Elderly ball pythons?

[Ball Clan]

Not sure about this one since balls tend to live 30 years (+/-), and the hobby as we know it is not really that old yet, but do any of you have ball pythons who are considered to be getting elderly, or have you had any die presumably of old age? If so, what age do they start becoming elderly, and if any have aged out, how did they go?

Also, do you notice anything about the older ones that sets them apart from younger ones? For example, scales that look more glossy or worn than younger ones?

Anyone have any experience with this? I have never found any info online about elderly animals, and I suspect this is because the hobby boom is too recent to have very many "senior citizens" yet.

Reason I ask is that I have one that I believe is elderly (I know he is at least 14 years old but I suspect that he is older than that because I have a 13-yr old who looks much more vibrant, but that's only a guess since I don't know what other factors are at play). Anyways, any experience/info would be appreciated.

[CryHavoc17]

I have an 18 year old ball python. About the only discernable difference ive ever noticed over the last several years is her degree of trust/confidence and the length of her hunger strikes. She doesnt hide ever anymore. And she goes off food a lot longer over winter now. It used to be a pretty consistent 60-90 days, the last couple years have been off food completely for about 4 months and then really picky and unreliable for about 2 months after the full on strike.

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[Ball Clan]

Well I'd definitely appreciate any info about this. Looks like it's still pretty rare though.

[LLLReptile]

I have one at home that's 22 now. Not a huge difference from younger snakes, she has more mass to her - compared to 3 or 4 year old snakes, for example, she's a denser, thicker snake. Bigger head. Her hunger strikes are usually 4 to 6 months, and she's a fairly predictable old gal.

She's shyer than some of my other balls, much much more head shy, but she's always been like that. Otherwise, no real differences between her and my other big, mature females.

-Jen

[Ball Clan]

Interesting about the hunger strikes being longer. This guy has been known to go on strike for 2-3 months, but this last one has gone on for several months. He's also developed irritation in his mouth which he has been to the vet for on and off since November. I didn't get really concerned until he began dropping weight. Normally he would weigh around 2500 grams but he is currently struggling to stay above 2000 and it shows on him. Our best guess is that the mouth inflammation is causing pain which is making him not want to strike, thus he has no feeding response and very little interest when food is offered.

We've tried Ceftazidime by injection, which has proven unsuccessful and currently I am applying another antibiotic from the vet directly to his mouth hoping for some success.

I'm worried that his old age (again he is at least 14-15 for certain, if not older as he was already a very large adult when I got him in 2005) combined with his lack of nourishment is making it more difficult for him to fight off the infection.

He was my original ball python. I will be devastated if I lose him.

[Slim]

We had a member who posted here for a while back in the spring of 2012 time frame who had a 22 year old female. From the photos she posted, that snake looked awesome. A full mature female with nice color and pattern.

I would like to add that only a VERY small part of the Ball Python community has any kind of online presence. I know a couple of herpetologist at the University of Florida who have been keeping snakes of all types for decades, and none of them have every participated in an online community.

[TurkeyPython]

I had two males(my original ball pythons) that lived to be around 30. One of them, the banded(scales) one lived to his late twenties and the one with the crazy amount of black(slithers) lived till his early thirties. Scales was about twenty three when we got him and slithers was about twenty five. We got them from our old neighbors family when she died(old lady, family was scared of snakes). I never really noticed much about them that was different from most other than the fact that they were female sized but male. They were pretty big for males.

[Ball Clan]

Well that's how Bryan is. Very large for a male. He would be around 2500 grams if he were healthy, but sadly he is not at the moment. He is struggling to stay over 2000 and he looks very puny right now.

If yours eventually died of old age, did their appetites decline? Did they die of illness or did they just wear out? If they died of illness, could their age have had a factor in their inability to fight it off?

I know I'm asking a lot of questions, but I'll do anything to save this one's life if I can.

[TurkeyPython]

They both stopped eating for longer periods of time and more frequently for their last couple of years. They both stopped eating all together a couple months(5 for one, 2 for the other, I can't remember which fasted for which amount of time) before they kicked the bucket. They didn't lose much weight in those two years so they didn't starve to death and they didn't have any illness or parasites. They also seemed slower near the end and one would never hide and the other hid all the time.