# LiasisUK's thread about various Pythons (Liasis sp)



## LiasisUK

I thought I should maybe take some time to write a thing about species I actually like.

So in short; I really like Pythons, not Royals/Balls but Australian and SE Asian python species. The genus _Liasis _is one of my favourite genera of snakes, and at present I am keeping 4 out of the (often contested) 5 species.

The 5 recognised _Liasis _species are:

_Liasis olivaceus_ - Australian Olive Python or just Olive Python
_Liasis fuscus_ - Australian Water Python, Water Python or Brown Water Python
_Liasis mackloti_ - Macklot's Python, sometimes called the Freckled Python
_Liasis savuensis - _Savu Python, Savu Island Python or White Eye Python
_Liasis dunni - _Dunn's Python
Numbers 3, 4 and 5 are sometimes classified as subspecies of _Liasis mackloti, _personally having kept 3 and 4 I do not agree with this, they are very different animals. I cannot comment on 5.

I keep numbers 1 to 4 and have bred all of those except fuscus (so far!). I'll talk about each one individually.

There's another species which is sometimes referred to as a Liasis species, that I do also keep but personally I would not classify it under that genus and agree with its separation, maybe I will talk about that some other time (_Apodora papuana_).


*Olive Pythons (L. olivaceus)

Personal History *

I have been keeping Olive pythons for over 5 years, the first animal I received in September 2016 was the female pictured below, she was sold to me (incredibly cheap) as an adult male. She was not adult and she was not male.

She had previously been kept in rack system and as such was quite small for her age with below average body condition. She was about 7ft when she arrived. I put her in a 6x2x2 and she just shot up in size whilst also trimming down on the fat. In December 2016 I then bought a baby female from Germany as I stupidly had not checked the adult animals gender, so I thought I had a pair. At that same Germany show I also picked up an adult proven pair of Madu Reticulated pythons, the bags weren't labelled with the genders, I got them home, unbagged them and then got the probes ready to check them and it became obvious which was the male retic, his tail was huge. A short while later I was doing waters and looked at my adult olive and looked at his tail and a thought struck me 'hmmm his tail is very small'. I got him out and probed him, it was a girl. Urgh how annoying now I didn't have a pair, only an adult female and a baby female. "Could be worse, could be 2 boys" I thought.

So I thought I'd check the baby female as well whilst I was at it, it was a male!!
So I did have a pair! Both purchased as the wrong gender! What were the chances?!
Unfortunately that baby male randomly died about 3 weeks later, I still have no idea why, he ate fine and appeared in good health, behaved normally. I assume he just was one of those babies that was not meant to last. In 2017 I got offered a 'huge adult male' in exchange for an adult pair of Scrubs I had decided I didn't want to keep having to duck attacks from (those scrubs went on to breed with the new owner). The male Olive I received was huge, I gave him the name my female had when I thought she was a boy, his name is Oliver. I am very inventive.

The age of both mentioned adult animals was 'approximately 5' when I received them. I tried to breed this pair in 2018, I got locks but nothing, in 2019 I got locks again and a clutch of 2 eggs that appeared fertile alongside 10 slugs. The 2 eggs failed during the first month of incubation. The following year in 2020 I got 16 fertile eggs, all except 1 hatched. I kept some back for future breeding.









_An adult female basking_

*General Information and care*

Olive Pythons are Australia's second largest snake species, they have been recorded to reach lengths of 400cm (13ft). They are naturally found across Northern Australia in predominantly the Kimberley region and parts of Queensland. There is a second small isolated population in the Pilbara in Western Australia which are classified as a subspecies _L. o. barroni, _I do not believe _barroni_ exist in captivity outside of Australia. In the wild Olives predominantly feed on birds and marsupials like wallabies, as well as large reptiles like monitors and crocs. There's some impressive images of them eating crocodiles which can be found after a quick google.

There is something about Olive Pythons, I am unsure what it is in all honesty as on paper they don't sound great, they are quite bland being brown with a cream belly. They have next to no iridescence (unlike most other _Liasis_), they are large, unwieldy, very strong and have an intimidating feeding response. I rarely get bitten these days, but I did take a bite from an adult olive due to an error I made whilst feeding him and I have to say it was the worst snake bite I have ever had. I had to remove him from my hand after 40mins by running him under a cold shower.

HOWEVER they are wonderful animals, they have incredibly small scales which makes them feel strangely smooth, it is almost always commented on by people who handle them for the first time. They are very very easy to care for, IF you can provide the space they require, and they are very impressive animals that are not really shy in any way and they pretty much constantly sit out in the open and are reasonably active for a big python. Although lengths of 13ft are recorded, my animals are around 8 to 10ft.


The *enclosure *size I use for adults is 8x3x2ft LxWxH, the lower height is to allow stacking of vivariums, the animals would use more height if they were provided with it in the form of ledges and thick branches. They aren't the best climbers or the most agile so anything given needs to be sturdy, they are one of those snake species that when picked up they do not hold onto you, as is the case for many that are bad at climbing!
In terms of *furnishings *I give them stuff like large bits of cork bark, very large cork tubes, opaque black plastic tubs filled with soil with a hole cut in the side, and large branches. It is hard to find suitable bits for very large snakes so often I make stuff like the black tubs, or I collect wood from outside. For *substrate *I am using lignocel as it works well for them, I can buy it in bulk and it looks OK. I used to keep them more naturalistically on a sandy soil mix with added bits of bark and leaves and this looked great as a display but it made maintenance and cleaning them out a pain.

For *heating *I use a guarded big halogen bulb (Philips IR) on a dimming stat set to 32 to 35c, I then provide 2 reptile radiators as a back-up heat source set to ~21c, this kicks in if the room becomes too cold, though it rarely does. It was more for my own piece of mind. The halogens are on a timer which during the summer months is on 12 hours per day, the day length is shortened to trigger breeding behaviour. The cool end of the vivarium is around 20c in the summer and in the winter it gets down to approximately 15c.

These pythons love basking, I have tried a few different species with halogens now to see how they react to it and it has to be said that the Olives absolutely love it, so I would recommend adding that to their enclosures, I use the large Philips bulbs as the spread covers the snakes nicely.











In terms of *humidity *I do nothing to edit this, they just have whatever it is in the room, there is no need to spray them really. I provide large water bowls/tubs that they can fully bathe in however they seldom do so. I have sprayed them in the past to see if this helped influence breeding behaviour, they didn't like it.

Now we come on to *feeding*, which I would say is one of the hardest things about their care to explain as it varies so much throughout the year. They can also eat almost any size of prey, they'll eat a rat smaller than their head up to a massive rabbit. Oliver takes birds, like quails, pigeon, doves, chicken etc. My biggest female however refuses to eat birds and rabbits, only rats.

Feeding them is essentially a seasonal thing, I feed them nothing at all between December and February. The rest of the year a male is fed every 2 weeks unless he shows no signs of hunger in which case I skip a meal. If he starts to look fat I decrease the meal size and/or frequency (dependent on what I have in the freezer). A breeding female often won't eat when building follicles or when gravid so sometimes will go from December to May with no meals, as such I feed them weekly in the periods that they do wish to eat. Usually with an XL or XXL rat. Juveniles are fed weekly, with the occasional break. These snakes weight goes up and down throughout the year with the seasons. Due to how long and slender they are it is quite easy to tell if they are becoming overweight.


*Breeding *this species is reported as being difficult. I would agree with this somewhat, however I think this partially comes from people attempting to breed animals that are too young/small and also not providing the correct stimulus to trigger mating AND follicular development. My animals were both over 8 years old when they bred and attempts prior to this weren't successful. Also sometimes if not cycled correctly the animals will fight and potentially kill each other, Oliver killed another adult female that I had. I have also heard many Australian breeders talk about both 'incompatible pairs' and 'lazy males' being an issue with this species.

In terms of cooling, I use the same method as I use for some other Australian Python species, particularly _Aspidites ramsayi_ and _melanocephalus_. This method is essentially only providing heat during the day and slowly shortening the days from 12 hours to 4 hours by decreasing it by 1 hour per week. I start this in the first week of November, by the end of December the days are at the desired short length. I leave them at this length for 3 or 4 weeks and then begin to increase them again by 1 hour per week back up to 12 hours. This usually means the animals are back up to a 12/12 day by the middle/end of March.

Whilst all this weekly timer fiddling is going on I introduce the male to the female last week of December/first week of Jan, usually I pair them for a week at a time and then take the male out for 7 days to give them both a rest. I will offer the female food in this break, often they will refuse_. _Locks (as shown below) are most commonly seen in February and March. I stop the week in and week out for the male and female once I witness an ovulation or once the female goes into post-ovulation shed.










_A lock witnessed in 2021_

Eggs are to be expected roughly 3 months from viewed mating. Following mating the female will start to build follicles, ovulate and then the gestation period begins.

The gestation period of these animals is around 50 days. Gestation period is defined as the length of time from ovulation to egg laying, you can often see the ovulation; it appears as if the snake has eaten a very large rat (or medium rabbit) but the swelling is in the wrong place as it is too far down the body.

Many people (including myself sometimes) get confused between the signs of follicular development, ovulation and egg development; the females will swell when they are building follicles, they may start to lay on their side and do other behaviours commonly described as being linked to them being gravid but they aren't until they ovulate. Ovulations are BIG, really BIG. The males will also usually still be interested in the female when she is building follicles, but post ovulation they usually lose all interest entirely and will sit separately. Ovulation lasts 24 to 48 hours so can be missed easily if you don't check your animal for a day or so. Then the swelling spreads down the body and seems to disappear, this is the point of no return as once they ovulate they will always lay, whereas pre-ovulation follicles can be reabsorbed. Post ovulation the snake will pretty much return to looking normal, approx 20 days after ovulation they will shed, and then eggs can be expected another 30 days after that. After they shed they begin to swell up again as the eggs grow and develop, they start laying inverted and I start to constantly think they have died due to the odd positions they lay in. As they do run quite like clockwork with the lengths of times I have stated you can predict the arrival of eggs. For example in 2020 I wrote down that the female below would lay on June 12th, and she laid on June 15th.

This female chose to lay in one of the tubs I mentioned earlier that is full of damp coir/soil. She laid 16 eggs total.










I remove all eggs and incubate them artificially, for the olives I used damp vermiculite as a substrate. Incubation temperature was 31c +/-1C. 15 of the 16 eggs pictured above hatched on 31st August, a slightly longer than ‘normal python’ incubation period. The egg that did not hatch had a fully formed baby inside that couldn’t make it out.






























The hatchlings look like exact replicas of the adults, plus big old baby snake eyes. From this breeding I found all took defrost rat pups within the first 1 to 3 offerings, often triggered by annoying them as they were a bit snappy. All went on to feed without issue. I kept some back for future breeding and at the time of writing (Feb 2022) they are now around 4/5ft and feeding on rat weaners, and I would argue that I grew them slowly. The juveniles are quite viv defensive but once out they show no inclination to bite as long as no food is around.

*Hatchling:*










*yearling*

__
Sensitive content, not recommended for those under 18
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Overall I would summarise this species as being great display animals, very characterful, easy to care for, a welcome (but doable) challenge to breed, but also slightly intimidating. A good species for someone wanting a larger snake outside the norm. I would say they are my favourite out of the _Liasis_ species I have kept, though they would not be the top species I recommended to others. That award goes to Macklot’s Pythons, which I will speak about next…. Whenever that may be.


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## Thrasops

Great post Tom.


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## Central Scotland Reptiles

Excellent write up Tom.


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## Central Scotland Reptiles

You have inspired me to consider writing something similar for some of the species I keep.


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## Swindinian

Really enjoyed that post Tom, thank you for sharing your experiences 👏👏👏

Andy


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## LiasisUK

Thanks all. I'll expand on the post with similar write ups for the other species when I can.


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## NickN

Very informative indeed, thank you! I wondered which of 3, 4 or 5 (Macklot's, Savu or Dunn's) would be likely to have the nicest temperament and best for a beginner to pythons - I suspect from your closing paragraph that it may be Macklot's, or it may be "none of the above, they are all more intermediate snakes". I'm already pretty sold on Macklot's once you get past the bitey baby stage but have a lot more experience to gain in snake handling first, being a complete novice.


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## LiasisUK

NickN said:


> Very informative indeed, thank you! I wondered which of 3, 4 or 5 (Macklot's, Savu or Dunn's) would be likely to have the nicest temperament and best for a beginner to pythons - I suspect from your closing paragraph that it may be Macklot's, or it may be "none of the above, they are all more intermediate snakes". I'm already pretty sold on Macklot's once you get past the bitey baby stage but have a lot more experience to gain in snake handling first, being a complete novice.


Thanks. I'm unable to comment on dunni, as I've not kept them, not many people have. I wouldn't recommend them for a beginner based on the price tag alone 🤣

Yes macklots definitely. Will do a proper writeup for them soon


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## mooselee

Lovely post. Thank you.

I have only ever held a baby olive python . It felt like velvet in my hand.

I look forward to similar post's you might do on Antaresia


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## LiasisUK

Not sure why that last image is showing as 18+
Guess I revealed too much of my naked arm.



mooselee said:


> Lovely post. Thank you.
> 
> I have only ever held a baby olive python . It felt like velvet in my hand.
> 
> I look forward to similar post's you might do on Antaresia


Thanks!
Yes see! Everyone says it haha.

Hopefully I'll get round to the Antaresia


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## loxocemus




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## LiasisUK

Keeping with the same format.

*Macklot's Pythons (L. mackloti)


Personal History*

I got my first Macklot's Python in 2014, a lone juvenile female from my local reptile shop at the time. Over the following months I searched for a young male for her but this proved difficult. In 2015 I found an adult pair for sale so in July of that year I drove to a service station in Wales to collect them, the previous owner said they were from 2009 and she had kept them together since 2012 and they had never bred. I bought them home and set them up, and then sold the single female as at that time money and space were far more restrictive for me. I believe I was offered an adult female Woma so the money was needed elsewhere, a worthy trade in my opinion.

The adult pair I picked up that day (that had never bred) produced eggs the following season in 2016. They then went on to breed in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and she is currently gravid whilst I write this. Her average clutch size is 15 and the last 3 clutches she has produced twins, in fact in 2020 she produced 3 sets of twins. I have a few more adult animals now of both sexes so I can finally offer unrelated pairs of babies this year, if they all produce.









_My first ever Macklot’s_

*General information and care*

Macklot’s Pythons, sometimes called the Freckled Python are found on various islands In SE Asia, including parts of Indonesia, East Timor and Papua New Guinea. Supposedly a few localities exist in the hobby which often sellers will label their animals as and try and define them, however in reality most CB animals are a mixture with heavy influences from Timor, Roti and Wetar island. These animals are incredibly varied even within the same locality so in my opinion it is pointless to label them.

The name Macklot’s is in honour of a German naturalist and taxidermist; Heinrich Macklot (1799 to 1832) who travelled extensively across PNG and Timor collecting specimens for a natural history museum in the Netherlands. He was killed in Java during an altercation with some of the natives. Heinrich also has a genus of flowering shrub, a bat species and numerous bird species named after him.

Their alternative name of Freckled Python is apt for some individuals, but not all. They hatch out incredibly dark, almost black, after their first shed the lighter brown freckles appear, as they age most become increasingly lighter. The general colour is black/brown/green with freckles, the quantity of freckles differs greatly between animals with some having almost none at all. They then all have a yellowish to cream chin and underside. This description is in itself I’ll admit quite boring, however the iridescence of their scales rivals that of some _Epicrates. _









_Scale iridescence on an adult female_

These snakes attain a manageable maximum size of around 8ft, with most being between 5 to 7. In terms of temperament I find the adults pleasant to work with and very rarely have any trouble with them. Though they can be quite food orientated at times, so I am always careful if I have been handling food or if there is any out in the room. The same calm temperament cannot be said for juveniles, animals up to around 3 years of age can be very defensive and bitey, this makes them very easy to feed but can make working with them annoying. Though this is the norm for most young pythons!

Many keepers purchase a Royal/Ball and then wish to expand to other pythons and cite they have the experience because of the animal they have already. Royal/Ball Pythons are weird, very very weird, as indicated by their American common name their defence is to curl into a ball and hide and hope you leave them alone. Pretty much all other pythons defend themselves by a combination of striking, biting and fleeing. This is the norm. Young pythons can and will bite, so get used to it, it’s all part of the fun!









_A yearling behaving like a yearling._

All that being said, my adult Macklot’s are generally quite chilled. I would compare them to a calm Carpet Python in terms of temperament. In all fairness their husbandry, size and temperament are quite similar to the majority of Carpet Pythons. Though I would recommend them over Carpets as I find Carpets to often have a lot of weird health issues and also be quite stupid which makes them quite unpredictable, I believe this is influenced by the morphs, inbreeding and hybridisation of those complete messes, I mean animals.

The *enclosure size* I use for adult Macklot’s depends on their size, which is also in part to do with their gender. In my collection the females are all much larger than the males. I am unsure if this is due to genetics or environmental factors as the males will often go off their food during breeding season and are more active roaming their enclosure searching for a female, whereas the majority of the adult females are quite sedentary from my experience. In general my adult males are shorter and much more slender than the females. The females are kept in 6x2x2foot vivariums, males are in the same or 4x2x2 for smaller individuals (around 6ft).









_A 3 year old male_

I keep them on a *substrate* of coco husk and fibre mixed together along with some leaf litter (if I have any). I poo-pick the enclosures as required and a full clean out is done when needed, but this is usually only every 3 months or so. *Furnishings* provided are large flats of cork bark and chunky branches for them to sit on. All animals are provided with a large water bowl that they can fit into, I find washing up bowls work very well for this purpose and are inexpensive. Females are all given a large opaque plastic storage tub with a hole cut in the side, I fill these with a layer of damp coco fibre and some moss. These act as a humid hide but also as a lay-box.

For *heating *this species I use ceramic heaters or reptile radiators, these are controlled by a dimming stat and for most of the year is set to 29/31c. The cool end is 20-26c. Temperatures are manipulated to trigger breeding behaviour, which I will discuss later. I have tried halogens for them and although they did bask under them, I believe this species is much less ‘sun focused’ than some of the other pythons I have tried with illuminating hot spots. This may be due to the dense forested areas they are found in in nature. In an ideal world I would provide both an illuminated heat source and a backup heat source for these animals, if I was using even larger enclosures and if I had enough plug sockets in my house! (Not to mention the ever increasing energy prices...).

In terms of *humidity *I use the aforementioned substrates which assist in maintaining the desired levels. The large water bowl also helps, along with the lay-boxes I provide for the females. Other than that I don’t do very much outside of the rainy season. During the rainy season (Jan to March) I spray the enclosure down thoroughly once per week.

I *feed* the adults once per fortnight for most of the year, females sometimes weekly. I do not feed them in the winter at all, which is between November and January. I start to offer the adults food mid-February but sometimes they will refuse. Females often won’t eat until after they have laid, so around May/June. They will eat a large or XL rat, pigeons, quail, etc. Babies and juveniles are fed weekly, hatchlings will take rat pups, food sizes are upgraded accordingly. A yearling should be able to feed on weaner rats.

Now we come to *breeding, *which is not too difficult to achieve in this species after some temperature and humidity cycling along with a drop off in food. Though it is worth noting that Macklot’s, and many other Indo-Australian Python species require a bit longer than something like a Royal to get to breeding size and age, so reproducing them before they are around 4 to 6 years old is unlikely.

Food cycling is a seriously underrated method of inducing breeding behaviour in snakes, if you slowly taper off the food availability many animals, even if no temp changes are made, start to show seasonal behavioural changes. With the Macklot’s I slow down their feeding starting beginning of October, they go from fortnightly or weekly feeds to more random feeds having only 3 meals total throughout October and November. Then through the months of December to end of Febuary they are fed nothing at all. I start to offer food again in March but often they will refuse.

Temperatures are altered in these months as well, starting with a hot spot of 30c, I lower the hot spot by a degree or so at around weekly intervals until by December the hot spot is around 25/26c, ambient is 19 to 23c. They are left at this for the whole winter. Mid-February I start to increase temps, once again by a degree or so a week until back up to 30c by mid-April. I have also in the past kept them with no heat at night and cycled them similarly to the described method for the Olive Pythons, however after researching the climate data for Timor Island I realised this was unnatural for them as annual temps there only fluctuate by 5 or so degrees, meaning my night time temperatures were too cold and although they had shown no ill effects I no longer wished to keep subjecting them to this.

The final thing I do to cycle them is alter humidity. In nature the wet season is from December to March where the rainfall is often 5 times that of June to October. A nice easy way to replicate this climate change is around December time I do a big full clean out of the enclosure and ensure the new substrate added is very very damp. The coir and coco I use is the large blocks that you add water to so this is incredibly easy to accomplish as you just make it up with a bit more water than usual. As the animals are also not being offered food they do not produce any waste so replacing the substrate is unnecessary for a long while. I also then spray the enclosure once per week once the male has been introduced. I altogether stop spraying once the female is showing signs of being gravid and has had its prelay shed, this is in order to encourage her to use the lay-box.

I introduce males to females around last week of December or first week of January. I used to traditionally do this on Christmas day as it meant I never forgot which day I first paired them. Rather than cycle the males in and out like I do with many python species, with the Macklot’s I just leave them to it, removing the male only when the female is clearly gravid, there is no real reason for this other than habit.










_A lock witnessed in 2022, sorry for the poor quality_

Similar to the olives, eggs are to be expected roughly 8 to 12 weeks from a viewed mating. Following mating the female will start to build follicles, ovulate and then the gestation period begins. The gestation period is around 50 days, approximately 20 days after ovulation the female will shed, and then approximately 30 days after that the eggs will be laid. Whilst gravid the female will lay on its side and sometimes inverted, often in a tight flat circle. It becomes quite obvious in their appearance when they are gravid however the females also become more shy and hide away almost constantly during this time so regularly checking them is important. In 2020 an ovulation was witnessed on 25/3, with 16 eggs being deposited in the lay-box on 18/5. I have also had them lay in April and June.

Just like all pythons the females will coil round the eggs and in nature they would maternally incubate them. I remove her from the eggs and incubate them artificially. After removing the eggs from the female it is important to wash her down with warm water and then clean and replace the substrate in the lay box (or take it away entirely). This is to remove any smell/evidence of the eggs so the female can be encouraged to feed again. Just after laying females get fed weekly for at least a month. (I forgot to include this information in the olive write-up).









_Female with eggs,18/5/2020









Eggs in incubation tub, 18/5/20_

I incubate the eggs in the same manner as the Olive Python eggs; at 31c +/-1C on damp vermiculite, at this temperature incubation time is what I would describe as being that of a ‘normal python’, which is approximately 60 days. Though it can be up to 70 days. The eggs laid on 18/5/2020 started to hatch on 14/7/2020, it often takes a few days for all the young to leave the eggs. As mentioned previously this clutch of 16 contained 3 sets of twins, only 3 of those 6 animals survived, they were half the size of their siblings. Of the 16 eggs, there were 15 live babies and 3 dead.









_Same tub around 60 days later, 18/5/2020_









_Twins in a single egg. _

As with all python hatchlings first meals aren’t offered until after their first shed which is a week or so after emerging from the egg. Just like the _olivaceus _the hatchling _mackloti _are a reasonable size and quite snappy so therefore are easy to feed, most will take a rat pup though some of the fussier ones have to be persuaded with fuzzy mice. I have never had to assist or force feed any of them and most will get going very quickly. I keep the babies individually in a rack system with a few hides, couple of sticks, a substrate of coir and a water bowl.









_3 freshly hatched babies_

In summary I believe Macklot’s Pythons are an excellent species for a keeper with some snake experience who wishes to try something new, they make good display animals, are quite hardy, a manageable yet impressive size and if you can persist through the slightly troublesome juvenile stage they do chill out quite nicely though they will always maintain a feeding response to keep you on your toes.

Next I will do savuensis followed by fuscus, though my experience with them is far less so it will not be so detailed.


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## jeremy68

Thank you for the detailed and fascinating commentary on these species. I look forward to reading about sauvensis. This is why I visit the forum.


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## LiasisUK

I haven’t had much time to do more of these recently, a lot going on at home with breeding season underway, new enclosure builds and had my first import of CITES species from EU since Brexit to organise. But anyway, let’s carry on with some Savu info.


*Savu Island Python (L. savuensis)


Personal history*

My first Savu pythons arrived in December 2020, I got them from a German keeper as a panic purchase before Brexit rules came into effect. I’ll be honest they were not high on my list, though being a bit of a completionist I thought it seemed silly not to accept the offer in order to help complete the _Liasis_ genus. Also, I kept getting asked if I had them!

The two animals I received were sold to me as a pair, however upon their arrival I probed them and they were in fact both female; which may explain why the previous owner was unable to breed them…









_One of my adult females._

Upon discovering they were both females I contacted a friend of mine who also kept this species, they kindly agreed to lend me a male on breeding loan. Both the females produced eggs in 2021, though it was not the best of attempts. One female produced a clutch of mainly infertiles; the other female became egg bound (with, I believe, fertile eggs), thankfully her life was saved, however the eggs were not.









_The male on loan from a friend, note the smaller size. _

*General information and care*

The Savu Island Python (L. savuensis) is also known as the Savu Python or White Eyed Python. First described as _Liasis mackloti savuensis _by Brongersma in 1968, they were first suggested to be a full species in the late 90s. This was then emphasised in a 2015 study by Barker et al. Having kept both Macklot’s and Savus I believe they are distinct species, there are a great number of differences between them; the most obvious being the ontogenetic colour change Savus undergo. Savu hatchlings are orange and change colour with age, whereas Macklot’s hatch out black/brown. Interestingly juvenile _Liasis dunni _also exhibit this orange colouration, another species that's often referred to as a _mackloti _subspecies.

Savu (sometimes Sawu) is the name of the island in which the species is found, it is a 10 x 6 mile Indonesian volcanic island situated west of Timor, south of Flores and north-west of the Western Australia coastline. These snakes inhabit the entire island and are not limited to any specific habitat, this is the only place in the world they are found meaning they have one of the smallest natural ranges of any python species.

Though the animals are poorly studied in nature, there is climate data for the island. Savu is mainly covered in grassland and palm forest, it is buffeted by hot Australian winds which blow across the Timor Sea. The island itself is warm all year with very little change in temperature (graph below), temperatures average around 24c for the majority of the year.











Savu does however have a clear rainy season, with the majority of annual rainfall occurring between November and March. The months of June to September are much drier with barely any precipitation in July and August. In these months often the islands streams and lakes will dry up.










I have included this information as many people claim Savu Pythons to be difficult to breed, with some individuals I have spoken say they have been trying to reproduce them for 8+ years with little success. It may be that these breeders are attempting to cool the animals too heavily (I know this is the case for some of them...) rather than follow the natural climate cycle they would experience in nature. An all-too-common mistake.

That’s enough about climate, let’s talk about snakes.
In appearance adult Savus are dark black/grey/brown with a white belly and chin, the dark/light contrast is quite striking in adults. The labial scales are usually darker than those of _mackloti _where the lips have a much lighter overall colour, being yellow/cream in all the individuals I have seen. Like the _mackloti_ their scales have an excellent iridescence to them which is made more noticeable due to their dark background colour. Hatchlings are orange with a white belly, they usually have a darker head, the orange scales change to the dark colour a few at a time after each shed similar to the ontogenetic colour change witnessed in Green Tree Pythons.









_Image clearly shows labial scales and the heat pits_

Many data online suggests these animals attain an adult size of only 3 to 4 foot, with the phrase ‘one of the world’s smallest pythons’ being thrown around a lot. My animals are both approximately 6 foot and they are F2 from wild collected animals, the male I have on loan from my friend is around 4ft and much more slender. As these are the only animals I have studied for any period of time I am unsure if this size difference is gender related, genetic, or the result of their care up to this point. The breeder of my two large females informed me that 1.5 to 2m is the average size of all of his adults and they are all descended from wild caught animals that he received 20+ years ago. He said males were usually smaller than the females, in terms of length, but more noticeably girth and weight. The male from my friend is significantly younger than the females, which may also contribute to the size difference.










I would hazard a guess that this discrepancy in size and information is due to many captive animals having had their growth stunted by a misunderstanding of the size they are able to attain. Many keepers will stop increasing the prey size for their snakes once they believe it is full grown, often also feeding too small of a prey item anyway. Hatchling _savuensis_ are quite small and as such have to be started on mice, I think this may be reason many keepers seem to have very small animals as they possibly never switch them over to rats to give them a bigger meal. The animal is given a maintenance diet rather than a diet that allows them to grow and breed. This may also explain why many have found them difficult to reproduce.

Another characteristic often stated online is that these snakes are of a calm temperament and suitable for handling; again I have not found this to be the case. Whilst my animals will not bite once they have been removed from their enclosure they will defend themselves when they are in it; this usually is in the form of repetitive lunges with the mouth closed. In fact the first Savus I ever encountered were wild caught animals at my local reptile shop where I worked when I was 16, they were some of the most aggressive animals we had on the premises. I find my adult _mackloti_ more predictable and calmer in terms of temperament.


For the adult savus I use an *enclosure size* of 4x2x2foot per individual, these snakes are much more arboreal than the other _Liasis_ discussed and will use any height given to them, due to my collection size and the stacking of enclosures I am unable to go taller but if I could I would. The enclosure is *furnished* with branches, arranged horizontally as these animals like to perch similar to Green Tree Pythons. I provide cork flats for shelter and females are all given a plastic storage tub with a hole cut in the top, I fill these with a layer of damp coco fibre and sometimes moss. These act as a humid hide but also as a lay-box. All animals are provided with a water bowl that they can fit into, though I seldom see them bathe.

Similar to the _mackloti_ I keep them on a *substrate* of damp coco fibre/husk often mixed together with some leaf litter. I poo-pick the enclosures as required and a full clean out is done when needed, but this is usually only every 2 months or so.

For *heating *this species I use ceramic heaters or reptile radiators, these are controlled by a dimming stat and for most of the year is set to 30/31c. The cool end is 20-24c. Night time temps are pretty much the same. I have not tried this species with halogen basking lights, however they are quite shy and do not sit in the open much. I would assume that as they are from an island that remains at a comparatively constant warm temperature they are not major sun worshippers, but I could be wrong of course.

The coco fibre substrate in the enclosures assists in maintaining the desired *humidity* levels. A large water bowl also helps, along with the lay-boxes I provide for the females. Other than that I don’t do very much outside of the rainy season. During the rainy season (December to March) I spray the enclosure down thoroughly multiple times per week, this is much more frequently than any of the other _Liasis_ species but is predominantly to encourage breeding. The remainder of the year I spray them once/twice a week or not at all; using a humidity holding substrate and the occasional spray seems to be enough to maintain these animals and they rarely have trouble shedding or appear dehydrated.

My adult Savus are offered *food* once every 2 to 3 weeks for most of the year, females sometimes weekly. The animals will rarely refuse food unless showing breeding behaviour, which is a handy indicator of the females progress. The male usually won’t eat when paired with a female, though will once his interest in her has died down; again a useful indicator. They can eat large prey items for their size, a 4ft individual can eat a medium rat, around 150g; a 6ft adult can take a large 250g rat or bigger.


A short disclaimer before we talk about *breeding* _Liasis savuensis; _at the time of writing I have only produced them in 2021 though got clutches from two females, but I did have some issues. I have tried again this season (2022) but it is too early to tell if this has been successful, though I am hopeful. I believe the issues with her clutch in the 2021 season was due to it being her first; the issues with the other female are due to her biology (a possible birth defect) and she has been retired from breeding due to health risks.

As previously mentioned many python species require a bit longer than something like a Royal to get to breeding size and age, Savus are no different and so reproducing them before they are around 4 to 6 years old is unlikely. Also many pythons on their first breeding will often have a poor clutch with low fertility, small clutches or eggs that fail; this is not just specific to Savus. I think this is another reason why some python species are considered hard to breed; keepers grow them from hatchlings they don’t breed until they’re 5+ years old and then they lay a duff clutch so many will give up blaming the animals, when it is in fact just the keepers patience that is at fault.









_A lock seen in 2021, image also shows difference in size of the male and female_

Prior to pairing my animals I cleaned out the enclosures and provided fresh damp substrate in order to raise enclosure humidity, I also lowered the hot spot by a couple of degrees from 30c to ~27c, which also lowered the ambient, and sprayed them more regularly. After two weeks of these new conditions I introduced the male to a females enclosure, when he was present in the enclosure I sprayed it every morning and sometimes in the evening as well, the spraying seemed to stimulate mating behaviour. After a week of this I separated the male for a couple of days, using this break to offer food, and then would move him to the other females enclosure for a week. I repeated this process until the end of March. In April I cut back on the spraying to only twice per week, I was still pairing the male with the females but his interest had decreased. I saw one of the females (female 1) ovulate around 11th April, so I stopped introducing the male to her enclosure and focused his attention on the other female (female 2).









_Ovulation 11/04/2021_

Female 1 shed 21 days post ovulation on 2nd May; following this shed she spent most of her time either on a branch under the heat source, or in the lay-box provided. I decreased the spraying in this period back down to once per week similar to the end of the wet season in nature but also to encourage her to use the lay-box. Basking spot temperature was also increased back up to 30/31c. On 8th June, 37 days after the prelay shed she laid a clutch of 10 eggs, 7 slugs and 3 fertiles. Eggs were incubated in the same manner as _mackloti_ at 31c +/-1C on damp vermiculite, at this temperature incubation was 75 days, hatching on 23rd July, around 2 weeks longer than the _mackloti. _Only two of the three eggs made it to the end, one baby hatched fine, the other never managed to escape the egg, I cut open the egg after a few days of waiting and the baby appeared fully formed but had perished.









_Female 1 laying in her laybox_


Female 2 I continued to pair every so often until August, I never witnessed an ovulation but she became large, went off her food and did a suspicious looking shed (prelay sheds are often thicker and go on for longer) on September 3rd, very late in the year, I had almost given up hope at this point. Based upon the other female I had expected eggs on 10th October, but still nothing by the 15th. This was quite odd and she was looking uncomfortable and lethargic, she then passed a couple of large odd looking eggs and a few more days passed and nothing, her back end looking very distended. Eventually, with a bit of help, all the eggs were removed from her but were damaged in the process and could not be saved.
Upon closer inspection this female has an abnormality in her spinal column near her cloaca meaning the eggs became stuck at this point. This was only really noticeable after egg production when she was on the leaner side, and only then with some manipulation by hand around the area, it is not something that can really be seen with the naked eye. I do feel bad for not noticing this, though she is alive and well and is enjoying her early retirement from breeding.









_The single baby produced in 2021_

The single hatchling produced is quite feisty and strikes constantly when confronted, it was quite easy to get it to strike and bite a hot defrost fuzzy mouse however it would often then drop it and revert back to striking at me if I moved. So it was a lot of standing very still and waiting for it to finish. This is the same method I use for stubborn _Antaresia_ species, though with a pinkie due to their smaller size. This is the only hatchling I have ever had so I cannot really comment on them as a whole. Hopefully I will be able to add to this after this season or the one after and provide a better report on them due to a larger sample size!









_2021 hatchling at a few months of age_

In summary I would say that _Liasis savuensis_ are, in my opinion, an incredibly misunderstood but also strangely, unnecessarily revered species. They are hardy and easy to keep as long as they are not exposed to too cold temperatures. They are quite shy and often hide so make poor display animals, they aren’t small enough that it's of 'benefit' and still require a reasonable sized enclosure but they also aren’t big enough that they’re that impressive. Their appearance is not remarkably better than _mackloti_, and they are only slightly smaller (if cared for properly). In my opinion _mackloti_ are much more interesting and rewarding captives, not to mention much easier to breed. I am honestly a bit lost as to why Savus are deemed more desirable that loads of other python species; maybe it is just that breeding them is a challenge. Regardless I will continue to keep and try to perfect breeding the Savus as I enjoy the challenge and like having as many species from a genus as I can but they are my least favourite out of the four _Liasis_ species I currently keep.


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## LiasisUK

I keep meaning to write one of these for fuscus, the Water Python, but I haven't had loads of time for writing long rambly texts recently haha. Then I planned to do Antaresia. I'll try and get round to it, it's probably a winter time thing, as less animal stuff going on.

In the meantime, how about some pics.
I upgraded one of my 2020 holdback Olive pythons over the weekend, and it seems I take one photo a year of this animal.

Day of hatch 1/9/20









May 2021

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Sensitive content, not recommended for those under 18
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August 2022









Shows nice growth, though I think I definitely could have grown her faster as she would eat everyday if she was allowed.


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