I had never heard of these - until yesterday - and thought someone had got the name wrong.

What's happened is some people who live in our village, their son wanted snakes 2-3 years back, so he got 3 - 2 albino corns and what we were told was a Ball Python (the person who had seen these creatures said the BP looked just like ours - but ours is a baby still and this is an adult). Now the son is "bored" with his snakes and basically is keeping them in bad conditions (at one point he even reputedly had all 3 of these snakes in one viv together). One of the albino corns has bites on it and the (supposedly) BP has had an abcess for a little while but the family are poor and say they can't afford the bill (can't afford bills - don't buy in the first place!!). The family "want to get rid" of the snakes. We may hopefully have found homes for the 2 albino corns (which live together) and thought we would take on the BP. But when we spoke to the people last night the woman said "Oh no, it's not a Royal Python (what BP's are called here in UK) - it's a Royal Corn!!!

So I have no idea what to expect when I turn up to see these creatures later today but it does appear from a google search that such things exist - I've just never heard of them!