Care of the

Royal Python

  (Python Regius.)

I couldn't see the point of re-inventing

the wheel with so many   Royal Python

Breeders out there, so I asked Local Expert

Jason Mcquade to Write one for me!!!!

Thanks Jason!!!!!!!!

Introduction

Royal Python has long be a regularly seen snake in the world wide exotic pet trade and its popularity is continuing to rise as captive breeding and farming efforts produce many new colour and pattern morphs.

In years past only wild caught juveniles to adults where seen, these had a very poor reputation for doing well and could take years to start feeding if ever. As with all wild taken animals parasites, both internal and external were a major problem in getting them established.

As time went on a few did do well and bred in captivity or wild females laid eggs that hatched in captivity. Also ranching practices where started in various states in west Africa and so captive hatched babies started to be seen in the trade witch where a far better choice then wild adults. They settled quicker and started to feed easier and led on to establish the growing number of home bred royal pythons we see now.

Also the albino and latter piebald royals started to be bred in the early nineties and since those days not a year has gone by with out a new colour or pattern morph showing up in the farms or captivity and has felled a world wide increase in the numbers of people wanting to work with them.

The Royal Python

Royal pythons are one of the world’s smaller species of python. The largest known examples can be around six foot but a good average is around four foot for males and five foot for females. They are well built stocky snakes and can reach around four kilo in weight for a large female.

The back ground colour ranges from black to dark brown and the saddles witch vary in size and colour are normally a gold brown colour. The saddles can vary from totally plain to ones with key hole and alien eye type black spots. The belly is often a off whitish colour with dark grey specks. However there can be a lot of varying patterns with granite and banded types cropping up and then there’s the fast growing number of morphs like pieds, albinos, axanthics, pastels, spiders, clowns, stripes, and on and on. In fact the royal python is fast catching up with the corn for number of proven morphs.

The Royal's Reputation.

Over the years the reputation of the royal python as a pet has varied a lot, its true years ago when only wild caught adults where the norm they had a poor reputation for thriving in captivity. Few of these adults settled well and many would go for extremely long periods with out eating no matter what was tried.

Then captive farmed baby’s started to become increasingly available, these often started to feed much quicker and although some parasites including mites and ticks where still evident they where much easier to work with then the wc adults. If well started a cf royal is a good choice, but if not feeding underweight and ill looking there no better then wc’s.

Royals have a great reputation for being tame docile snakes; however they should not be handled excessively.

The worst rep royals have had is fasting issues,, many newer keepers just get to stressed by this but if the royal is not over handled, the set ups right and there’s no ill health the odd fast is fine and could even be beneficial to the royal. Once in breeding season and if the royals old enough they will fast for anything up to four or five months. As long as there’s no major signs of weight loss this is not a issue to overly worry about.

Selection.

Ideally you would be buying a captive bred or well established captive farmed one that’s already feeding but sadly many still end up with poor quality non feeding snakes. Here are a few things to look out for.

Check for signs of mites and ticks, a good place to see mites are the fold of skin on the underside of the head and around the eyes and vent. Also look at the water bowl for small black specks. Ticks are a little easier to spot and are most often found on wild caught. Look for small brown disk like things sticking from the scales.

Check the snake is well rounded and hydrated looking with clear eyes and heat pits. Check the vent area is clean.

Ask to see a feeding record and if possible to see feeding, however the latter may not always be welcome subject to feeding times etc.

  Housing.

The housing of a royal can be straight forward enough, the key to remember is the viv should grow with the royal. Many royals prefer and thrive in smaller enclosures to there size. I personally find the three different sized contico boxes to work well over the first few years of life.

I start hatchlings in a box that measures 14-8-5 inch. This can last up to six months or so subject to growth, one a royals at 2-300g its time to move up (some will be happy to move sooner).

The next sized box I use is around 18-10-7 inch (similar to the hagen large desert dens) this can last until the royals approaching between 6-800grams but again depends a lot on the individual.

They then go into the large contico witch is around 22-16-6 inch, this can last until the royals around 15-2000 grams.

Of course any suitable sized vivarium or box will be ok, just ensure its escape proof as royals are master escape artists.

Heating.

Heating can be supplied by heat mats for the plastic box set ups and ceramic or red heat bulbs for vivs, make sure bulbs are guarded and mats are underneath the boxes for safety. Also and very important all heating should be controlled by a good thermostat, pulse stats are good for mats and ceramics’ and dimmer stats for bulbs.

Temp ranges should be as follows,

Hot spot, day 90-92 and night 85 (this would be surface temp of a heat mat or spot under a bulb)

Cool end, day 82-85 and night 80.

Ideally temps should not drop below 80 as it can cause respiratory illness.

Lighting.

Royals thrive in low light set ups so indirect room light will be fine. The viv should however not be placed in front of windows under direct sun light as this will result in over heating. Fluorescent tubes have been shown to cause eye problems and stress so are best not used.

Decor and hides.

Royals need snug fitting hides to feel secure, the best tend to be those with a top opening such as inverted flower pots, cork tubes etc. There should be a minimum of two hides in the viv one in the cool and in the warm end.

Natural vivarium set ups don’t work well with royals as they are powerful snakes and will almost certainly rearrange what you have done.

Royals in general are clumsy climbers and only climb at low level, a few strong branches can be used but don’t have them to high.

Substrate wise orchid bark and aspen are good choices if you want a more natural looking set up but newspaper is much easier and cleaner to use.

  Feeding.

If you have selected a good healthy royal with a good feeding history this should be no problem. Most royals will happily take mice or rats often with a preference to one or the other.

Hatchling to sub adult can be fed every five to seven days and adults every ten days, larger adults can go every fourteen days.

The meal should be around the same girth as the mid body of the royal and in the case of mouse eaters a few prey items may be needed for a meal.

Now what if you got a stubborn feeder? There are many tricks to try and I will cover some of the basics here.

First is to swap from mice to rats and visa versa, don’t try gerbils or other rodents yet!

How are you heating the prey, often a go over with a hair dryer will get them feeding.

Try placing a new hide in the viv with the prey hid inside, if possible with some used shavings to give the impression of a rodent burrow.

Try braining and cut nosed rodents and if possible freshly killed rodents.

If all fails and the snake is showing no major signs of weight loss start over again and work through, many royals simply will have fasts in winter when breeding size though so this time of year don’t panic!

I hope this has given you a good basic guide to the royal python and wish you well with any future royal you may buy. There is a lot of info out there for these snakes so please do as much research as possible.

Breeding