By Graham Battison
It was in the early 2000s when I first developed a fascination with the blood python. I was breeding ball pythons at the time and would be fixated on VPI’s website waiting for daily updates on the latest and greatest “morph” or mutation of regius that cropped up in the hobby that they occasionally uploaded to their diary section. Occasionally, They would post pictures of boas and other species of pythons they were keeping out on their ranch in Bourne, Texas.
One day I came across a python that had the short squat look of a ball python, but with a completely different colour palette, a bulldog looking head and a kind of menacing look on its face. It reminded me of a Gaboon viper from West Africa. I was intrigued and wanted to know more.
Information on these particular snakes wasn’t out there. Sure, there was the occasional forum post, there were one or two websites with some information but not the in-depth, kind of nitty gritty, that an enthusiastic young herpetoculturist would crave.
Pro Exotics began working with these snakes and their sister species, the Borneo Short Tailed Python (Python breitensteini) and the Sumatran Short Tailed Python (Python Curtus). They had pictures on their website of HUGE blood pythons, T+ albinos and even a video of a baby developing in the egg complete with a visible heartbeat. But, again their husbandry information was not detailed.
The one good resource was the curtusforum. Keith Mcpeek was a moderator and he has always been the number one source of information on this species, always keen to share and help other keepers develop an insight into these animals. To find out how I was going to be able to keep these things, I had to turn to the animal’s natural history, life cycle and adaptations to its environment. So here let’s get into it.
NATURAL HISTORY
Blood Pythons are southeast Asian snakes that inhabit the areas of Southern Thailand, Sumatra, Peninsular Malaysia and the Riau islands, as well as Bangka.
Temperatures are warm year round, though they rarely get above 90 degrees. Humidity is high and elevated during the rainy season. In their pristine habitat they are found in lowland swamp areas, along the banks of rivers, in tree stumps, hollows, subterranean disbanded rodent burrows and more. They can be very cryptic and, in pristine habitat, very hard to spot.
Blood pythons have adapted very well with the growing oil palm monoculture in these areas. Oil palm brings palm nuts, palm nuts bring rodents, rodents bring snakes and lots of them. The workers who harvest the oil palm often cut off old palm fronds from the lower sections and toss them into the centre of a row of trees to decay. These make ideal ambush spots for bloods to sit and wait for a passing rat. In fact, Blood Pythons are a prime example of a “sit and wait” predator. It is these oil palm plantations that have been the main source of blood pythons for collectors from both the skin trade, and commercial export. An interesting note Is that blood pythons are VERY SELDOM seen in this pristine habitat making wild “in situ” photographs very hard to come by. The best place to find one is within these oil palm plantations.
Another interesting thing about Blood Pythons is that they rarely defecate. They hold onto their waste for many months at a time. It’s an adaptation to ambush predators that sit on a scent trail, spoil this trail with the smell of your waste, then the prey will be wise to you. I’ve noticed in captivity that Blood Pythons often defecate at the same time they have a damp or wet cage. Now this may be anecdotal, but I believe that this furthers the ambush adaptation theory. In the wild I believe they are waiting for rains to come before they pass waste. Rains mean their waste is washed away leaving no scent for a cautious rodent to pick up on.
CAPTIVE CARE
Blood pythons are ambush snakes, without question. They don’t move a lot, if provided with a cage that meets their requirements of security, correct temperatures and correct humidity. Now I say they don’t move a lot, that is the case when they’re comfortable with what is provided. If they’re not comfortable then they DO move a lot. Please don’t mistake this behaviour for “an active snake is a happy snake”. In this case, it’s not. This is your snake under stress. Stress leads to problems that will make your blood python go downhill fast. As humans we may find it hard to understand what suits an animal like a blood python and we may think we need to give it three hundred options to keep it happy. Wrong. Blood pythons have very simple requirements. Complicating these requirements will add to the number of variables that cause stress.
Temperatures should be warm, but not too warm. In fact, I keep and breed my blood pythons at an ambient room temperature of 78-82 degrees. I don’t provide a thermal gradient at all. This Is not an animal that basks in the full sun in nature. Blood pythons will always choose security over temperature and will either cook themselves sick or cool themselves sick depending on where they are most secure in the cage when provided a hot and cool end. By providing this happy medium, the snake is able to complete all of its cellular and biological processes, breed, eat, drink, use the bathroom etc.
Humidity is kept around 60% by simply keeping a large dog bowl of freshwater in the cage at all times. Too much ventilation may dry the cage out and cause shedding issues. But in well hydrated, properly heated animals these issues rarely arise.
CAGING
I find that adult blood pythons are best maintained in a cage that has a footprint of 4ft x 2ft. This is all the space that all but the biggest bloods need. Now you can choose whether to use a rack system with a large 4ft tote or a sliding glass cage but remember to maintain humidity and security for the animals in whichever one you choose. I will note that when I was using sliding glass vivaria for bloods I experienced a more flighty captive that struck the glass more often.
These snakes can be sensitive to the sliding of the glass and viewing their large, ape-like keepers through the glass which may not exactly be the highlight of the snake’s day (sorry guys). Remember these are chin-to-the-ground, ambush snakes so when they feel that glass running along as it opens, it can trigger a reaction.
Babies and juveniles are easily maintained in rack systems exactly the way adults are until they are full grown. Layers of paper make the perfect hiding spot for a blood python. Don’t forget, these guys lay out under dry palm leaves in nature so paper layers are an excellent choice.
Baby blood pythons can have a hard time finding their water dish to drink from. This is something Keith McPeek shared many years ago after working with hundreds of neonates. He found that a simple solution to this issue is to keep hatchlings in a shallow substrate of water only. This is replaced often and presents zero issues with scale rot or other issues that may kill any other species.
FEEDING
I find that blood pythons are great feeders on a variety of food items. Rats, mice, quail, and day-old chicks make great food items that I switch up often. I shy away from large, fatty, retired breeder rodents as they put the wrong kind of weight on an animal. I want a snake that maintains its muscular look throughout its growth and still shows a visible ridge down the spine. Overfeeding these pythons can lead to a fat sausage that lives a third of its life expectancy and never reproduces. Raise them slowly and you’ll be rewarded with a pristine healthy animal that lays eggs and lives for a long time.
Getting hatchlings to eat can be tricky at times but often hatchlings can be teased to strike by tapping the tail with a fuzzy rat or hopper mouse which elicits a defence strike from the snake. After this defence strike most of them will get wise and grab and constrict the prey item. Some hatchlings will take time and patience and occasionally need assist feeding. But these are the minority. Once a blood python starts taking food it rarely quits.
CAPTIVE REPRODUCTION
Breeding blood Pythons isn’t a difficult chore, provided you have healthy animals, a good understanding of what the triggers are for reproduction, and are willing to observe your animals and keep records.
When it comes to breeding size, I wait until animals are at least 4 years of age for females and I’ve had males breed as young as 18 months. Animals should have good body weight, no signs of respiratory infections and be fed on a relatively sparing diet prior to introductions. I introduce the males into the females cages as the nights draw in and Halloween approaches. The snakes seem to appreciate the shorter day lengths. Pairing a male to a female when she is deep in shed and sitting still is often a great time to observe copulations without the female kicking up too much of a fuss. Pairs can lock for several days before being separated. That’s when I split them and offer food. Once copulations are observed, I feed the female on a more regular cycle, maybe once every ten days. Males get a chick or a small tidbit to keep them ticking over but not sessile and inactive. I keep pairing until I see they no longer lock or the female swells up to ovulate.
Once you see a female ovulating there’s no mistaking it. It’s a huge rock hard swelling two thirds down the body that looks painful to us humans. This is the point of fertilisation. If you kept temps right the whole time then there’s visible sperm to meet (hopefully) viable, mature follicles. Too hot of a male snake means sperm with poor motility (no fertilisation) and, consequently infertile eggs. Too hot of a female snake and she may have ovulated immature ova that aren’t at size and you’ll get slugs. Heat is bad when breeding pythons.
Following ovulation females will go into a long shed cycle and will lay eggs around 40-50 days following. Clutches can be up to 25 eggs in big animals, sometimes more. Often around 15 is more typical. Eggs are incubated in damp loose vermiculite at 87 degrees and take 60 days to hatch. Babies are then transferred to small 5qt shoeboxes until they outgrow them. Feeding trials begin after a few weeks and babies can take 3-4 months to have their first sheds.
MORPHS/CULTIVARS
Blood pythons come in a number of wild colour phases. Reds, brown’s, yellows, oranges, even pinks. They are very polymorphic even within the wild type animals. But there are also a number of inheritable traits that are now common in the hobby. Albinos, both tyrosinase positive and negative, a multitude of stripe lines with different looks and patterns of inheritance, leucistic type looks like the magpie and ivory, both of which are homozygous forms of beautiful incomplete dominant genes. I myself have proved out a new gene called blackeye as a dominant trait. In a few years I will attempt to produce a “super” homozygous form. I firmly believe there is more potential in blood python morphs than in ball pythons. I think this is helped by the fact that there are so many wild type colour phases to work from when selectively breeding for those looks.
SUMMARY
Blood pythons are fantastic snakes that aren’t the mean, flighty, wild caught nightmares that they used to be. Captive breeding efforts and understanding what these animals require has made them affordable and available in a wide variety of colours, patterns and appearances to go with it. They are so easy to handle when done right and become very tame. I really encourage every python enthusiast to try a couple. I guarantee you’ll be intrigued, amazed and learn a few things along the way.
Big bloods are impressive snakes!