Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey,
I love these snakes when I saw the pics posted alittle earlier this week (sorry cant remember who post them) i almsot peed my pants lol.........I know enough about them to keep them properly, but I'd like to have some good reference to read over that can tell me alot about everything (even tho I know theres not a crazy amount of info out there) but i think you guys get what I'm gettin at lol

Thanx in advance
Justin Morash

there. I have tried to gather information from NERD as they have kept them for a while and they have been very helpful when available. I know I talked to a couple in the Midwest somewhere that were also trying to breed Papuans. I was just trying to set up a sort of information sharing society for Papuans. Maybe that can be your new job. Anyone keeping Papuans can keep detailed records of temperatures/humidities/cooling schedules/feeding schedules/ so that when someone is lucky enough to get them to breed we may have some insight. I know the one zoo that was successful had rather old animals (I thought they were like 15-20 years old). I have kept mine for a few years and tried unsuccessfully to breed them last year. They are awesome, strong, alert, smart animals that command alot of respect. They are very territorial in their cages but once they are out are very tolerant to handling. They require plenty of room as they will use the space if offered. The females will get sizably larger than the males. If you are looking for a pet and not interested in breeding I would stick with a male (very hard to find) just for the more managable size. I use most of the basic python husbandry techniques for mine and they are doing great. You need to offer large water bowls as they do like to soak in them occassionally especially around shedding time and after feeding. I am going to try to cool mine a little more this breeding season (low 70's for 2 months) to see if this will assist in getting some viable eggs. I had plenty of copulation last year but neither of my two big females provided any eggs to incubate. The Papuan eggs do have a long incubation period compared to most pythons (I can't remember the # of days but remember it being pretty long compared to say GTP's or Carpets). The last known captive breeding I know about is Jordan Russell's little female (I think it was a female) a few years ago. I have the pair that produced those eggs as well as another large female that was in his possession at one time. I hope I can get them to produce eggs this season. I will need a lot of luck. I know Kara at NERD tried unsuccessfully to breed their Papuans last season. I know that Kevin had success with them in the late 90's but I think other projects have filled his plate and he has not pursued the project actively in a while. I have plenty of pictures on my kingsnake photo gallery of some of my papuans. I will leave you with one to look at here. I realize this doesn't really answer your question but I guess the answer is that there really is not much info out there on Papuans. They are great animals. Good luck if you're able to find some.

Besides first person accounts, the single most prolific discussions about Papuan's can be found in the archives of the old forum. Literally nothing else on the internet, and only short paragraphs in most publications, telling you nothing new, or something wrong. Hopefully POTW II will approach them in depth as the Barkers had a lot of experience with them.

I found this very helpful and interesting

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