The Eastern Children's or Spotted Python
(Antaresia maculosus) in Captivity
BRIAN BARNETT
16 Suspension Street, Ardeer, Victoria, 3022, Australia.
Phone: +61 3 9363-6841 Fax: +61 3 93605-704 E-mail: barnettb@ocean.com.au

Children's Pythons (all forms) are widely kept throughout Australia and elsewhere.

They are one of Australia's smallest pythons. The eastern form Antaresia (=Liasis) maculosus is found throughout eastern Queensland from Torres Strait south nearly to the New South Wales border; also on numerous islands off the east Queensland coast (Smith, 1985).

It is usually distinguished from other taxa in the species-group by a persistent dorsal pattern of chocolate-brown, ragged-edged blotches which tend to coalesce anteriorly and posteriorly (Smith, 1985).

General details about these snakes (other than and including captive breeding) can be found elsewhere in this journal in a paper by Raymond Hoser, or see Hoser (1993) and references within.

The original breeders subject of this paper were obtained from Townsville, north Queensland and they, with several of their off-spring, form the present breeding stock on which this paper is based. Readers should also note that in the experiences of myself and colleagues, the husbandry and breeding requirements of the other 'Children's' Pythons, (A. childreni and A. stimsoni (=sacacola)) seems to generally similar.

The adult snakes are housed, one male and two females, in cages with a floor area of 55cm x 46cm and a height of 45cm. Particle board is used with an aluminium-framed glass door the full height and width of the front. Each of these unit cages forms part of a six bank system, 2 metres high x 3 metres wide. Each system fits on top of the 'Taipan cages' (see Barnett (1986) or Taipan paper in this journal for details) resulting in both levels receiving floor heat from the cage below. A plastic vent, 12cm x 7cm, is fitted into the back wall of each unit.

Pre-washed, fine aquarium gravel is used as the ground cover and regularly topped up as any soiled areas are scooped out. Hide areas in the form of small hollow logs are supplied to each unit. A water bowl, which is also large enough for soaking, is supplied for drinking water. The water is changed regularly.

No natural light is supplied but the reptile house itself is fitted with 1.2m True-Lite fluorescent tubes throughout. These illuminate the cages sufficiently during daylight hours.

Each unit is heated by two 25 watt, 'blue-coloured', incandescent globes. The blue-coloured globes are used in order to keep the night period in relative darkness when these lights may be on. Floor heating is also provided by means of the heating of the cage directly below. The heating globes are controlled by a thermostat and each unit maintains a temperature of 27-29 degrees Celsius. This temperature is maintained, night and day, from August through to the start of May. From May to the end of July, the temperature is reduced to 21-23 degrees Celsius.

On average the adult snakes are fed three times per month from August through to the start of May. The average feed is 2 mice with a total weight of 55-60g.

Mating activity commences in late April and continues through to mid August. The snakes are cooled through most of this period, from the start of May to the end of July, and it is during this latter period that most prolonged matings are observed. Prior to mating, one particular male has been observed over the years gently biting the female on the back.

For several weeks prior to the pre-laying slough the female will cease to accept food. I have recorded the pre-laying slough at 21-25 days before laying. At this stage the female will usually lie in a coil exposing part of the ventral area. Just prior to laying, the female will form a depression in the gravel in the area where the eggs are to be laid. Of the 20 clutches, 5% were laid late September, 70% through October and 25% in early November.

The following has been determined from Table 1.

Mean clutch size: 10 eggs (4-16), n=20.

The fertility rate was 84.6% (33-100), n=20.

Mean fertile egg length per clutch at oviposition: 38.7mm (36.0-44.6), n=18.

Mean fertile egg diameter per clutch at oviposition: 24.5mm (22.3-26.7), n=18.

Mean fertile egg weight per clutch at oviposition: 13.1g (11.1-15.4), n=18.

The eggs are incubated in clear-topped, plastic bread containers, using medium grade Vermiculite as the medium (Barnett, 1981a). (Readers should note that 'fine grade' Vermiculite is not suitable for incubation of reptile eggs). 140ml of water was added to 150g Vermiculite giving the medium a depth of 3cm in a container. A fine spray of water is added at a future date if required. The relative humidity is kept high. The temperature range during incubation is 29.5-32° C. In 1979, due to excessive moisture in one container, an egg was swollen to the point where it ruptured. The egg was only 31 days into incubation and it was decided to attempt to experiment and devise a simple humidicrib to continue the incubation of this particular egg. The effort was successful and after spending a further 23 days in a fully-opened egg, the young finally emerged over the side of the egg at the same time that others in the clutch started to emerge (Barnett, 1980).

Pre-hatch measurements and weights, in the week prior to slitting, were taken of 15 clutches and although minimal, all but four clutches registered weight loss. These four clutches had a mean gain of 0.40g/egg (0.21-0.72). Weight loss per clutch for the other 11 clutches was 1.08g/egg (0.02-3.37).

Egg lengths varied from a mean clutch gain of 0.72mm/egg (0.10-1.20) n=13, to a mean clutch loss of 0.45mm/egg (0.10-0.80) n=2. Egg diameters had a mean clutch gain of 0.57mm/egg (0.10-1.30) n=15.

The incubation periods ranged from 46-61 days, mean 53, (n=20). The percentage of eggs hatched from those placed under incubation ranged from 57-100%, mean 87%, n=20.

Upon slitting the eggs, the young snakes usually emerged within 1-2 days. The young were weighed and measured at birth (Table 2). The mean hatchling total length/clutch was 301mm (271-322) n=20, while the mean hatchling weight/clutch was 7.91g (5.78-9.71) n=20.

Because of the large numbers bred and kept at any one time, the keeping and feeding techniques have been refined over the years to keep maintenance time to a minimum. Up to 80 Children's Pythons have been raised in one year and without proper records and some form of organized routine, this could take much valuable time away from other sections of the collection. It is now extremely rare to lose a hatchling. Although I have encountered the occasional stubborn feeder, force-feeding has never been required on any individual.

At birth, each individual is issued with a record number which is attached to its container and entered on that individual's clutch feeding sheet. CHP861/4 simply means a Children's Python born in January 1986 and its individual number is 4. If the first clutch has 15 young emerge, the second clutch follows on at number 16.

Each individual is housed in a plastic, clear-topped, container (called a 'Click-Clack') measuring 24cm x 16cm x 9cm in height. These are placed on a six tier rack 2.2m long x 1.0m high and 24cm wide, keeping the containers in a very compact and easy to maintain area. Washed, fine, aquarium gravel is added to the container as well as a small water container. Ventilation holes are drilled at one end of the clear plastic lid immediately above where the water container is situated.

No individual heating is applied to these containers as the temperature maintained in the insulated reptile room is sufficient through most of the year, apart from winter when the feeding of the young may taper off for that period. During winter, because of the general temperature reduction in that area of the reptile room, the temperature may fall to almost 20 degrees Celsius, but for the remainder of the year is maintained in the high 20's Celsius.

The natural food of the new born Children's Pythons (all forms) is believed to be small lizards. For a variety of reasons all efforts are made to limit the offering of skinks as feed. The aim is to have them freely accept baby mice as quickly as possible. The alternative to skink feeding, prior to mouse acceptance, is fish feeding (see Barnett (1981b)), a practice which has also been adapted to raising Children's Pythons (Simon Kortlang, pers. comm.).

The first feeding offered to all new-born snakes is a new-born mouse. A small percentage will readily accept this as their first feed. For the ones that refuse the first offer, they are offered a 'scented' new-born mouse. This is offered on the end of a pair of tweezers with moderate teasing of the baby snake which at this age does show some aggression. The 'scent' feeding involves wiping a skink/fish over the nose region of the mouse which is to be offered as food. Live or frozen skinks/fish may be used in this procedure but where live skinks are used I generally wipe the faeces of the skink onto the nose of the mouse in order to leave a stronger scent. Over 50% accept this or the 'unscented' mouse as their first feed.

The remaining unfed pythons are offered a new-born mouse with a small section, approx. 5mm, of skink tail pushed into its mouth. The mouse is killed prior to the insertion of the tail piece and is also offered at the end of a pair of tweezers in an annoying manner. This satisfies the majority of previously unfed pythons and leaves only a few stubborn ones to be worked on.

The balance are offered a new-born mouse together with a skink/fish. During this offering, and in pursuit of the active skink/fish, the mouse may be 'accidentally' grabbed. In this case the skink/fish is quickly removed from the container.

The remaining snakes that have still not accepted mice are given a skink/fish to 'blood' them for future 'scent' feeding in which they will be offered a mouse and a scent of their preference. With these occasional stubborn specimens, the live skink/fish may have to be offered a couple of times before they will accept 'skink-tail' or 'scent' mice.

The next step is to wean the young snakes off the scented mice onto unscented mice. At the next feeding all snakes are offered unscented food and at each feeding a percentage generally accept this. Normally, after 4 or 5 feeds, most baby Children's Pythons will be readily accepting unscented baby mice. From this stage on, the young snakes are fed once or twice a week depending on the availability of food, but the records are still kept of the individual's feeding habits which are then passed on when they are released as suitable pets to the ever-increasing herpetological market.

Tables 3-6 and Figures 1 and 2 present data over the 24 months following hatching from six young snakes from Clutch 7. The snakes were starved for a short period prior to each weighing to ensure accurate/consistently recorded body weights. The number of sloughs and the period between them were also recorded. Providing the young snakes settled in to feeding on mice at an early stage, growth could be quite rapid and the snakes attained breeding size before two years of age.

The first sloughs occurred 7-8 days post-hatching. From then on sloughing was quite regular and ranged from 13-18 sloughs over the 24 month period for each snake. It appeared to be controlled by the actual number of feeds and not the amount of food. This has also been recorded by Banks (1985) and other keepers for other species of snake. Although specimen #2 consumed twice the weight of food as specimen #3, they consumed 87 and 88 feeds respectively and both sloughed 17 times.

Chris Banks of the Royal Melbourne Zoo and Simon Kortlang gave various assistance's.

Banks, C. B. 1985. Observations on feeding and sloughing in a collection of captive snakes. In. Grigg, G. C., Shine, R. and Ehmann, H. (eds.). 1985. Biology of Australasian Frogs & Reptiles, Surrey Beatty and Sons and the Royal Zoological Society of N.S.W., Chipping Norton, NSW.

Barnett, B.F. 1980. Captive breeding and a novel egg incubation technique of the Children's Python. Herpetofauna 11(2): 15-18.

Barnett, B. F. 1981a. Artificial incubation of Snake Eggs. Monitor. 1(2); 31-39.

Barnett, B. F. 1981b. Observations on Fish Feeding in Reptiles. Herpetofauna. 13(1):11-13.

Barnett, B. F. 1986. The Taipan in Captivity. Thylacinus 11(1): 9-19.

Hoser, R. T. 1993. Children's Pythons and Lookalikes (the childreni complex). Reptilian 1(7):10-15, 20-21.

Smith, L. A. 1985. A revision of the Liasis childreni species-group. Records of the Western Australian Museum 12(3):257-276.

BRIAN BARNETT has kept reptiles for most of his life. He's over 50. He has probably bred more Children's Pythons (all forms) than anyone else in Australian history.

*Weight loss.