Reptile & Amphibian Forums

ive think that eventually i would like to add a blood python to my collection. what would you say are some of the pros and cons to owning blood pythons? i dunno why but somewhere along the lines i got the impretion they were difficult snakes. i hope im rong because they are so awesome looking snakes. -Mike

I am a newbie to bloods myself but I can relate what I have learned over the past couple months, I have never had any pythons before but have had many colubrids and a couple boas before. What intrigued me most about bloods was they remained under 10 ft but had impressive body size and what interested me most was the comments on this board about how slow and lazy they are. I wanted a snake that I could set out on the floor for my 2 year old to touch whithout it slithering off at light speed and a snake I could set in my lap while on the computer or wasting my life in front of the tube. After several months of research and reading all the care sheets from Proexitics, NERD, VPI etc, I came across a yearling Borneo Short tail at a show. I confirmed that it was handleable and had no obvious health problems and handed over my money without even bickering over price (first time I've ever done that at a show). I let her settle in to her new digs for a week and then she hammered her first meal offering. The first couple weeks I had her she would let out one short hiss when I picked her up but since then she has showed no signs of aggression or defensiveness at all. She has ate, pooped and shed since I got her so all is going well. She has gone off feed over the last couple weeks (see my post about half a page down) but I believe that is a seasonal thing and expect her to be hungry again when the time is right. She has lived up to or exceeded all my hopes and expectations. I can set her on the floor for my daughter (under extremely close supervision) and if she moves at all it is about a foot/hour. And if I am sitting in front of the comp or tv she will coil up in my lap and sit there for as long as I let her. I have never had a snake that was as content to do absolutely nothing for such periods of time. Do to those reasons she is rapidly becoming one of my favorite snakes ever and when the shows start up next spring I'll be looking for a boyfriend for her and will probably be powerless over the urge to get a pair of reds as well. If you are an experienced keeper and know how to deal with their care requirements and are interested in a fat lazy snake that just lays there I say go for it. I was lucky in that I found a well started snake that was already tame and eating well. From what I have read that is not always the case with hatchlings and you need to shop around to find one that is feeding consistantly and is agreeable to handling. I would agree that these are not beginner snakes due to the selection process that needs to take place in order to find one that meets your needs and due to some of their care requirements, ie humidity and multiple hides etc. If you are looking for a display snake that gracefully glides through it's climbing branches and slithers from one hand to the next while handling then a blood is definately NOT for you. I hope this helps, again I am the newbie to this board and to blood raising but these have been my experiences over the last couple months. Let us know what you end up doing and how it goes.

Here are some Pros and Cons from my perspective:

Pros:
Fat bodied, manageable length, generally placid demeanor, doesn't bark and the only fur it has is in its stomach

Cons:
Copious urinator, more sensitive to temperature drops than other snakes, loud breeders (bump and grinding is hard to explain to new visitors), next to impossible to give an injection to when needed.

So, all in all, my favorite.