My Royal is going to school tomorrow!!

[mark666black]

Lol, My son is taking our royal into school tomorrow to do a school assembly about him, he's wrote out what he's going to say about him (with some help from me), but couldn't write too much technical info as its a junior school and they wouldn't understand. Anyway heres it below, is there anything he could add or do you think we've covered everything?


This is My snake he is a royal python and his name is toffee because of his colours. They are sometimes called ball pythons because they curl up into a ball when they are scared. He's nearly five years old and four foot in length thats just a bit shorter than me. The biggest one ever recorded was 6 foot long thats as big as a tall man but the average is four to five foot. Girl snakes are normally bigger than boy snakes. He can live between 20 to 30 years old.

He lives in his own house at my home, its a big wooden tank called a vivarrium. It has glass doors at the front like windows, so he can look out and be nosey. He even has heating in his house, but it has to be a lot hotter than what we have, about 88 degrees, as hot as a very hot summers day and a bit cooler at night. This is because pythons are tropical reptiles and they are mainly found in africa, so we have to make his home as much like what it is in africa as possible, or he will get poorly. Hes got lots of rocks and stuff to climb on in his tank, and places to hide because royal pythons are very shy animals and like to hide away. He's even got his own little swimming pool as pythons love to swim, they can even hold their breath for a long time. He is also nocturnal this means he mostly comes out at night when its quiet.

For his dinner he eats mice and rats two every two weeks, and he eats them whole in one go. When he has swallowed them he has a lump half was down his body, just like the cartoons but not as big.

When he grows he sheds his skin, he wiggles around and the whole top layer of his skin peels off from his head to his tail inside out, a bit like rolling down a sock. He does this every couple of months, and he is always bigger after he has shed.

He smells using a long forked tongue instead of a nose, and he has heat sensors on the end of his head that he senses heat with. He can see a little bit but not much, but mainly uses his tongue and heat sensors for finding his way around.

A snakes body is mostly strong musscle and they wiggle from side to side to move because they haven't got any legs. Some snakes however have got little things under their tail called spurs, these are the remains of the snakes legs from years and years ago when they used to be lizards. Toffee is one breed of snake that still has spurs. A snake will also use its tail to grip onto things and can support its whole body weight with it.

When toffee was a baby he was hatched from a egg, some snakes have live babys and other lay eggs, royal pythons are egg laying snakes.

He is not poisenous but he has got sharp teeth, but most pet snakes do not tend to bite unless you have done something wrong, like scaring them, hurting them or handling their food before you pick them up. If a snake wants to be left alone it will let you know by giving a loud hiss. There is only two types of snakes that live in england, adders and grass snakes. Both these snakes should be left alone if you see them, wild snakes are alot different to pet snakes and are not used to being picked up. Snakes make very nice pets as long as you know what your doing and you look after them properly.

[grannykins]

Sounds good. Only thing I can see is that there are actually 3 types of snakes over here - grass snakes, adders and smooth snakes. (If you google smooth snakes there is plenty of info). Hope the talk goes well.

[mark666black]

Thanks so Do I , I'm going in with him to answer any questions and to make sure he dosn't get passed around! and I think i'm more nervous than what my son is. Ahh thought there was one more but wasn't sure, will google and add smooth snakes to it then.

[grannykins]

Bet the kids will love it. Good luck, and let us know how it goes.

[mark666black]

Thanks I will do, were also taking his his recent shed for the kids to look at and feel.

[FreddiesMum]

Iam sure the kids will love it,well done

[samroyal2]

sounds good be nice for the kids to learn abit about snakes and not think there weird and evil

[Kylie]

sounds good honey just one thing my female royal is 6.5ft thats big!!

[mark666black]

Wow 6.5 ft? that is big I always thought the biggest was 6 foot! Ok will change that too

[bev1]

How exciting for your son, what he's written sounds great. I bet you have a great time, a guy I work with took his corn snake into a local infants school and he and the snake are now the kids favourite people in the whole world!! Have fun.