1.0 Normal Royal Python for rehome Huddersfield West Yorkshire

[Ssthisto]

At the moment, we have one normal male royal (probed male by myself and by another experienced keeper when we got him in 2007 as a subadult) who we would like to rehome. We want to see him with someone equipped to take care of him better than we can with the numbers of animals we have and limited time to baby him along.

Theo is an extremely difficult feeder. He routinely stops feeding for months at a time with us, and when he does feed it is fairly sporadic - perhaps one feed in three. However, his weight has been steady; he is smallish for his age, but has not lost substantial weight while fasting. We have only had success offering him very freshly killed rats; he has never taken a defrosted prey item while with us. We have tried housing him in a tub (he did not feed while tubbed for us back in 2007) and in a 36 X 18 X 18 vivarium; he was a better feeder when in the vivarium, but moving him to a new 3' because the old was suffering wear and tear has resulted in him fasting since late March.

He has never been subjected to force or assist feeding.

He is also somewhat stressy for a royal, and is not a typical "friendly" snake for us - he is huffy, will threaten and will strike if startled.

I'd like to get him to a home where someone will have more time for him as an individual; he would be collection from West Yorkshire or courier to be arranged by the person taking him on.

This is NOT a snake for freebie hunters... if you're interested please PM me. I would like to know what experience you have with royals and if you have kept awkward feeders and gotten them going again.

[Cockys Royals]

Aww good luck with finding him a good home, sounds like this little fella is really nervous. Free bump & no freebie hunters

[alan66]

Hi,
Probably teaching to suck eggs, but have you tried scenting the defrosts? Or perhaps braining them?

When we come across this kind of thing we give prey the cat has brought in!!

If he isn't losing weight, could it be that he is eating sufficiently for his size? Or perhaps he is unhappy with his environment?

Lots of things could cause this, but you will already know that, and as you state, you don't have the time to baby him.

If you really do need a home for him, we have worked with many snakes, bad tempered and fussy and all ports between. We can offer a home, but as we are a rehoming service, he would only stay until he was eating well and regularly, and was less skittish (ie more like a normal royal).

Nuff from me. You know where we are if needed.

Alan

[Ssthisto]

Thank you, Alan, for the offer, but I'd prefer him to go somewhere he's going to stay long term (given that he is a nervy fellow). If we are unable to rehome him with an individual in a reasonable time frame, I will get in touch.

It is possible that he's just meant to be a small royal. We have tried scenting and all the usual tricks (including scenting with a gecko, multimammates, etc), but it is a case where I would rather see him in the hands of someone who can baby him into eating a bit more often rather than "just not gaining or losing weight".

Just weighed him; he is 900 grams at approximately four to five years of age; he doesn't look thin for his weight/size.

[Ssthisto]

At the moment Theo is still available - I've had a couple of people PM me (I've replied!) but if you should be interested could you please let me know whether you have access to fresh-killed rats or multimammates in your PM?

He has never eaten frozen as far as we are aware (and believe me, we've tried) - we got him two weeks after he was imported as a CF subadult male.

[Ssthisto]

Subject to collection, it looks as though Theo might have a new home.