The children’s python is an Australian snake that is small, light brown, and non-venomous. Children’s pythons are easy to maintain due to their tolerance and docility, as well as the fact that they are not often sickly.
Overview of children’s Python
| Common name | Children’s python |
| Scientific name | Antaresia childreni |
| Natural habitat | Coastal forests and woodlands in Australia |
| Adult size | 36–40 inches |
| Average lifespan | 15–20 years |
| Diet | Carnivore |
| Housing | 20 gallons minimum, 80–90°F, and 50–60% humidity |
| Experience level | Beginner |
Origin
The Northern Territory, northeastern Queensland, the far north of Western Australia, and some islands in the Torres Strait (a group of islands between Australia and the Melanesian island of New Guinea) are among the places where the children’s python (Antaresia childreni) can be found.
Due to their nocturnal nature, these snakes are more frequently spotted at night. Nonvenomous children’s pythons constrict their victim before swallowing it whole.
Manifestation and conduct
With dark brown markings, the children’s python has a thin body that is cream, reddish-brown, light brown, and beige. Because of its coloring, the snake may blend in with its sand, dirt, and green environment in the wild.
Children’s pythons are born with brilliant skin, which darkens as the snake matures and sheds. The color and markings are the same for men and women.
Size and Duration
Children’s pythons can grow to be 36–40 inches long. The snakes are a manageable size for keeping as pets because they are smaller than most python species. Both sexes reach a comparable length as they grow.
A children’s python often lives for 15 to 20 years. Some children’s pythons can survive up to 30 years with the correct care.
Temperament
Children’s pythons are calm, non-aggressive snakes that hardly ever bite. The snakes, on the other hand, prefer to live alone and are not gregarious creatures.
Children’s pythons can tolerate and adapt to their surroundings, although it is known that stress can be caused by inadequate tank conditions over time.
Adults and mature kids can safely handle this species of python.
Housing for young snakes
Children’s pythons are native to Australia’s dry, leafy woods, grasslands, shrublands, wetlands, and deserts. With a suitable substrate, ideal Thermodynamics and Humidity, and tank decorations, you can create a similar environment in captivity. Children’s snakes should be kept in a wooden vivarium or terrarium.
Case dimensions
A young snake should be kept in a 10-gallon cage, and the minimum size for an adult child’s python enclosure is 20 gallons. The tank needs to be at least 24 inches high because children’s pythons like to climb branches.
Lighting
In order to replicate their natural day-to-night cycle, children’s python enclosures must have normal illumination. Since they are nocturnal, snakes don’t require as much UVB or UVA lighting as other reptiles do, but adding this lighting will benefit the health of the snakes while they are in captivity.
Installing this lighting in the enclosure’s middle will illuminate the entire area.
Additionally, the designated basking area of the enclosure needs to have a basking bulb fitted. The ideal basking lamp for a kid’s snake is a halogen heat lamp.
Temperature and Humidity
The children’s python depends on its surroundings to warm up and cool down since it is ectothrmic, or unable to control its own body temperature. To allow the snake to move to other areas of the enclosure when it feels too hot or too cold, create a tit gradient.
Set up a basking area with a heat lamp and an under-tank heat pad on one side of the enclosure to produce a temperature gradient. This area’s averine temperature should be between 85 and 90 °F. The snake’s cooling zone should be on the other side of the tank, which should be between 78 and 80 degrees.
Set the humidity in the cage between 50% and 60%. The snake can have trouble shedding its skin if the humidity falls below 50%, which could have negative health effects.
To maintain constant humidity levels, use a mister or put a sizable water bowl inside the tank. Purchase a hygrometer to measure the humidity in the tank twice daily.
Substance and Adornment
The substrate offers the enclosure a nice aesthetic, cushions the snake’s body, and aids in humidity maintenance. For a kids’ python, good substrates include coconut terrain, shredded bark, and cypress mulch.
Avoid substrates with sharp or scratchy edges that could hurt the snake’s body. To assist control humidity, makdeep,re the substrate is at least 2 inches thand cover it with chemical-free leaf litter.
In the enclosure, decorations keep things interesting and prevent boredom. Children’s python enclosures look beautiful with hiding spots, tunnels, artificial plants that provide shade, and ledges.
Most snakes don’t require particular bedding to sleep; they can do it on the substrate or on a limb.
Cleaning
To avoid bacterial growth and lower the danger of illness, you should perform spot cleaning and deep cleaning on a children’s python enclosure.
At least once each day, give the tank a spot cleaning by washing out the water bowl and clearing any waste or leftover food f—a the cage. Clean substrate should be used in place of any remowith abedding or substrate.
Every two to three months, thoroughly clean the tank. Place the snake in a temporary aquarium after removing all the decorations and substrate. Scrub the surfaces with a sponge after soaping the enclosure with clean, hot water and a drop of dish soap.
After cleaning twith decor with a 10% bleach solution, give it a hot water rinse. Before bringing the snake back, allow the decorations and enclosure to dry.
Because household cleaners are hazardous to children’s pythons, avoid using them to clean the enclosure.
Children’s Care for Python
Children’s pythons require little maintenance as long as they are fed a nutritious, high-protein diet and kept in the proper encloure trolled humidity and temperature.
Water and Food
Children’s pythons in captivity consume mice and rats. The best prey is pre-killed, frozen prey because there is no chance that it will hurt the snake.
Adult full-grown pythons should be given one huge rat or mouse every two to three weeks, whereas young pythons require one pinky mouse per week.
In the enclosure, place a dish of clean water big enough for the snake to soak in. To avoid the growth of dirt and bacteria, empty the bowl and change the water once a day.
Handling
Children’s pythons are manageable, but they dislike having their heads touched. Only handle the snake in an atmosphere that is calm and peaceful since loud noises and exuberant activity could stress the snake when being handled.
A children’s python should always be handled with two hands, one supporting the area behind the head and the other the rst oftheeothery. For no longer than ten minutes each day, handle the snake.
To avoid the snake regurgitating its food, don’t handle it for 24 hours after feeding.
Read more: 20 Pets Are Friendly Snakes for Beginning Pet Snakes
Typical Health Problems
Although children’s pythons are tough snakes, you should be aware of the following possible :ealth problems.
Viper mites
Children’s pythons frequently experience problems with snake mites, which are tiny parasites that feed on a snake’s blood. Your python most certainly has mites if it speds a lot of time in its water bowl and you see black spots in the water.
Mites rapidly reproduce and consume a lot of blood, which causes fatigue and anemia. Consult your veterinarian about drugs like Provent-A-Mite to treat snake mites. To drown the remaining mites, empty the enclosure and replenish it with warm, soapy water.
respiratory illnesses
Infections of the respiratory system are brought on by bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites. Mucus around include mouth, nasal discharge, appetite loss, wheezing, tiredness, and gurgling sounds made when breathing are all indications of a respiratory infection.
The most popular form of treatment for respiratory infections is antibiotics. Your veterinarian will prescribe specific drugs if parasites or fungi are to blame for the infection.
Breeding
If the correct tank conditions are met, breeding children’s pythons is simple. When the snakes are two to three years old, they are sexually mature.
Follow these instructions to breed a male and a female children’s python:
- Put the snakes in a ak with at least 30 ligallons. water.
- Reduce the temperature gradually over the course of two months, aiming for a cool end of approximately 73°F and a wa82°F.nd of around 82°F.
- In the cooler part ofathe tank, the snakes will mate. The male will refuse food during this time, but the female should contnormal.ating normally.
- Once the snakes have finished mating, gently bring the temperature back to noral while continuing to feed the snakes. If a female is gravid (pregnant), the male will feed,(pregnant).on’t.
- After roughly 90 days, the female will begin to lay her eggs. Give the female a sphagnum moss-lined nesting box that is big enough for her to nestle comfortain.y inside of.
- When the female lays her eggs, take them out and incubate them at 90 degrees Fahrenheit in a hhumidity.ironment.
- any, every week check the eggs for black or rotting eggs. The eggs should start to hatch around 60 hatch.
- Neonates, or young pythons, should be carefully placed in individual shoebox-sized habitats. After a week, give the baby snakes their firstweek.
- Increase the capacity of the enclosure to 10 gallons after the snakes are cgallons.ntly eating.
Selecting and Purchasing a Child’s Python
A children’s python can be purchase$250–$300,0 to $300, depending on the size and color of the snake. Children’s pythons are widely accessible in most pet stores, but to lower the chance of health problems in the snake, you should pwithchase from a reliable breeder.
There is no need to capture wild snakes and sell them as pets because these pythons are simple to breed and have been raised in captivity for many years.
Look for signs of good health while selecting a children’s python, such as clear eyes, smooth skin, clean vents, and a well-muscled body. A snake that is wheezing or has discharge around its eyes, nose, or mouth should not be purchased because these are symptoms of illness.
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