Maximum age for ball python?

I have a captive bred female ball python that I purchased as a few month old baby thirty-three years ago. She has never been bred. I have fed her two live mice every four to six weeks throughout her life. She is about forty-six inches long and I would say medium girth - definitely not fat or heavy, but also not thin.

I wear her around my neck when I go to the front door each year at Halloween time. We have generations of children in our neighborhood who still come as teens just to see her.

Have others on this forum had BPs that have lived this long? Does anyone know of significantly older-aged BPs?

Holy cow. I'm incredibly impressed!! Would love to see pictures of your grande dame! 33 years may be the oldest BP in this forum.

Wow, 33!!!! Larry Bird's number!

That's awesome! And the snake is older than many members on this forum.

Thanks for sharing.

That is a really impressive age

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I think the Philadelphia Zoo kept a wild caught ball python for about 47 years. It died back in 1992, and quite honestly, I want to know their secret lol.

Wow...33! Do you give her water from the eternal spring of life? Impressive!

That's definitely one of the oldest that I recall. That's awesome though you've had her that long.

Her name is Pyewacket, from the movie Bell, Book, and Candle. Her nickname is E.T. because she has three E.T.s!

These photos were taken today.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1M-...n14OvP2WInecFA
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1K6...tJyutUcJ1lE0LT
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1o3...1Ii4Gl9wc9R674
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1TO...5kC3VYm9njp60B

She doesn't look a day over 5! ;)

There such cool pics, I really love the E.t’s on her side, she looks so nice and healthy, she’s a credit to you


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Originally Posted by hilabeans

She doesn't look a day over 5! ;)

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I re-touched her gray hair.

I have no words for this. 33 years is just wow. Obviously you are doing something terribly wrong with your husbandry :P

So is she as active as a 5 year old or do pythons get lazier at a certain age? Just curious as my little guy is turning 5 in July and he loves to climb and do lots of missions, just wondering if me or him will get old and lazy first. :P

There is no change in her activity level as far as I can tell. She has a very clear cycle: When I feed her she retreats to her hiding box and stays warm over her heating pad (under the cage, not touching her) for about a week. Then she comes out and is very active, looking for her next meal, for the next two or three weeks. If I feed her at week four or so the cycle starts over. If I don't feed her she comes out less frequently and then stays in her box more and more until I do feed her.

When I take her out to hold her it is usually during the evening while I am watching TV. She rests during the day with her head positioned so she can see out the door of her box. If I feed her at week four she will notice the change in routine as soon as I arrive during the daytime (coming home from the pet shop) and take the top off of her cage. She comes out of her hiding box like a moray eel and grabs the first mouse right out of my hand (I dangle it by its tail). Then I let the second mouse loose on the top of her hiding box and she hunts it down after the tail of the first mouse goes down her throat like a last slurp of spaghetti.

If I don't feed her until week six or seven she will be in a torpor and she won't come out of her box until she hears the mice running back and forth on top of her hiding box. When she appears I pick up one mouse by the tail and dangle it for her to grab, then she eats it and hunts down the second one.

I have a heating pad under her cage and a temperature sensor under the towel that covers the bottom of her cage, right over the heating pad. If she is out and about in her cage the temp sensor reads 84 or 86 F. If she is sleeping or digesting right on top of the sensor, over the heating pad, the sensor will read 96 or 100 F.

Wow. Lot's of things against conventional wisdom in your husbandry, but so much for experts. Your little lady is 33, eating, active and healthy. So whatever works!

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Originally Posted by hilabeans

Wow. Lot's of things against conventional wisdom in your husbandry, but so much for experts. Your little lady is 33, eating, active and healthy. So whatever works!

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I'm always open for new info. What am I doing that is different?

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Originally Posted by BPNH

I'm always open for new info. What am I doing that is different?

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You have a 33 year old so don't change a thing. I mean that is enough right there to thumb your nose at anyone that says otherwise.

33 and still as active as a 5 year old, that's amazing! :)

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Originally Posted by BPNH

I'm always open for new info. What am I doing that is different?

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Seriously, change nothing.

People who have been at it for ages have all kinds of nuanced approaches to husbandry, and take liberties here and there because of their vast experience. But for those brand new to the hobby, there are more rigid guidelines to help them get started and eliminate the most common "newbie" mistakes. Substrate choices, temp and humidity ranges, hide types, etc.

You should keep doing exactly what you're doing and soon enough you'll have a 40 year old girl on your hands.

I think it's like most creatures, ourselves included: it depends on good genes, good care & good luck. Keep up the good work! :sweeet:

OK, I went over to the husbandry forum and read all the guidelines. It looks like I am feeding her much less than recommended, and much less frequently. Also, her heating pad area may be too warm, although I am not sure about that since my digital thermometer only says 100 F when she is lying right on top of the sensor. When she moves away and the bottom of her cage above the heating pad is radiating into free air space the sensor only reads 84 or 86 F. One big no, no - I do use a regular human heating pad with Hi Med Lo settings.

I made the cage myself, with four glass walls to create a 30" x 15" X 18" high cage. The heating pad is under one end of the cage, in a 3/4" air space below the masonite pegboard that forms the cage bottom. The removable top is made of well ventilated plexiglass. The cage is the size of a common hand towel, and that is what she sleeps on. I have several towels, so I can put in a new one and wash the old one whenever she soils a towel. Her hiding box is 9" x 9" x 30", running the full length of the back of her cage. It is a two-story box (4" on each level), with an exit hole on each level and another hole between the two levels. Sometimes she rests with the top half of her body in the upper level and the bottom half of her body in the lower level. There is plenty of room in her hiding box for her to lie on or off of the area above the heating pad, as she wishes.

She has a heavy ceramic water dish in front of her box at one end of the lower level and another very large ceramic water dish sitting on top of her hiding box. It is big enough for soaking but I have never seen her soaking in it - it is there to add humidity.

As far as cage air temps, the area outside her hiding box is about 70 F during summer days, 65 F during summer nites and winter days, and 60 F during winter nites. She often does one piece sheds, especially if I notice she is about to shed and moisten her towel. Sometimes in dry winter months she will shed in pieces and I will soak her in a luke warm bucket of water to remove any unshed skin. She almost always sheds her eye covers. I have only had to fuss over them a few times during her whole 33 years.