Why are African rock pythons uncommon in the hobby?

Considering the likes of retics (the longest of all snakes) and even anacondas (the heaviest) are present in the reptile-keeping community with surprising regularity, how come ARPs aren't nearly as seen? Aggressive temperament? Difficulty in breeding them? Complex housing parameters? I don't know, it's something I've been thinking about lately that I find puzzling.

I can't speak about recently but 10-20 years ago, african rocks are notorious for their aggressive temperments and were generally avoided. Retics had morphs and dwarf forms and burms were generally seen as more docile so people would go for those first. Currently African rocks are one of the targeted 5 species of injurious wildlife for the lacey act which may be part of why you still don't see them a lot.

Sounds similar to what happened with blood pythons. Their "mean streak" in the early days and lesser versatility compared to other species in their size class held their popularity back.

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Originally Posted by Snagrio

Sounds similar to what happened with blood pythons. Their "mean streak" in the early days and lesser versatility compared to other species in their size class held their popularity back.

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It's also similar to the bad name often given to American rat snakes: of course wild-caught snakes might have an attitude, especially if caught as adults! What a dreadful ordeal for shy reptiles, but that went on a lot in many years past, giving them a reputation they seldom deserve. But with captive-breeding & knowledge shared online, many more snakes have been found to be excellent pets.

Afrocs, on the other hand, are always going to literally be a "handful" because of their size, & then the legalities in an ever-increasing number of locations. Especially since our human population just keeps increasing too. Consider the "big picture": more people means we're living closer together, & that means more regulations for pets, especially ones that some think are "scary". This is why large cities tend to be the most regulated, but also areas (like Florida) where escapees might take hold, to the detriment of native species.

Retics and burms have taken the stronger hold in the hobby because of the morphs available to the keeper. If there were a half a dozen cool Afrock morphs you would see a lot more being bred.

They have an undeserved bad reputation because most of the ones you would see in years past were wild caught, nervous individuals. I recently picked one up on morph market. She's a female 100% het for patternless and she's as calm as can be. No bites, just a little hiss sometimes when I'm pulling her out of her enclosure. Hopefully they start to be seen more regularly, they're awesome snakes!


https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil..._instagram.jpg

:welcome: That's a beautiful snake, & it's great to hear that she has a nice temperament to match. The adult size will still keep many from owning one, and honestly, it should IMO, but I hope you'll keep us updated? BTW, this isn't your first experience keeping a snake, is it?

Yeah I was thinking of starting a thread where I can occasionally post pics and everyone can see her progress but I can't get any more pics to upload for some reason.
It's definitely not my first snake haha. In the past, I've kept retics, burms, monitors and rattlesnakes. I'm just now getting back into the hobby after a few years of not owning any reptiles other than a mojave ghost bp. I know afrocks are an animal to be respected and she'll never be handled when I'm alone once she reaches a decent size.

Yes, please do start your own thread, once you figure out your tech issue posting more pics. Somehow I didn't think this was your "first rodeo". :D At least I hoped it wasn't, lol.

Ok, I think I figured out the issue with my pics. My phone has been saving pics as "heic" files. I changed that so hopefully it works now. Sorry to the op for derailing the thread a bit.

Don't worry about it- tech issues "happen". :rolleyes:

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Originally Posted by amtz.zero

Ok, I think I figured out the issue with my pics. My phone has been saving pics as "heic" files. I changed that so hopefully it works now. Sorry to the op for derailing the thread a bit.

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Nah it's all good. This thread was basically "done" anyway.

Do look forward to your posts though. Haven't really seen anybody talk about owning a ARP so it'll be fun seeing how she grows in both size and personality. :D

necroing this thread just to say that i think a lot of it is endemic to the mountain of misinformation which exists about large constrictor snakes in general - like i had to search and search and search to find out the average size of an adult female is 12-13 feet - so i think that’s a factor, particularly, when combined with the reputation of their attitudes/temperaments which all sort of culminated into this stereotyped image of “18+ foot, super thicc, super mean beastie”

it’s truly sad because it’s honestly so so far from the truth - temperament wise, in the wild, they’re naturally cryptic, shy, timid, etc (much like Burms) and that’s been my experience in captivity - it’s truly been incredible - i barely even needed to work with ARP to get him tame compared to some of my Burms which have taken several weeks/months to get to the same level - mine is F4-F5 so maybe that has something to do with it but still! no one but my BCIs have been that way right off the bat which i think really speaks to the species

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Originally Posted by YungRasputin

necroing this thread just to say that i think a lot of it is endemic to the mountain of misinformation which exists about large constrictor snakes in general - like i had to search and search and search to find out the average size of an adult female is 12-13 feet - so i think that’s a factor, particularly, when combined with the reputation of their attitudes/temperaments which all sort of culminated into this stereotyped image of “18+ foot, super thicc, super mean beastie”

it’s truly sad because it’s honestly so so far from the truth - temperament wise, in the wild, they’re naturally cryptic, shy, timid, etc (much like Burms) and that’s been my experience in captivity - it’s truly been incredible - i barely even needed to work with ARP to get him tame compared to some of my Burms which have taken several weeks/months to get to the same level - mine is F4-F5 so maybe that has something to do with it but still! no one but my BCIs have been that way right off the bat which i think really speaks to the species

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Even David Attenborough works have sensationalized big constrictor sizes. I remember a scene in a series called Life in Cold Blood with an ARP and it being claimed they get 20 feet long. And again in the very same documentary they showcased an anaconda, once again denoting it as one of the biggest of all snakes. Except all the footage was of a yellow anaconda. :ohmygod: