Reptile Care Sheet: Burmese Python

SPECIES: Burmese Python, (Python molurus bivittatus).

These large snakes should be maintained only by experienced keepers.

Distribution & General EcoIogy

Found throughout Thailand, Southern China, Java and Southeast Asia, with the exception of the Malay peninsula, the Burmese Python is the largest growing of the three molurus sub-species and the most frequently kept in captivity. Their natural habitat includes rainforest, occasionally to elevations exceeding 3000m. Their diet consists of large mammals, monkeys and birds, occasionally reptiles and fish.

These are large snakes reportedly growing to 7 metres but more commonly to 4 metres, females are the larger. This is a heavily-bodied snake. The general colour may be variable but is usually light brown with large, dark brown saddles down the length of the body starting from the neck, the underside is cream with scattered dark blotches. The scales are arranged in rows from 61 to 72 at mid-body. Ventral scales number between 242 and 265, and the paired subcaudals between 58 and 83. In males the single anal plate is flanked with a pair of well-developed spurs which are used in courting.

Housing

These are BIG animals & so consideration should be given as to how and where you will keep such a snake. They need to be kept at a temperature range from 27°C to 32°C and need a very large and strongly built wooden enclosure. Bear in mind that a large female may weigh as much as 100 kilos and will spend much of her time in one place in the enclosure. In common with most large boids, Burmese Pythons are generally lethargic in habit spending much of their day coiled in a favoured position somewhere warm.

The enclosure should be made of 18 mm exterior quality plywood. These snakes like to climb, so it will be nessecary to construct shelving in the enclosure to support the snake when coiled. This suggests a shelf dimension of not less than 1 m square. Access to the enclosure may be via lift out glass panels (not sliding glass panels as these prove easy for the snake to escape) set in pinned and glued channel. Glass should be 6 mm thickness. The enclosure size should be not less than 2.5 m (l) x 1m (w) x 1m (h) to house one adult snake.

There are various ways of heating the enclosure. Remember though, as tropical species, Burmese Pythons require consistently high temperatures; this may impose problems with large enclosures unless it is practical to heat the room in which the enclosure is housed. It is essential to heat the air the snake will breath, in addition to providing warm spots for basking, digestion and egg production. You will need provide a range of temperatures throughout the enclosure to enable the snake to thermoregulate.
Pythons should not be maintained at consistent temperatures even within the `preferred` range, they must be allowed a night-time drop.
Ceramic heaters, used with a thermostat provide good overall heat but tend to dry the air. An alternative method is to use red incandescent bulbs again used with a reliable thermostat. The light bulbs will not dry the air as the ceramic heaters do. The night time heat source should be positioned about one third from one end of the enclosure and set at about 27°C. This provides a hot spot with a heat gradient away from it, and should be permanently on.

The daytime hotspot may be provided by a second heat lamp positioned about one third in from the other end of the enclosure, with the thermostat set at 30-32°C. This provides the required additional heat and light. It should be used with a 24 hour time switch set for about 13 hours.
Drinking water must be available at all times, these snakes may go long periods without drinking. The easiest substrate to use is newspaper although you may wish to use bark chippings for aesthetic purposes. The enclosure should be cleaned and dissinfected regularly.

Cage furnishing should be kept to a minimum as these large strong animals will easily destroy most decoration just moving around.

Food & Feeding

Burmese Pythons are rarely problematic feeders. Half-grown or adult mice are most suitable for hatchlings; thereafter young rats, adult rats, rabbits and chickens as the snake grows large enough to accommodate the larger food items. You may offer defrost food to hatchling pythons at their first feed so that they do not come into contact with live food; this will make things easier later when prey items may be large rabbits. Because of the good appetite of most Burmese Pythons it is easy to over-feed them. This is not recommended.
From hatchlings, one mouse per week for the first 6 months, then one young rat, gradually increasing, so that by the age of 2 years one young rabbit or 6 rats per 2 weeks is plenty. Female pythons being conditioned for breeding may be fed more regularly to aid egg development, but at no time should feeding be more frequent than once per week. Male Burmese Pythons should be maintained in a lean condition which may entail feeding less often say every 3-4 weeks.

Seasonal Cues

In the northern hemisphere, Burmese Pythons breed in winter time. Pairs approaching the breading season may become intermittent feeders, and finally refusing all food, Males become slightly aggressive. These behavioural changes can begin as early as October but normally from late November. It is best to maintain all python species individually if at all possible. Isolation may help breeding trials and is considered a valuable conditioning factor.

If a normal feeding pattern has continued through the spring and summer, food offers should be reduced through October so that by early November no feeding is taking place. Allow 2 to 3 weeks for the pythons to digest and pass all food and waste products therefrom, then initiate the change in the temperature range.

Over 6 to 8 weeks lower the night time temperature to 22°C but at the same time increase the day time temperature to 33°C. to trigger a reactin.

In January introduce the female to the males` enclosure; maintain the aforementioned temperature for 4 weeks before slowly increasing the night time temperatures towards the normal summer levels.

Eggs & Young

Between 27 and 32 days before eggs are due for laying the female will slough. After this time and as close as 7 days before laying she will become restless, searching the enclosure for a suitable egg-laying site. It is important know to check that the temperature is a constant 30c and maintain a high level of humidity in the enclosure. Allow the female to incubate her eggs; it is natural and she will know the best suitable temperature etc. Often eggs are laid at night, but whenever she lays them give her plenty of privacy. She will lay the eggs within her loose coils and as each individual egg is laid she coils around them gradually forming a pile which she will hold within her coils.
When egg laying is complete suspend some towels from hooks in the enclosure, that reach into bowls of warm water. Twice daily soak the towels in the water and re-hang them from the hooks; as the water evaporates the humidity will remain high. You should also change the water regularly. Twice daily spray the female or the top of her coils where the eggs are with warm water. Some of the water will run through her coils to keep the eggs moist. She is unlikely to abandon the eggs duration the incubation.
The most suitable incubation temperature is 32-33°C. By using muscular twitches the female can maintain the correct temperature and by keeping the enclosure at 30°C will certainly help her to achieve this. If the temperature exceeds 33°C the female will open out her coils to let her eggs cool; if the temperature drops she can tighten her coils and increase the muscular 'twitching'.
Shortly before the eggs hatch, the female will leave them. You may then remove her from the enclosure if it is around 57 days. If she leaves the eggs sooner than 55 days from laying you should not remove her. Hatching takes about 4 days to complete.
As the young python is freed from its egg, the umbilical cord is severed and the hatchling is on it`s own. Remove each hatchling in turn and place it in a small container, some moist Sphagnum moss and a bowl filled with water. It is important to keep hatchling pythons in a high humidity environment until their first skin slough; iyou may keep several young in the same fauna box.
After the first skin slough separate the young into individual containers. Kitchen paper towel is a good substrate and easily changed. Food may be offered soon after the first shed; most hatchlings feed at the first attempt but it may take several attempts for them to start feeding.
Keep the young within a temperature range of 28-32°C for the first year, then gradually introduce them to the regime suited to adult Burmese Pythons.

Handle the young pythons frequently to get them used to human contact.

The following are just a few of the Reptile Care Sheets we have available. For the full list please contact us.

Blue-tongued Skink
Chameleon (Chamaeleo Calyptratus)
Corn Snakes
Argentinian Horned Frog
Tree Frogs
Leopard Gecko
Mediterranean Tortoises
Red-eared Terrapin (Trachemys scripta elegans)
Royal Python (Python regius)
Chinese Water Dragon (Physignathus cocincinus)
Bearded Dragon
Uromastyx

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