Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've been thinking about getting a blood python but I have few questions. I've kept ball pythons for about 3 years and from what I've read blood python care seems to be about the same. Am I correct in believing this? If not please let me know. Also I read that they tend to musk when handled. How likely is that really? I can handle hisses and nips here and there but I'm afraid I'd hoark if I got musked.

-Crystal

Yes and no:
I say t he tend to be alil more difficult then ball pythons, as babies they are extremely nippy but usually will gorw out of it in time and age. If they are handled enough and properly.

When they start off in life young bloods sometimes are picky eaters but usually once they start eating good they will eat and eat and eat. Now wcs will often not eat at all and they a re very difficult to acclimate, GO CB NOT WILD CAUGHT!! I'm saying that once. lol. Babies usually start off on small adult mice and by the time a blood is full grown a large one can handle guinee pigs, but I like to keep mine mainly on jumbo rats.
Housing is alil more difficult then ball pythons. The cage will have to be better ventilated but also keep good ambiant heat (80-90 f day drop about 10 degrees in the night). Also the cage for a blood has to of corse be larger then ball pythons cage such as a 4 foot blood will need something roughly 3'x 18" x 18" while a 4 foot ball may need some 30" x 12" x 18".
Bloods also like it more humid then ball pythons. Bloods need a large water dish, In the wild they will often wait in water for their prey to come drink. Both a humid hide and a small dry hide should be provided. The dry hide they will use often and the humid hide they will need when shedding. Now I like keeping my bloods on news paper or for hatchling paper towel just becuase its clean dry and makes it easy for cleaning the cage. But if you are looking at something alil more natural looking I would go for cypress mulch. It is always good to have smooth stones to help the snake shed on and young also may use thick logs proped up on a stone to climb on. Heating like I said earily should stay around 80-90 degrees F in the day and should drop about 10 degrees in the night. I like to use cermanic heat-emiters for heating because it gives good ambiant heat but also keeps it dark so the snake will not stress and doesnt dry the cage out as much as an inferred bulb will, if not inferred bulbs work well and so do heating pads or tape. NOTE- Good locking lid is always good, even though t hey seem slow and stumpy they can be very good escape artist and are very strong snakes. Now handling for young bloods should be be very gentil with slow movements, always support the blood python and make it feel comfortable.
Breeding bloods is a fairly easy task if you already have experience breeding pythons. I pretty much keep males and females separate most year round, right before winter hiberntion in about mid to late novemeber cool them down mist them a few time a day and put them into the same cage. Then all you can do is hope. Female will lay her eggs then you make the decision on either will she incubate them or if you will. Its always safer to incubate them yourselfs, females become very agressive on eggs and often wont eat while incubating and hatching rate for me was much higher in an incubator. I've always kept eggs around 85 and fairly moist. I usually use staphagnum moss or verticulite for incubating. Alot of everything you will see in keeping bloods or any snakes is just common sense...........so Good luck I hope this helps......I love bloods thats why I spent time on this for you because I want you to have just the same love for them as I do.

Justin Morash