Ron's Ball Python Blog

Being spontaneous is fine on some occasions but it’s not fine at all when you’re thinking about purchasing a ball python from your local pet store. I had to run some errands today so I stopped by a local pet store in the mall after I finished having lunch at a nearby restaurant. The conditions of their ball python’s were absolutely horrible and almost made me bring my lunch up. I’m well aware of how most pet stores acquire their ball pythons as well as the horrific living conditions their forced to live in but what I saw today made me cringe in disbelief. You can read an earlier blog I published entitled The Truth Behind Pet Store Ball Pythons for more detailed information on this topic.

If I were a person looking to purchase my first ball python I would have inherited a ton of problems after I paid for the ball python and left the store. I’m not going to tell you the name of the particular pet store I visited today but I will share some photo’s I took on my camera-phone. They’re not the best photos but they’ll at least show you the devastation you would have faced if you were the unlucky person to purchase one of their ball pythons.

Do you enjoy expensive vet bills, costly medications and having to stab a needle into your ball python every other day for a couple weeks giving it medicine? That’s what you would have been in store for if you purchased one of the pet stores ball pythons. The photo below shows the ball python with its mouth open. This is either respiratory infection or mouth rot, both being very serious and possibly fatal to the point where the snake could die a painful death.

Respiratory Infection or Mouth Rot

I bet you’d enjoy spending your afternoon using the family tweezers to remove the embedded ticks from the ball python you just purchased from the pet store, right? Notice in the photo below the raised area on the lower right portion of the jaw. This is a tick that has embedded itself deep under a scale. This tick would go unnoticed to most people that don’t have a trained eye of what to look for. Ticks are nasty critters because they carry diseases, travel good distances and enjoy latching onto humans when given the right opportunity. Speaking of carrying diseases, did you notice the mites nestled in between the slit of the lower jaw? Mites are very tiny but they too are nasty blood sucking vermin as well. Like ticks, mites are often undetected by the untrained eye and they’re harder to spot than ticks because they’re a lot smaller. How small? How about the size of this period (.) and that’s no exaggeration.

Ticks and Mite Infestation

You might not enjoy removing ticks or injecting your ball python with a needle every other day but I’m sure you’d love treating a living bacterial fungus right? The photo below shows a bacterial fungus of some sort. I’m not sure exactly because I dared not touch the ball python or anything in the store for that matter. In fact, I changed my clothes and sanitized them and myself after I left the pet store and returned home.

Bacterial Fungus

We can oftentimes think that buying one of these ball python’s from a pet store is helping the animal but it’s only adding fuel to the fire. The pet store will simply replace what you purchased and the vicious cycle will repeat itself over and over again. I cannot stress enough the importance of purchasing your next ball python from a “reputable breeder” that has a reputation to uphold for consistently delivering healthy captive born and bred ball python’s and satisfying the customer each time.

If you enjoy removing ticks and mites, treating bacterial fungus, dealing with respiratory infection and mouth rot issues that can be life threatening then by all means purchase that ball python from your local pet store. However, if you want a healthy captive born and bred ball python that you will cherish for many years to come then do yourself a favor and purchase from only reputable ball python breeder’s.