African Pythons

long story short, i have been obsessed with Africa my whole life - simply an amazing part of the world and within my keeping of arachnids, i’m a niche collector that primarily specializes in African baboon tarantulas and African scorpion species, both lethal and otherwise - so naturally, with snakes, i wanted to see what was out there and currently have 2 awesome small pythons (ball and Angolan pythons) and i realize that within my realm of capabilities, the African rock python probably isn’t that so is there a big python species from Africa that would get to the size of a common BCC? 8+ feet? and is it available in the hobby? perhaps even a particular locality of BP that reaches 8+ feet since their average is already 6 feet for adult females?

Look for volta or sub-saharan ball pythons.

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Originally Posted by YungRasputin

long story short, i have been obsessed with Africa my whole life - simply an amazing part of the world and within my keeping of arachnids, i’m a niche collector that primarily specializes in African baboon tarantulas and African scorpion species, both lethal and otherwise - so naturally, with snakes, i wanted to see what was out there and currently have 2 awesome small pythons (ball and Angolan pythons) and i realize that within my realm of capabilities, the African rock python probably isn’t that so is there a big python species from Africa that would get to the size of a common BCC? 8+ feet? and is it available in the hobby? perhaps even a particular locality of BP that reaches 8+ feet since their average is already 6 feet for adult females?

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A 6 foot, adult, female Royal is not average. That is probably getting close to record size, and very rare. Our 11 year old female is 4.5 feet tops and I would say that is much closer to what would be considered average.

The large African pythons are two different species.

Python Sabae, which is the largest and inhabits central and west Africa is what is considered the African Rock Python.

Python Natalensis is smaller and it inhabits southern Africa. This snake is now considered to be a separate species and isn't technically an African Rock any longer. I believe this species still hits 10 feet plus.They are not docile like the common boa.

An 8 foot Royal is a freak of nature and I doubt you will find one in existence.

Australia is the king of the pythons and has unmatched variety.

Mark O'Shea wrote a good book about the boas and pythons of the world.

https://www.amazon.com/Boas-Pythons-.../dp/069115015X

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Originally Posted by Gio

A 6 foot, adult, female Royal is not average. That is probably getting close to record size, and very rare. Our 11 year old female is 4.5 feet tops and I would say that is much closer to what would be considered average....

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I agree, I used to have an "older" 5' female BP- no idea her age as she was a w/c import that I got as a rescue from ppl that bought her in a pet store (that commonly had w/c imports) & then lost interest after a year or so, & that's when she came to me. Her growth at that time was quite slow, she'd have had to live a lot longer to ever reach 6'.

The Angolan python, Python anchietae, runs a bit bigger than a BP, although still not as big as you're looking. Neat snakes, though.

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Originally Posted by Alicia

The Angolan python, Python anchietae, runs a bit bigger than a BP, although still not as big as you're looking. Neat snakes, though.

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oh woah really? when i was reading things a lot of sources were saying that females top out at 6 feet like a BP but at the same time my male Angolan is right around the same age as my female BP, perhaps younger and easily double her size - was curious about that

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Gio

A 6 foot, adult, female Royal is not average. That is probably getting close to record size, and very rare. Our 11 year old female is 4.5 feet tops and I would say that is much closer to what would be considered average.

The large African pythons are two different species.

Python Sabae, which is the largest and inhabits central and west Africa is what is considered the African Rock Python.

Python Natalensis is smaller and it inhabits southern Africa. This snake is now considered to be a separate species and isn't technically an African Rock any longer. I believe this species still hits 10 feet plus.They are not docile like the common boa.

An 8 foot Royal is a freak of nature and I doubt you will find one in existence.

Australia is the king of the pythons and has unmatched variety.

Mark O'Shea wrote a good book about the boas and pythons of the world.

https://www.amazon.com/Boas-Pythons-.../dp/069115015X

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i was considering P. natalensis as a big display animal because I was thinking if they hit 10 ft as a genetic maximum and are sexually dimorphic, maybe a slow grown, moderately fed male might reach a common boa size but all the AFP’s i have found from breeders in the US have been P. sebae - will definitely check out the book also!

i totally agree that Australia is the Mecca of Pythons - have considered a McDowelli carpet python also - wish S. kinghorni was available 😔

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Originally Posted by YungRasputin

oh woah really? when i was reading things a lot of sources were saying that females top out at 6 feet like a BP but at the same time my male Angolan is right around the same age as my female BP, perhaps younger and easily double her size - was curious about that

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I think's it's more accurate to say that a female Angolan will reliably hit six feet, where the average female BP is pretty darned unlikely to ever get that large. (That is, unless you have a Volta, for instance.)

My female Angolan did indeed seem to plateau at around 6 feet - still a foot longer than any of my adult BP girls. She's also a significantly longer than my male, not to mention heftier. An adult female Angolan is a solid snake, and you know built a little differently from a BP. Is a smidge over 6ft outside the realm of possibility on a female? I don't think so. But tricky to find out without overfeeding.