Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I consider myself an expert on snakes but this one stumped me. I just received this python today from someone who could not care for her anymore. Over the phone he told me that she was a "Madagascar Rainbow Python." Now knowing there is no such species I was intrigued in what he actually had. He said that he acquired her from a friend who in turn got her from an exotic animal importer. When he dropped her off and took her out of the bag I was stunned ~ in my twenty plus years of working with herp's I have never seen a python like this. The snake is nine years old and approx. five feet in length. As seen in the photo the snake has an iridescent sheen to it when in the sun. At second glance I thought it could be a water python of some kind, but I thought water pythons grow fairly large. The snake is very slender resembling an arboreal species. Any help on ID "ing" this snake will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Brian Kleinman
Owner/Operator
Riverside Reptiles
www.riversidereptiles.com

This is without a doubt a Macklot's Python (Liasis Mackloti Mackloti) They are my absolute favorite species of snake!!

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--SneakySnakesINC--

1.0 Sonoran Gopher Snake(Oshy)
1.0 Jungle Carpet Python (Taboo)
1.0 Macklot's Python (Pixel)
0.1 Ball Python (Nagini)
0.1 Yellow Rat Snake (Ember) (For Sale)
1.0 Albino Black Rat Snake (Vegas)
1.0 Smooth Earth Snake (Little Zuni)
1.0 Citrus X red phase bearded dragon (Twyman)
1.1 Oriental Fire Bellied Toads (Spott and Dott)
2.5 American Toads (Kirk, Marcus, Bertha, Ethel, Lucy, Olga, Starlet)
0.1 Red Foot Tortoise (Marzipan)
2.0 Equines (Sherlock the draft and Cleatis the donkey)
4.0 Felines (Caesar Ray, Pharoh, Phoenix, Boomer)
1.0 WC boyfriend (Ryan)

I forgot to ask, has it been sexed as a female for sure? With Macklot's the females I have seen have always been larger, and around 7-8 feet..while most males stay around 5-6 feet.
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--SneakySnakesINC--

1.0 Sonoran Gopher Snake(Oshy)
1.0 Jungle Carpet Python (Taboo)
1.0 Macklot's Python (Pixel)
0.1 Ball Python (Nagini)
0.1 Yellow Rat Snake (Ember) (For Sale)
1.0 Albino Black Rat Snake (Vegas)
1.0 Smooth Earth Snake (Little Zuni)
1.0 Citrus X red phase bearded dragon (Twyman)
1.1 Oriental Fire Bellied Toads (Spott and Dott)
2.5 American Toads (Kirk, Marcus, Bertha, Ethel, Lucy, Olga, Starlet)
0.1 Red Foot Tortoise (Marzipan)
2.0 Equines (Sherlock the draft and Cleatis the donkey)
4.0 Felines (Caesar Ray, Pharoh, Phoenix, Boomer)
1.0 WC boyfriend (Ryan)

Excellent. Thank you for the ID. Supposedly it's been sexed as a female but I'll sex it today (it's probably a male).

Thanks again,

Brian

It's a girl! I emailed Dave Barker at VPI and he said his 9 year female macloti were around 20 pounds, sometimes 30 pounds. So if she truly is a Macklott's Python and she is truly 9 years old, she must be the smallest 9 year old female Macklott's python in history!

Thanks for response,

Brian