new addition :)

[red fury]

ok so once shes digested her meal and i've handeled her another time this week, I'll get some pictures of my new baby girl Nancy.... now Nancy (aside from being my girlfriends daughter) is about 5 ft long, and shes a beautiful copper white lip python (Leiopython albertisii) I just got her on hursday, and apperently she was a wild caught gal who in the past had numerous health problems from sever RI to mites and parasites.... I can say shes in great health at the moment tho she ate the first time offered a medium rat (FT) and has only taged me twice..... she loves to hiss at me and make me believe she's going to try to get my face.... If anyone has one, any info you care to share would be great since theres not much available out there.
Thanks, Ian

 

[pitbulllady]

ok so once shes digested her meal and i've handeled her another time this week, I'll get some pictures of my new baby girl Nancy.... now Nancy (aside from being my girlfriends daughter) is about 5 ft long, and shes a beautiful copper white lip python (Leiopython albertisii) I just got her on hursday, and apperently she was a wild caught gal who in the past had numerous health problems from sever RI to mites and parasites.... I can say shes in great health at the moment tho she ate the first time offered a medium rat (FT) and has only taged me twice..... she loves to hiss at me and make me believe she's going to try to get my face.... If anyone has one, any info you care to share would be great since theres not much available out there.
Thanks, Ian

I've got a female D'alberti, too. Like most, she's a wild-caught import, with noticeable scars typical of snakes that are caught by PNG natives, bound up to sticks with vines, destined for the stew pot, but sold to reptile "bunchers" and exported to the US. Fortunately, she's a long-term captive, no health issues at the time, and she has a very good appetite for f/t rats! She's also a very sweet snake, which is NOT typical at all! She's not even head-shy about me touching her face, which is usually necessary to get her back into her enclosure after handling. She's really fast and loves to be held and stay around my neck or on top of my head, and pitches a fit of thrashing and musking when I have to put her back in her enclosure. It's all I can do not to shut her head in the top. I honestly think she'd live around my neck if I let her, 24/7. Again, she's not at all typical, since all the other White-Lips I've had were either very flighty or bitey, or both.

These snakes like a humid enclosure and cannot shed their skins unless the humidity is around 75-80%. They do well in large sweater box enclosures with cypress mulch or aspen substrate and a large water bowl to help maintain humidity. Basically, their care is similar to that of a Rainbow Boa. You need to clean up often, and do not let their substrate get WET, otherwise you will have issues with scale rot with these snakes. They like a warm end around 87-90 degrees and a cool end around 78 or so, and can tolerate fairly low(as in room temp) nighttime temps. They also love to burrow under their substrate and hide. Mine loves to stay under her water bowl. They are not good display snakes for that reason. She normally will take f/t smallish rats off tongs, but if she doesn't, I just leave them with her overnight, and they'll be gone the next morning, even if she's in shed. She is an absolute delight to handle, because she's not only calm, but the skin on this species feels like the finest silk, and the iridescence is hard to beat! It's tough to get a decent pic of her with me not holding her, since if I put her down on something, she sorta "freaks out" and starts frantically trying to reach towards me, so all I can get is a blurry, very close-up pic of the front of her snout and infrared labial pits, but here are a few I've managed to take:

This is an underrated and rewarding species for the dedicated, experienced snake keeper, but I would not honestly recommend them for novice herpers due to the demands of keeping them and to their often-snappy/flighty temperaments. It's rare to find one like mine, that actually seems to enjoy being held AND is healthy, since most come in with heavy parasite loads, nasty injuries, either from prey or from capture, and often they just don't make it. There are few people apparently trying to breed these in captivity, since they are not easy to breed and most dealers just find it cheaper to import them at this time.

pitbulllady

 

[Gary_1969]

Oh wow, Love the colors !

 

[red fury]

yea they do have their brilliance to them... i have heard that there were hard to breed, apparently theres a breeder here in Canada and he's been breeding white lips for a few years at least..... maybe once my new gal gets accustomed to her new home she might find a lucky mate??!!!

 

[red fury]

ok heres an update, my roomy took some pictures of me holding her, they all turned out pretty crappy too blury and shes going blue going to be a bit before i can get some better pics. on another note, was looking around at the ERAS show this weekend, and i found a guy in calgary breeding these beauties! hes been breeding them for 4-5 years now according to his friend who was at the show.... next step... convince the wife i should get another :S rather tackel a very hungry agressive adult anaconda than her :S