Old BP's

[Smitty33]

Anyone have a fairly old BP? I was wondering last night if when they get older if they tend to slow down on their feeding or if they show any other behavior changes as they get in their senior years.

[frostysBP]

Bp I don't bit my old corn is going blind I believe and dosnt constrict at all any more.

Sent from my LGL15G using Tapatalk

[BCS]

My friend has a 21 year old male BP. He actually eats more. I am not sure if 21 is old though. I have heard different stories of how long they can live, some people say 20 years others say 30 and some even say 40... so I am not too sure if this is a middle aged BP or an old one BUT what I do know is this ball python is way lazy. At night time or when taken out of the enclosure most BP (in my experience) will at least roam around and become curious. This 21 year old BP just sits there. The only time he is active is during feeding, shedding and if he poops in his hide he moves to the other one and just stays there. No night time exploring. He is a big male though, about 1700g-1800g. Not sure if that has anything to do with it. He is healthy though. He eats once every 10 days and has for the last decade or so and very rarely misses a meal. He pretty much acts like any other BP I have ever personally met.

[GoingPostal]

I've had mine almost a decade and haven't seen any changes in behavior yet.

[DennisM]

I have 2.0 22 year olds. They eat quite a bit less than they did when they where younger. Both go on annual winter feeding strikes for about 6 months of each year. When they do eat, they usually only feed twice a month. Other than that, I've seen no changes in behavior.

[DennisM]

…I have heard different stories of how long they can live, some people say 20 years others say 30 and some even say 40...

The Philadelphia Zoo has a BP said to be 38 years old. So, I guess all of the above is true. Of course, it’s also true that people can live 80, 100 or 120 years. My experience has been that 15-20 is a reasonable expectation for a python life span. I’ve only had a few that broke the 20 year mark, but had quite a few more pythons (carpets and bloods/short tails) that lived to their late teens.