Blood pythons have made a "steep career" within the last years. Back in the late 1990s these beautiful pythons have been very rare and difficult to get. Meanwhile these animals are even bred frequently. The first color variants have initially increased the fan-base quickly, at first in the U.S. and then also here in Europe – and rightly so! Nevertheless, today blood pythons still have a dubious reputation among many keepers, which is in most cases based – as so often – on rumors that have been refuted long ago. In fact, both, the extreme aggression and the problematic health maintenance apply normally only to wild-cought animals; with the right setting and responsible handling, the animals act not much different than closely related pythons or even boas.

Blood pythons have the largest distribution among the Python-curtus-complex. They are common from West-Malaysia and Southwest-Thailand to Sumatra and several other Indonesian islands. In Europe, almost exclusively, only individuals from Sumatra and the Island of Bangka are available. In Sumatra the animals have a brownish to reddish appearance, whereas the animals of Bangka Island appear extremely red. These are, in my experience, a little calmer than the specimens from Sumatra, which are somewhat bulkier and longer (up to about 200 cm, usually shorter).

Naturally red: Blood Python from Banka Island laying eggs

Only since the mid-1990s farm-bred animals are exported to Europe on a regular basis. Unfortunately many of the pythons died quickly. Mostly respiratory diseases because of poor transport conditions or low temperatures and humidity in the terrariums were the cause. Meanwhile, the export conditions improved significantly and more and more keepers are aware of the special environmental conditions the bloods need. And these are in the end not too difficult to fulfil.

I keep my animals in terrariums between 100 and 200 cm in length (depending on size of the animal), they are made of waterproof wooden plates and styrofoam, each tank is fully equipped with a back wall made out of artificial rocks, hiding places and a medium-sized water bowl. As substrate I use a mixture of turf, unfertilized potting soil and bark, which create a little acid ambience inside the substrate. This ensures that the ground floor is constantly kept humid (not wet!) without getting moldy. Approximately two thirds of the terrarium soil is kept wet, the last third dry, so that the animals can choose the ideal place to be. Therefore the humidity in the terrarium is between 65 to 85 %, usually with the highest value in the late evening. To heat up, common floor heaters are used.

Offsprings are raised in plastic boxes in which the humidity is even a little higher. Rearing in that common much better ventilated terrariums proved again and again to be more risky than the care in plastic boxes – of course with air holes in the lid. However, the boxes are usually fogged from the inside – ideal conditions for good growth, because the babies cannot dehydrate. In spite of these conditions it must be ensured that the ventilation keeps the soil moist but not sticky-wet.

A real highlight: Mating of the Matrix Blood Pythons
(Het Ivory)

My stock includes, next to normally colored animals from different regions of Sumatra and from Bangka Island, some albinos from three American bloodlines (all T +), the rare Blond Albinos (there are only a few animals in the world) and Tiger Bloods. A particular highlight are the Matrix blood pythons, a co-dominant mutation that leads homozygous to that incredible Ivorys, which are almost entirely white animals with black eyes and light pattern. Ivory is the “super”-form of the Matrix, to say it with other words. Matrix bred to normals makes 50 % Matrix, Matrix bred with Matrix makes 25 % Ivorys! My first Ivory hatched in my incubator in June 2009. The next few years (and some American breeders) will show witch exciting additional variants will appear. At the “National Breeders Expo” in Daytona Beach, the "bloods" are already seen as a legitimate successor of the ball pythons because of their big number of varieties and colour morphs.

The stories about blood pythons that are extremely aggressive – as mentioned – have a simple reason: In the past almost only adult wild-caught animals have been sold in Germany. And of cause, as with almost all pythons, wild-caught animals are seldom tame and of course it hurts a lot if you are bitten by such an animal. With captive-bred babies, aggressive animals are very rare. Offsprings in the x-th generation are, in my experience, no more or less "snappy" than a Boa constrictor. An exception is the "puberty-period” of half-grown Blood pythons, when some specimens are quite hectic for a time. But I work in all my terrariums without gloves, because I know how to judge the behaviour of each snake very well. Blood pythons are very predictable, you can see if they have "a bad day", for example before molting. And of course, I do not put my hands into the terrarium if it smells of food. Animals that attack their keeper in general if he steps in front of the terrarium, I know only from wild-caught animals or completely non-handled individuals.