Should I get a Royal ?

[Vicki]

Royals are nice placid snakes and a pleasure to keep.

They should not really be handled often though, i handle mine for about 10mins or so a few times a week. They show little sign of stress so its hard to determine if they are stressed or not. Feeding can be difficult as they can go on long fasts at any time, but when they are feeding they are quite agressive and will strike hard. They are quite slow moving and will generally just sit there when you handle them.

Apart from that they have pretty much the same requirements as corns as regard to viv size and temps, feeding times etc. But it is preffered to have the heat source coming from above rather than below as they tend to hog the heat a little if mats are used.

I have had my royal since May and he is brilliant, he eats a large weaner rat every week and hasnt refused yet. He is a real pleasure to keep.

[John Pilling]

I havn't got or had a bp, but i do know that a few people on here who has them, and between Vicki, Dave and Lee (and anyone else i've missed) you'll get the best advice. I could tell you the basics but Vicki beat me to it.

Oh, and welcome to the forum.

[Amber]

BPs can vary so much. My adult bp has always had issues eating, and doesn't like being handled so much. One of my baby bps is quite the opposite, the main difference is my adult was CF, the babies were CB, and the really calm baby was handled every day by the shop I got him from.

They can be awesome snakes, so long as you make sure you buy one from a good shop, and that is used to being handled, and has been eating well. When I bought my first bp I knew he wasn't eating that well, but it doesn't bother me that much, as he always starts eating again eventually.

[palombo77]

Thanks for all your help.

I will probably get a young-ish adult instead of a baby as then I can find out its eating history, wether it is ok to be handles etc etc,

I know they are defo not as socible as corns, but to be honest I dont tend to get them out more than 4 times a week anyway,

The search is on !!!

cheers guys

[Dave]

out of all my snakes my ball python is the most tempromental, infact she is the only one that has tagged me!
basically what i mean by that is what you hear is based mostly on the bp's temerment, you can get a very nice placid bp with a lot of energy that wont feed properly or you can get a bad tempered bp that will feed fine and wont want to be handled, every snake will be different, much like people they have there own character and its a case of getting the snake into routine of handling and feeding
only thing i can refer you to for my own advice if you are serious about getting a bp is this care sheet that i wrote
www.freewebs.com/pacifical/caresheets.htm
hope that answers any questions you have, if you have anything else specific just put it up on the board an the people who own bp's will do the best they can

[palombo77]

Does anyone know of any rescue centres nr aylesbury Buckinghamshire ??

I think if im going to get an adult, i would rather do a rescue rather than a shop..do u think this is a good idea?

I dont even know if there are any around here or not ??

[Dave]

only problem with rescued bp's are they tend to be fussy eaters, and an adult bp will be very different to a corn, alot more fussier, i would sujest a neonate would be less of a challenge

[palombo77]

sorry i dont mean to be thick (it comes naturally !!) but whats one of them

[palombo77]

a baby ?

[Dave]

yeah, basically a young bp probably around 4 months old... not to sure how early they would be willing to let go of them from the shops, it varys between different shops and if the snakes eating well enough!

[palombo77]

yeah, that sounds ideal actually, by that age they should be able to tell if they are good eaters or not, mind you all BP's have a tendancy to go off thier food every now & then dont they ?

I may take a trip to the shop where i got my corns from to see if he has any in, mind you I think i remember saying he doesnt really sell BP's..?

[Dave]

yeah there ideal, most adults will be very fussy, just dont take him/her out too much and feed at night (most bp's eat in the dark) that way itl be much like natural feeding situations
another thing is if you can keep the viv out the way of most people, bp's love to feel safe and alone, they dont deal well with being put in with others and to being walked past every few minutes, best place would be high up and in a dark area

[palombo77]

Dave thats brill, thanks allot,

;D

[Dave]

no worrys, if ya need anything else im never a million miles away lol

[palombo77]

Cool Thank you

[lee]

best looking round the classifieds sites for royal pythons near you
if you are looking for a pet that you can handle as frequently as a cornsnake for example royals aren't the right choice and definately do better with only the occassional handling(i only handle mine while taking photos or cleaning them out)
vivaria for big royal pythons need to be quite secure(36''x18''x18'' although 24'' cubes have been said to be good for the smaller sized royals such as males) and plenty of hides need to be in the cage and as mentioned they do best with an overhead heat source and a large waterbowl big enough for the royal to soak itself in while shedding

[Vicki]

I got mine as a baby and he was a CF. The touble with CF (captive farmed) is that they may have parasites and they are the ones that are most likely to be non feeders due the the stress they may have been through to get here. Out of all my snakes my BP is the calmest and IMO the cutest of them all. He is the only snake that Craig will handle, lol. TBH they are not hard to look after really, its just the fasting that stresses some people out a bit. I love BP's and once i move to a bigger house im will deffo get some more You can pick a CF baby up for as little as £20, but will pay more for a CB which tend to go for about £40-60 from breeders, obviously adults will sell for more. Good luck with the search.