Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Here's a retouched photo of an P. sebae I hatched back in 2007, before a neighborhood fire claimed my entire collection. Enjoy.

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Andrew H.

That's a beautiful rock, how many did you hatch out?

Sorry for your loss in the fire.

Take care,
Randy
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Randy and Michelle
Art In Scales
(719) 439-4199
info@artinscales.com

Total that year I hatched out 1 clutch, of 47 hatchlings, all het. Patternless. Other than that, I had around 6-8 gravid females that I was still waiting on, as well as a couple clutches incubating from the African Rocks, and some Ball Pythons.
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Andrew H.

that is so hard to hear.
We bought 7 smoke detectors last nite... ever since my tub melted- i've been a paranoid freak about fires... we're probably going to get the ADT monitoring system soon too.
Are you collecting again? starting over sort of?

I love the shot of the eye- beautiful!

Beth
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The rescue site: www.freewebs.com/okreptilerescue

I'm going to attempt rebuilding my Rock Python collection again, as well as some other boids, such as Labyrinth Burmese, Ringed Pythons, Some Bloods, and some Retics...but this won't be until after I move to Southern California, here shortly. I'm also working on importing some Python natalensis as well.
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Andrew H.

Are the south African rock harder to get and what is the difference between them and the centrals?

Sorry for all the questions, I don't know a lot about the rocks. I owned a female several years ago. She was about 9ft, she was easy to handle, never bit me, struck at me with her mouth closed, struck at me with mouth open, but would stop short of hitting me, but never bit me. This didn't happen very often. I have heard about some of the rocks being very aggressive, mine was rarly aggressive.

Randy
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Randy and Michelle
Art In Scales
(719) 439-4199
info@artinscales.com

There are only a pair of Southerns in the United States as of now from what I know. They are very difficult to get a hold of, and require different care than the Centrals. Centrals have a completely different build, general pattern, and different scalation than the Southern African Rocks; which allowed them to be reclassified as two distinct, different species. Basically when you look at the two compared, its like looking at an Angolan Python vs. a Ball Python. Some have noted that Southerns are more aggressive, but not enough have been kept in order to make that assumption. Southerns are also dwarves compared to the Centrals. On average, Southerns grow to be around 8-9' on average (females), while Centrals grow to be 14-16' on average (females). Record Southern length is 14-15', and it was never determined if this animal was a hybrid or not, as the animal looked different from both species.
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Andrew H.

Thanks for the info, I had heard of the southerns, but didn't know the difference.

I'm just guessing here, but the aggressiveness of the southerns might be because they are wild caught. We have dwarf burms that have a bit of an attitude and they are wild caught. We also have captive born baby dwarfs that are pretty docile. We bred our dwarf male to an albino granite female and all the babies are puppy dog tame.

If you have any pictures of the two types I'd like to see them.

Thanks,
Randy
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Randy and Michelle
Art In Scales
(719) 439-4199
info@artinscales.com

I've seen them in person, in Europe; but I've never owned them. Really I can't comment on CBB personality. I know that CBB Centrals are incredibly tame. They've been much better than any Burm, or Retic I've owned.
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Andrew H.

Andrew,
I have read in the past of two reliable reports, supposedly carefully taped in the field by experienced persons, that show large maximum sizes for P. natalensis. One specimen was reported at 16 feet 6 inches and the other, which is considered the record, was reported at 18 feet 4 inches. I don't believe they were mis-identified, as P. natalensis is easily distinguished from P. sebae by the much smaller head scalation and the lack of the large, dark pre-ocular area. Have you heard of these before, and if so, do you have any information on their reliability? Thanks,

Kelly

I actually haven't heard of these reports, so I couldn't comment on them. I will look into them more, as well as try and find the sources. Largest I've known of was the 14-15 female found, that had odd color and patter.
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Andrew H.