I recently aquired what I was told is Blood Python and could use some input on my immediate observations to ensure the best care and learn more about the species in general. I can and continue to read and research, but I don’t have much experience with these snakes and would welcome any helpful input.
Given the quick and cheap nature of “her” aquisition, I have to be slightly suspicious of her current condition as it was advertised. I’ve only had her for a week or so. I let her rest and acclimate the first couple days while I dialed in the tank. Now I’ve handled her briefly a couple times looking for any immediate ailments based on common health and some light Googling.
I was told its a female, approx. 3 years, fed one “jumbo” rat approx every 2 weeks, sticky shed remedied by soaking, usually agreeable but occasional squirrely temperment, quite lethargic, but otherwise healthy.
I was told it had sticky shed. I noticed some scales on her sides that seemed flakey and stuck out as if they were rubbed backward but maybe thats not a huge deal. Might need a bigger hooch. Also, her pattern looks a little strange compared to pictures. I would expect shes just a plain normal morphology, maybe she’s old or poor scale health, maybe I don’t know what I’m talking about.
Im also concerned about a possible resperatory illness. Huffs and puffs a little while handling. Not a full hiss. I cant hear anything while she’s at rest in hide.
Check out the pictures, I’ll add better ones later if i need to…
I hope you get some input from those with plenty of experience. She looks good from what i can see on my phone. Regarding the scales that are bent backwards, that could be from her laying position along with humidity being too low. Overall though they are commonly seen.
Looks to be a normal brongersmai, perhaps a little chunky, I would feed larges over XL at 3 years. It’s not recommended to use tanks due to humidity, security and ventilation issues. Shorties are prone to releasing copious amounts of liquid urine, so you can’t really get away with spot cleaning urates as it soaks into the substrate. The bad air sits at the bottom where they are, especially without side ventilation and in a smaller enclosure. This causes a lot of respiratory problems with bloods, that and humidity retention might be the cause of some off wheezing you could be hearing. Keep in mind they are noisy snakes and prone to voicing their opinions when being picked up, but any whistling or clicking is cause for immediate concern. The most important thing with short-tails is keeping their enclosure and water clean. Frequent soaks should solve wrinkled or bent scales after a shed or two, but it does take them quite some time to go through a shed cycle.
I’m not by any means an expert on bloods/short tailed pythons, but I’ve picked up a few things from other breeders and people that work with them on a larger scale!
She does look a bit chunky, blood pythons typically should have a bit of their spine showing iirc. (Will include a pic of my pair below to show their body condition)
They are ambush predators and will mostly just sit in one spot for days on end, which may be the cause of her scales being bent weird. They also don’t poop often at all, as they use the weight of their feces as an anchor when ambushing prey… or something like that, from what I’ve read
My female will also occasionally huff at me when I pick her up, but as mentioned before if there isn’t any wheezing/clicking sounds it shouldn’t be cause for concern.
Here’s my future pair, 1.0 tpos albino ivory and 0.1 normal het tpos
They should also be kept a little cooler, around 80°F on the hot spot. That’s how I’ve kept mine and they’re doing great. Keeping them warmer seems to make them a little more snippy, from personal experience.
I keep mine in sterilite tubs, on paper towel, with plenty of ventilation holes poked into the sides of the tubs using a soldering iron. Easy to spot when they’ve made a mess so I can clean it up immediately!
Poor hydration both internal and external will lead to dimpled or cupped scales and scales that lift. Straight vertical lines of lifted scales on the sides is an indicator of laying in one position all the time. All pythons do it.
Make sure you spray the Pythons cage when you feel is needed! Sometimes instead of going on a consistent schedule, it’s good to go by signs the snake is giving you!
If you have a local vet that takes care of exotic animals/snakes set up an appointment so you have peace of mind about the breathing/respiratory issues!
Thank you all for the advice. I feel better about her current health after reading through the feedback and handling a few more times.
I will need to get her and a new enclosure with some better ventilation and better substrate and start occasional misting. Tank humidity has been falling from ~65% past couple days. And I guess lay off the Jumbos for now, maybe just large rat.
Also need to locate local expert around Raleigh, NC. I’ve only found one exotic veterinary office in my immediate area so far. I can’t believe there aren’t even any herp or exotic shops in the area?
The exotic reptile vets can be hard to find and the one nearest to me is a hour and a half away smh sometimes I will occasionally give my 7 year old ball python a luke warm bath to help his shed!
I’ll take a rag and gently rub off the remaining shed! He also struggles with eye caps from time to time I have to use a wet q tip to moisten the eye cap and tweezers to gently peel it off!
If he struggles with shedding that means his humidity needs to be higher. Also, never use tweezers or q-tips on your BPs eyes. You can do serious harm, especially with the tweezers. Just mist the enclosure and increase humidity and you won’t have issues with him shedding.
I also recently got my first blood, though mine’s a baby. Welcome to the club! I’m far from an expert and you’ve already gotten some great advice, but I figured I’d throw in my extra two cents for reassurance.
From both my research and experience, bloods have a tendency to be a little more “vocal” than many other snakes. I occasionally get a few huffs/hisses (honestly sounds more like a huff than a hiss, it’s lower in pitch than hisses I’ve heard from other species) from my girl when I first pull her out of her tub, though she usually settles quickly once she’s fully out. If the huffy sound you’re hearing only happens when you’re bugging her, I wouldn’t be too concerned.
And short-tails are lethargic by their very nature, so that’s not concerning at all!
I definitely second the suggestion of moving her out of the glass tank. Cross-ventilation is more important for short-tails than some other species, for reasons already mentioned. I keep mine in a plastic tub with holes burned into the sides and ends and she’s done great for me over the past month or so.
I’m far from an expert and you’ve already gotten some great advice, but I figured I’d throw in my extra two cents for reassurance.