Geriatric ophidians...

[engywook]

When I got my two ball pythons in the spring I was told that they were 14 years old, so they should be around 15 now. It occurred to me this afternoon that older snakes are likely to have some different problems than younger snakes (eg, kidney failure, cancer (?), etc) and perhaps also have different needs.

I had intended to breed them this year but decided not to try because I ended up moving several times in the fall; nevertheless, they surprised me with eager attempts to get into each other's terrarium and breed in Dec/Jan, rewarding me with a few locks. (Yay for short Finnish days!) I haven't seen anything about an upper limit on breeding age, but I thought I'd ask about that. (I'll put up more details about their breeding in the proper forum later...)

Does anyone here have experience with older ball pythons (or other snakes)? Is there anything I should look out for? Any other advice on taking care of older snakes? They seem to be active, happy snakes (though they haven't been eating recently); are they likely to become lethargic as they continue to age? Has anyone noticed any behavioural changes?

Thanks!

[tmlowe5704]

As Adam says, if they are large enough, they breed.


Do a search, there was a thread about this a few weeks ago

[engywook]

I'm sorry if I'm rehashing an old discussion. I tried doing a search but 'old' is apparently too short a word, 'geriatric' didn't really get any useful results and 'older' wasn't much better. I don't suppose anyone has a link to that thread or remembers a useful keyword I could use to find it?

[borat1]

elderly, matured, aged?

[Adam_Wysocki]

15 isn't old for a ball python ... no worries.

-adam

[borat1]

yea they can live to like 50 right?

[engywook]

borat1, from what I've read, the oldest captive python on record lived to 48, though most live to about 30.

If Adam says there's nothing to worry about with a 15 year old python, that's good enough for me.

Thanks!