Introduction
Before you get your first royal python, read many care sheets like this one so you know the basics first. It pays to be prepared!
Royal pythons make great pets - most of them are gentle-natured, they are easy to care for and take up little space, they are small in size and come in a wide array of colours and patterns. For a more extensive list of advantages and disadvantages for this species, please visit the Available page!
Housing
Royal pythons in the wild spend a lot of time in burrows. Therefore they aren't particularly active by nature, so usually they are kept in relatively small cages. Large cages can actually put them off feeding! The minimum floor size recommended is:
Large Adult Females - 34" long by 18" wide
Adult Males & Females - 24" long by 16" wide
Hatchlings/Juveniles up to about 700g - 21" long by 9" wide
Substrate can be something simple like newspaper, or you can have aspen bedding or even more decorative substrates such as cocoa bark, eco earth etc., depending on your setup. The picture (right) shows a typical setup for a juvenile royal python - newspaper substrate, a water bowl and a hide.
Royal pythons must have a hide available and make sure this is over the hot spot, or preferably have two hides - one in the cool end, one at the hot spot. Royals are known to prefer security over anything else, so they will sit and freeze in the cool end if that's where the hide is (and vice versa). If the substrate is newspaper, the snake will often go under the paper to hide.
Humidity
Average room humidity of 40-60% is fine for royal pythons. Provide a bowl of clean water at all times for drinking and helping raise humidity. If need be, you can also spray the inside of the cage to raise humidity to the desired level.
Heating
Royals need warm temperatures - they come from tropical areas of Africa. Ambient temperatures should be 26-29C (80-85F) and a hot spot of 32-35C (90-95F) must be provided. A great way to achieve these temperatures is to provide belly heat via a heat mat or heating cable underneath one end of the cage, controlled by a thermostat to provide a constant ideal temperature. Always monitor temperatures regularly to make sure it is within the acceptable range.
Lighting
These are nocturnal snakes, so no extra lighting is needed. However, it's a good idea to allow ambient light in from windows to provide a day/night light cycle.
Feeding
Royals are generally good feeders and most will happily accept defrosted rats or mice. Sometimes you may have to warm up the rodent by soaking in hot water or using a hairdryer to heat it up before offering. Some royals, such as wild-caught animals, or imports from America, are used to feeding on live rodents and may not convert to defrost as readily as a snake already used to eating defrosted rodents - it's good to check where your royal comes from and what it has been feeding on before buying.
Fasting
Royal pythons can sometimes be fussy feeders, but with perseverence, just about any royal will come round for you and feed on whatever rodent you are offering. They do randomly go on fasts, sometimes for several months at a time. Some say this is a response to weight gain and rapid growth - it is common in yearlings when they reach 600-800g. As long as no drastic weight is lost, there is no reason to panic. However, until your royal starts to look like this one below, you don't need to panic too much - but if it does become this skinny, you should get it to a vet as soon as possible. Royals will rarely starve themselves this thin, and it often indicates some other problem such as parasites.
HERE is a forum thread with pictures showing a severely underweight piebald which someone was selling for £1000 on Reptile Forums UK which is about 1/2 the price it should have been. It is severely underweight as you can see in the pictures. Note the 'pencil-tail' and sucked-in spine - these are indicators of dramatic weight loss and should be taken seriously.
Breeding
Royal pythons readily breed in captivity. Some people say that 'cooling' by switching off the hot spot stimulates follicle growth and breeding behaviour, but I have found that they breed just as well without cooling the hot spot (they do benefit from cooling ambient temperatures though!). Reducing hotspot temperatures can make them prone to illness such as respiratory infection, so you must proceed with caution. Here I will describe how I breed my royal pythons. I will skip the details of cooling as I don't find it necessary and no longer do it.
Step 1: Mating
Getting royals to mate is usually as simple as placing a male and female together. We place the male in the female's cage at night then leave them alone. They will usually court over the next few hours of introduction, and if we're lucky they will 'lock' together soon after, or within the next few days. You must leave them alone while they are together or you may disturb them. Once they have separated again, we remove the male and won't pair the female again until the next shed cycle, usually once every 4 weeks. This gives the male plenty of time to rest between copulations, especially if he is breeding multiple females. Cooling ambient temperatures and reducing light levels may encourage them to mate... but do not cool the hot spot less than 90F!
Step 2: Follicles & Ovulation
The next stage is to watch for follicle development in the female. You can feel follicles by having the snake run through your fingers and feeling the lower 1/3rd of the belly. They feel like a string of pearls, building up to the size of golf-balls just before ovulation. Once the female has shed (with large follicles), the next step is to look for ovulation. They often become a very light colour before ovulating, called the pre-ovulation 'glow'.
Once the female has ovulated, there is no mistaking it. She looks like she swallowed a jumbo rat! This only lasts for a day or two so you need to be vigilant or you will miss it. Females lay their eggs about 50 days after ovulation. I find this is a more accurate counter than the post-ovulation shed which most people use as their 'countdown to laying'. Usually though, it will be about 30 days after the post-ovulation shed that the female will lay her clutch.
Step 3: Laying & Egg Incubation
Some breeders will provide some moist sphagnum moss or other bedding for the female to lay her eggs on, some will just let them lay their eggs in their cage. Once they are laid, you should leave them for a few hours to dry properly and then remove them from the female. After removing her eggs, we wash the female with warm water, and her cage as well, to remove the scent of the eggs. This usually gets her feeding sooner.
We have an incubator set up well before eggs are laid - this ensures it is working correctly before we need to use it. For one or two clutches, we use a polystyrene box fitted with a heat tape around the inside, controlled by a pulse thermostat, with some egg crates at the bottom so the egg boxes aren't directly sitting on the bottom, and a couple of small fans circulating the air constantly. The picture (left) shows a polystyrene box incubator with a clutch in the middle and a thermometre probe resting on top of the egg box. For a larger number of clutches, you can convert a refridgerator or freezer into an incubator by lining the inside with heat cable or tape the same way as you set up the poly box. As long as temperatures are stable and air circulates keeping them even, almost any container can be used to incubate boxes of eggs. We incubate our eggs at 88F (31C) and they hatch after about 60 days.
Once the incubator is ready and we have a clutch waiting, we set up an egg box to put them into - this consists of an airtight plastic food storage tub (at least 5 litres for clutches up to 8 eggs - large clutches need a bigger tub) and damp vermiculite filling about half way. The vermilulite is only wetted just enough that it holds shape when squeezed. We bury the eggs about half way, and air eggs twice a week until day 50, then we air once a day until pipping. When the first egg pips, we leave the tub open just a crack to allow air flow.
Step 5: Pipping & Hatching
Once the baby snake has pipped, it stays in the egg for about 24-48 hours before emerging. This is when it is absorbing the yolk sac fully and shouldn't be disturbed during this time. We air the incubator a few times a day after the first one pips to make sure enough air flow is coming in. Once they all leave the egg, we wash the vermiculite off and then set them up in a small box lined with damp paper towels until they complete their first shed. This usually takes about a week after hatching.
Once they've all shed, we then set them up individually and let them settle in their new tub for a week before offering their first meal. Usually we get them started on defrost small mice, and once they have fed well (4 feeds) we then switch them to rats from then on. We have had no problem switching a hatchling from mice to rats, if it is feeding well.
To get them to eat defrost first time, we dip the mouse's head in a bowl of hot water from the kettle for 10 seconds to 'super-heat' it, then offer to the baby royal. Most will take this right away, if not we try again next week. Sometimes the baby will not be interested in food until the 4th attempt, sometimes even longer (up to about the 8th attempt is our record). We have found assist feeding isn't necessary and is stressful for the royal, often putting them off food for longer. However, if it has gone past 8 attempts to feed and the baby is still showing no interest at all, you might want to try assisting.