The Intermediate Keeper Series: Edition One Short Tailed Pythons
The purpose of the Intermediate Keeper Series of articles is to provide a brief introduction to certain snake species that require slightly more advanced care than the absolute most common species. These are not meant to be care sheets, but a brief over-view of natural history, care, and most importantly: What makes these animals interesting captives for the intermediate keeper.
So you love Burmese pythons but are not interested in handling a 20 ft. giant? You like large, easy going animals? You are not afraid of providing slightly more advanced care? Then short tailed pythons might be for you.
I want to get this out of the way early: there are some misconceptions out there about what a short tailed python actually is. All Bloods are short tails, but not all short tails are bloods. This is an article about bloods AND short tails. Specifically it is about animals belonging to P. brongersmai, P. breitensteini, and P. Curtus. Some things are common for all three species: They are all 100% terrestrial and are very poor climbers, they are all heavy bodied when compared to, say, an equivalent length of ball python. They come from the same general region of the globe so their care is very similar. The major differences are of what precise geographic locality they occur in and what colors and patterns they have.
I also hear a lot about just how nasty tempered short tails are. This one can go either way. Like almost any snake, if you get it young and handle it frequently, a short tail can be as easy going and docile as any ball python. If you dont handle them, however, they can be an unholy terror.
Python brongersmai.
P. brongersmai are the Red Blood Pythons. This species includes the Malaysian and Sumatran localities as well as other, smaller islands in Indonesia. They range in color from several shades of brown or orange to a bright red, to a deep burgundy. As adults, females average 5 6 feet in length and may weight 20 30 pounds. There are some record breakers out there that may reach 8 10 feet, but those are rare. Males average 4 5 feet.
Python breitensteini.
Borneo Short tailed pythons are species P. breitensteini. As the name indicates, they are found on the Indonesian island of Borneo. As a general rule, these are a little smaller than P. brongersmai as adults with females generally averaging 4 5 feet with a large one being 6 feet and 25 pounds or so. Again, males stay a bit smaller, averaging 3 4 feet. My Borneo is a really big one for a male.
Python Curtus.
P. breitensteini used to be a sub-species of P. curtus, but not any more. P. curtus now contains the Sumatran Short tailed python AKA Black short tailed python AKA Black Blood. These kids are same size and same care as P. breitensteini. As the common name indicates, these also hale from Sumatra.
Care in 100 words or less:
I keep my adults in 4 x 2 x 1 plastic cages with newspaper as a substrate. Humid hides are a good idea as well. Babies are kept in racks, graduating from shoebox, to sweater-box, to blanket-box, to storage box as they grow. Temperatures are 88-90 on the warm end, 78-80 on the cool end. Normal humidity at 50 60% and up the humidity by misting the enclosure when shed time is coming on. Overfeeding leads to overweight snakes. Short tails get overweight really easily. Feed MUCH smaller prey than you think they ought to be able to take.
All the animals in the short tail group can be very rewarding captives and I suggest them to anybody that has kept snakes for a while and is looking for that next step up in difficulty.
This article was written by and is property of Donnie Morti Smith and PrimaReptilia. Any reuse of all or part of this article without express written permission is prohibited. The photograph of the P. breitensteini named Fred used in this article is also property of Donnie Morti Smith and PrimaReptilia. All other photographs in this article are property of Kara Glasgow and are used with permission. All Rights Reserved. PrimaReptilia - 2007.
Linear Mode
