| Bismarck ringed python (Bothrochilus boa) |
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The Bismarck ringed Pythons (named after the Archipelago in Papua New Guinea) are snakes that stay relatively small and reach only about 1,50 m of length as adults. They are beautiful snakes that cannot be confounded with any other species. The babies are bright-orange-banded, in the 8th to 10th month this striking colour changes to a golden-yellow to dull-yellow ring pattern. The really impressive particularity is the extremely iridescent skin of this specimen. Especially after the molting it is truly amazing how iridescent the animals appear in natural light! In addition to the ringed animals, there are also striped and completely black animals and everything between.
I have a group of six Ringed pythons from three different blood lines, two of these animals are almost completely black. In my experience this small pythons behave a little wild, but almost all of them know the difference between food and the keepers hand quite well. Nevertheless, I only own one animal that likes to remain on my hands, the others are still pretty hectic. Bismarck pythons – as well as many other island forms – eat inherently greedy. Food refusal really only appears within the last four days before molting. For this reason, one should better keep the animals separated; I have seen successful communities of two or three animals, but there are also reports of cannibalism, that probably only occurs with badly fed animals (especially during pregnancy and growth). In my terrariums with a high humidity over 70 % the animals are active by day and night.
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