Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'd like to hear your experiences with them. I'm really interested in a female Ceylonese, but it seems like every breeder and/or keeper I talk to has a vastly different opinion on these snakes.

All input would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Matt

What would you like to know about them? What has everyone said that's different? My experiences with them are easy. I treat them like burms in terms of care. They are calm as can be. I fully trust them and if that comes down to me taking a bite down the road well that's my problem. They are a complete joy to work with. They are very alert and like to know what's going on. They can be shy but they can also grow out of it. I don't really know exactly what your asking, I hope this helps a bit. I'm more then happy to share any information I've gathered and or personal experience with these animals.

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John Light
JL Exotics
Contact Me
Web Site

Thanks! I'm generally interested in their temperments. Where did you acquire your snakes?

I got lucky and found a guy selling a pair! Took me 5 years to finally come up with them. The only one breeding them that I personally know of is HighEndHerps. My pair are yearlings so I still have some time before I see eggs. As you can tell from my pictures they are puppy dogs! They are classified as endangered so you'll need to either find someone in your state with them or go through the paper work needed. I can pull them out of their cage and even kiss them on the lips without a problem. I was tagged last night for the first time. I hand feed everything and hand feeding pigs can be difficult! My female (the bigger of the 2) likes to try and eat the legs of the pig first so in the end she'll never finish. I have to hold the front legs back which easily puts me in her strike range. Anyways she got me instead of the pig, no big deal. Other then this experience which was clearly a feeding response and my fault the only other time I've had them strike is when they have had a large meal. Even then it still takes alot to get them to strike, they'd rather be left alone at that point. You'll hear about a lot of ill tempered animals. They aren't common and I'd be willing to bet these animals were never worked with. My male was supposed to be very nippy and the female was supposed to be "ok". I don't work with them everyday like one would need to do with say a nile monitor. I may open the glass to their vision cages and tap them a bit. When they are out their either cruzing my room or wrapped up on my chair while I'm on the computer....they make pretty good head rests lol. Anyways...if there is anything else I can help you out with let me know. I'll post some pics below of when I first got them:

And here are some recent shots.....after they have taken down their pigs:

2lb Pig

female

female - 6ft 8 3/4lbs on empty

male 6ft 7 3/4lbs on empty

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John Light
JL Exotics
Contact Me
Web Site

Hi Matt,

The ceylonese are an amazing species to work with. And contrary to any addendums to whatever existing Appendix-1 laws concerning Indian pythons that tacked pimbura (ceylonese/sri lankan pythons) to their regulated status, I will always consider the ceylonese to be its own, seperate subspecies no different from the burmese to the indian. (hope that made sense, lol)

I also feel that more people should be aware of them, experience keeping them and breed them also, focusing on keeping the genepools pure and striving to keep them diverse. The ridiculous laws regulating interstate commerce do much more harm than good for this species (and indians) in that they prevent different, dedicated breeders from obtaining these wonderful snakes and thus furthering and diversifying the species' genepools. For this reason I sell my ceylonese offspring to any serious breeder within my state. No questions asked.

Now, to your original question: Ceylonese are great, and like John said (JLExotics) they CAN be quite relaxed and docile. They take a lot more "work" than burmese, to initially win them over and gain their trust, but it can be done and once this has been achieved they are quite trustworthy for life. This is not to say that they are not very hyper and skittish by any means. Unlike burmese and indians they are quite high strung and can be spooked much more easily with much less of a perceived threat. It is our responsibilty as the intelligent keeper to learn their specific needs and behaviors and shape ourselves around the ceylonese pythons' particular needs.

A small percentage of offspring are actually skittish or distrusting of humans to the extent that they can never be fully trusted. These always remain with us as we never want to put out any offspring that bite someone's kid in the face and make the 6clock news. John is rather fortunate to have received two individuals that are so docile as to be trusted fully to kiss on the lips. Ordinarily this takes quite a bit of time, patience and work, to accomplish. Highly deffensive, spastic offspring even come out of calm, tame parent breedings. While I would like to claim that all ceylonese would make great pets I just can't do that. Fact of the matter is, some of them can never be fully tamed. But fortunately this is the smallest minority of the babies. Like maybe 1 out of every 15 or 20.

Hope this helps you. If you have any other questions don't hesitate to ask them and I'll be more than happy to answer.
Our Website

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David Beauchemin
High End Herps.Inc
http://HighEndHerps.com