do with him is bathe him after he has a shedding. Most times all of his skin will not come off in one piece so I have to soak him in warm water and gently roll back the skin when it becomes hydrated enough to not hurt him. You can tell he feels good afterwards. The very first time he shed, it was a neat thing to see...his whole head with the eye sockets was preserved in one piece. He's never had that since.
He likes coming out at night to get in his water bowl, which is a dog water bowl big enough for him to lay in or on top of the rim. After staying curled up in a ball in his log all day, he gets the kinks out and really stretches out at night, full length alot of times. He also has a heat pad under one corner of his cage he seems to enjoy.
Now he is probably close to a little over 3 feet long and a few months over 3 years old. He is one gorgeous snake in my opinion when I've compared him to others I've seen at a reptile show.
Most people hate him and do not want to be around him in the slightest bit.....I'm always reminded by some that snakes are of the devil. But are they really? God created them, put them in the original garden...but this one particular one just had to step out of bounds and do a little tempting. Shame on him, look how that was the beginning of our world being cursed and messed up. That's also the same with people. As long as you stay under control of who made you, you'll do just fine. Maybe I'll get lucky and my snake won't become demon possessed.
Here a few of my favorite photos of my lovely snake Buddy:
You can view more of him at: https://picasaweb.google.com/109432205887032176317/StrikerBallPythonFebruary2008#
There are also a few videos of him devouring his meal there. Enjoy!!
