I'm like a werewolf with gel.

Hi, guys, it's Em.

If you wanna forget about the woes of the world and about your debts,

and about the schoolwork that has to be done, and about your spouse who's driving you crazy,

Come and join us over here, because it's a lot of fun and we do a lot of learning, too.

It's fun. Join us. (whispering) Join us.

Today, I want to introduce to you, my girl, Kaa.

Now, Kaa is a ball or royal python, depending on where in the world you are.

Um, if you're in the states, they tend to call this species of python a ball python,

because when they are threatened, they can actually roll into a really tight ball.

And if you are in the UK, like where I am, we tend to call them royal pythons.

Here on YouTube, I will refer to her as a ball python. So, this is Kaa, my ball python.

Let's just clear this up right now.

Yes, her name is Kaa. Yes, she is named after the snake in The Jungle Book. No, they're not the same species.

It works for her, deal with it.

Kaa and I go way, way back. Kaa is now, at least, twelve years old and I've had her for eleven years.

Kaa comes into my life when she was rescued by a friend of mine.

So, I didn't actually rescue Kaa, Kaa was rescued by someone else and then passed onto me.

Um, but the place that she was rescued from was, um, some man's home,

who actually won her in a game...who does that?!

Who actually decides that a snake, or like another living creature is a prize?

I just don't think that animals should be won... I don't know, it just doesn't sit well with me.

Does it sit well with you? I don't know, maybe I'm just uber sensitive.

Her story, from what I know, because we'll never know the full story, it's just impossible, because, you know

this is what I was told by my friend who rescued her.

He was told by the guy who actually won her, so this is kinda Chinese whispers, but bare with me.

So, Kaa was a prize.

And, literally, it would've been, some guy brought this snake to the pub,

like, "I don't want this snake anymore," or "This would - like, here! This would make a great prize!

Let's just bring a snake to this pub and play cards and see who wins it."

I have no idea if they were actually playing cards, or darts, or anything,

I'm just gonna assume that they were playing strip poker. There we go.

Winning a game of strip poker and a snake is the prize.

The guy who actually ended up winning her was not a fan of snakes, but he still accepted her as a prize

because he won the game, whatever their game was, um, and he took her home

and having no knowledge on how to care for snakes, he put her, shh, he put her in his sink.

Like, you know where you wash your dishes, in a sink. And he covered the sink, because he didn't want her to escape,

he covered the sink with this heavy atlas, at least that's what I was told, a heavy atlas, big book thing

to - so that she wouldn't escape, um, that's why she stayed for a couple of days, then he was like,

"Hmm, maybe I might have to feed her, or she might need something, so I should probably find her a home."

So this guy managed to track down someone who actually kept snakes, called him and said,

"Look, I have won this snake, I don't know what it needs, do you think that you can come and - and pick it up?"

So, that's when my friend went over and picked her up and said that she was just in the worst state.

I have pictures of how tiny Kaa was when she first came to me, um,

I'm gonna try and insert them down here somewhere.

So, this that you're looking at would be Kaa, initially, in the first couple of weeks, probably not the first day,

but the first couple of weeks that I had her home, she was skin and bone.

And she was covered in these little snake mites, um, if you don't know what - about snakes,

like, little snake mites, they plague a lot of big breeders, especially out in the states,

um, who sell a lot of snakes. They're these tiny little mites, which actually crawl all over snakes,

especially around their eyes, if they've got heat pits, like what Kaa has,

um, which is like heat detection pits, they go in there and just nibble and suck blood,

and if there's a really bad infestation, it can kill your snake, and they're so hard to get rid of so she was covered in snake mites.

She had stuck shed and she would not eat.

Now, anybody who keeps royal pythons or ball pythons knows that these guys are notoriously picky eaters.

It was just not a good time.

When Kaa first came to me, I was scared to death that she was gonna die.

I got her in September eleven years ago, she did not eat until July the next year.

So, September, October, November, December, January, February, March, April, May, June, July, that is ten months that she didn't eat!

And I don't know how long she went without food before coming to me.

Like, who knows if she had food? She wasn't a hatchling, she was still young, so she must have had food at some point

but, I just don't know, um, I also didn't know if she was a male or a female.

Judging by her size, I thought she was male because she was so small

and then when I probed her, it turns out that she's actually female, um, and she is so small for a female royal or ball python,

like, she is very, very stunted. This is the size that a healthy ball python should be after like a year and a half or so, not eleven years old,

she is so titchy and small, but we love you it's okay.

Since she started eating and gaining weight and some size, she has become one of my animal ambassadors,

so she would come with me into schools, and we would give talks on exotic pet care and how to look after your snakes and she is so gentle,

she has met literally hundreds of people.

She's even a snake model, so she's done a bit of modeling for various magazines, um,

I do have a really great shot of her, but I have to blur out my previous company's, um, watermark.

(camera shutters)

She's now wrapping around my neck, not to kill me or anything, but because my neck is warm and - Yeah, hello!

And these guys love the warm.

They need very specific temperatures in order to thermoregulate, to be healthy, um, so she loves to

seek out the warmth. Where are you going, sausage?

You're such a banana, come back.

You see that little tongue flicker she's doing?

Snakes have this forked tongue and what they're doing with that forked tongue is they're kind of tasting the air

and along with their heat pits and their eyes, that's kind of how they build a 3D picture of what is around them.

They can detect heat, uh, movement, um, vibrations, so that's what she's doing,

she's not being rude, she's literally tasting and smelling the air to get a better idea of her surroundings.

Have you found me?

How's my breath? (exhale)

(laughing)

Oh my god, my feet are going to sleep! (groan)

Honestly, I feel really bad for royal and ball pythons right now, because when they're this color, their sort of "normal" color,

which is like the wild color that you would find, um, they are not as popular, now, because everyone is so obsessed

with, what we call in the hobby and the reptile community, "morphs".

And, because of that, the value of these guys has plummeted to the point where you can pick them up for like $20 as hatchlings.

I can appreciate them, but I don't like the ugliness that comes with creating morphs.

I know so many people who just buy so many animals and they just breed and breed and breed them to get to the next great paint job.

To me, the value of Kaa is her gentle nature, her story, the fact that she has made it through something so horrific

and that she, no matter what her color is, does go into schools and she inspires people, she helps people to

get over their phobias. That to me is worth more than any color that you could breed in or out of her.

Thank you all so much for watching my video, um, if you keep your own snakes, whatever they are, whether that are morphs,

or if they are pythons, or boas, or anything else, let me know in the comments down below what you have.

If you would like to keep any snakes, what your favorite snakes are, whether you don't like snakes,

let's just have a snakey conversation!

Or a sssssnakey converssssssation.

Ugh.

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Also, you can come and find me over on my Instagram, my chat - my - my Chatsnap? My Snapchat and my Instagram!

I post pretty much daily on every platform, it's just a really, really good place to just forget about the woes of the world.

Thank you so much for watching, and we will catch you in another video soon! Bye!