Sand Boa
The Indian Sand Boa is the largest Sand Boa, occasionally reaching over 4 feet in length. They are slenderer than the Rough-scaled Sand Boa. Adults are uniform brown in color, varying from tan to dark blackish brown. Some adults can retain the orange coloration of neonates, as seen in the male in the above picture.Babies, however, are orange with black bands (this photograph is of a two month old baby). As they age, the orange fades and the body takes on its dark brown coloration. During this change they can be brown with scattered specks of orange, often with faint dark bands. Adults of the western subspecies (E. j. persicus - represented in the top photograph) retain the juvenile banding on the tail.
The tail is very blunt and shaped like the head. When threatened, an Indian Sand Boa will hide its head and hold its tail up in the air and wave it back and forth. This may also explain the prominence of the banding on the tail of juveniles and adults. The moving banded tail is more likely to be attacked than the concealed head. (This is the same behavior used by other Erycine snakes including the Rubber Boa and the African Burrowing "Python"). As tribute to the effectiveness of this display, many wild caught adults have scarred tails. Indian snake charmers will also disfigure the snakes tail to look more like the head and advertise them to their clients as "two-headed" snakes.
Indian Sand Boas occurs throughout the drier areas of India and east through Afghanistan, Pakistan and into southeastern Iran. It occurs on plains and other areas of flat clay soils. Like many of the other Sand Boas, it is not restricted to, nor typical of, sandy soils.
The tail is very blunt and shaped like the head. When threatened, an Indian Sand Boa will hide its head and hold its tail up in the air and wave it back and forth. This may also explain the prominence of the banding on the tail of juveniles and adults. The moving banded tail is more likely to be attacked than the concealed head. (This is the same behavior used by other Erycine snakes including the Rubber Boa and the African Burrowing "Python"). As tribute to the effectiveness of this display, many wild caught adults have scarred tails. Indian snake charmers will also disfigure the snakes tail to look more like the head and advertise them to their clients as "two-headed" snakes.
Indian Sand Boas occurs throughout the drier areas of India and east through Afghanistan, Pakistan and into southeastern Iran. It occurs on plains and other areas of flat clay soils. Like many of the other Sand Boas, it is not restricted to, nor typical of, sandy soils.
Black-headed python
Black-headed pythons are one of Australia’s most unique snakes. Like many reptiles, this species can’t regulate its own internal temperature. When it’s cool, the Black-headed Python only has to poke out its head from under a rock to warm its entire body. In this way it can remain mostly hidden from predators. Apart from its distinctive black head, the snake has dark bands across the top of its body, helping it to camouflage with shadows at night. Like all pythons, the snake is not venomous. Pythons kill their prey by coiling their bodies tightly around it, causing suffocation.Home for the Black-headed Python is the northern-half of Australia. It lives in a variety of habitats, from tropical coastal forests to dry woodlands.Unlike other pythons, this animal has a taste for reptiles, including venomous snakes. But they will also feed on warm-blooded animals if the opportunity presents itself. Because their diet normally consists of cold-blooded creatures, Black-headed Pythons don’t have the infrared sensing pits that other pythons use to detect heat.Black-headed Pythons are terrestrial snakes, living amongst rocks and loose debris. If disturbed they will hiss loudly, but are unlikely to bite, unless hunting prey. Active at night, the species will search for meals in the tunnels and burrows made by other animals.Females lay between eight and 10 eggs per clutch. They then coil around them, incubating the eggs for two-to-three months, until they hatch. Each egg measures about nine cms long, and the babies are already about 50 cms in length when they hatch. The young will tackle small prey from the age of two days.
Reticulated python
The reticulated python gets its name from the distinctive color and pattern on its scales. According to Webster’s Third New International Dictionary the word “reticulated” is an adjective defined as “having lines intercrossed, forming a network.” It is also known as the regal python (regal is a word that refers to a king). Its scientific name is Python reticulatus.This snake is the largest species of python living today. Some people believe that the giant South American water boa, known as the anaconda may grow larger or heavier, but the longest snakes that are found in the wild or that are living in a zoo today are reticulated pythons. Reticulated python hatch from eggs. Very large females may lay over 100 eggs at a time. The eggs are white and have a soft, leathery shell. Female pythons wrap their powerful bodies around their eggs until they are ready to hatch. This behavior is known as brooding and it prevents the eggs from getting too warm or too cool. The eggs need to remain close to 89 degrees Fahrenheit during the incubation period, which lasts about eighty-five days. The young pythons emerge by cutting a slit in the eggshell with their egg tooth. Once free from the egg, they are on their own. They must use their coloration and reticulated pattern to hide from predators and to hunt for food. Some of the hatchling pythons get eaten by other animals such as hawks, wild pigs, cobras and monitor lizards. The hatchling pythons are 26 to 35 inches long and weigh only 4 to 5 ounces. From the time they hatch these snakes are also predators and they can kill and eat small mice, rats, lizards and frogs.Like all snakes, pythons have sharp teeth that are curved towards the back of their mouth. They use their 100 teeth to capture their prey by biting. Their curved teeth hold onto their prey and they kill the animals they catch by wrapping around them and squeezing. The animal is quickly unable to breath and its heart may be unable to pump blood. Pythons can kill their prey in minutes and they swallow their food whole. The entire animal is digested in the snake’s stomach except for fur or feathers, which are passed with the snakes waste.Reticulated pythons live in tropical forests on the continent of Asia. Their range extends from Myanmar and India, across Southeast Asia and on many of the islands of the Philippines and Indonesia. They are at home on the ground, in caves or in trees and they have adapted to living in towns and cities where they hunt chickens, ducks, rats and domestic cats, dogs and pigs. Large reticulated pythons have eaten monkeys, wild boar, deer and even people. There are not many cases of these pythons capturing and eating people, but it has been reported even in recent years.
The Brazilian Rainbow Boa
The Brazilian Rainbow Boa (Epicrates cenchria chenchria) is just one of the 9 or 10 subspecies of rainbow boas, but it is the most common one found in the pet trade. It is a medium sized snake rarely getting longer than seven feet, more often being four or five feet long, and being slender in build The scales give an iridescent sparkle caused by tiny ridges on the scales. These ridges refract light like tiny prisms. Colors vary for the different subspecies, but the Brazilian is often orange with black rimmed circles along its back. Rainbow boas are active snakes needing a roomy enclosure to move around in. A container such as a 40 to 50 gallon aquarium is considered a minimum space for a single rainbow. Try to provide four to six square feet of floor space for this snake, and give it branches for climbing. It will appreciate hide boxes, like all snakes. Of course the cage needs to close very securely, to guard against escape. Each rainbow boa should have its own enclosure unless it is breeding season. Babies need to be kept in smaller containers, such as plastic shoe boxes with holes punched in the sides. The box should be lined in damp paper towels. It should be equipped with a hiding place and a water bowl. Hides for snakes can be as simple as an upside down plastic butter dish with an entry hole cut into the side. These shoe boxes can be used for the first month or two. Baby snakes are sometimes nervous and unable to find their food when their enclosure is too large. The cage needs to have a substrate to line the bottom. Newspaper or paper towels are easy to replace when soiled. Cyprus mulch and orchid bark are other choices. Many owners use a piece of Astroturf or special reptile carpeting cut to the size of the cage. If you have two pieces, you can use one while washing the other. Cedar chips should never be used because the oil in them is toxic to snakes. The rainbow boa needs a temperature gradient ranging from 75 for a nighttime low to 85 for a daytime high. A basking spot of 90 degrees is OK, but too much time at this high temperature is not good for the snake. If the snake tends to hang out at one end or the other of the enclosure, you can adjust the temperature a few degrees to suit it. For instance, if it huddles in the 85 degree end, you might want to raise the temperature a bit. If it clings to the window on the cool side, the high temperatures should go down a degree or two. Keep a thermometer on each end so that you can monitor the temperature.There are several ways to heat the rainbow's enclosure so that it offers this heat gradient. One is to set the enclosure half on an under cage heating pad. These are available from pet stores. There is a product called a "hot rock" that is an electric heated fake rock. These are generally discouraged because they get too hot and burn snakes. Another good method is the use of a type of ceramic heat bulb that emits heat but not light. Similarly, some shake owners use light bulbs to add warmth, but these must be turned off at night. The easiest method is to use a light bulb on a timer to provide 12 hours of light and heat and then 12 hours of darkness in a cooler environment.