rock python

[skin78]

today I got my rock and I was wondering if there are any people here who have rocks??

:D

[ReptiZone]

hi!

I don't have any rock pythons but i wanted to get one from magazoo in montreal..because they are soo beautiful and that one has a very nice character but my advice is to get a hold of Dom. He has a very nice rock python and he is very knowledgable.

Chondro Python :cool:

[skin78]

thanx for the reply.. I am new here so I don't know who dom is lol... hopefully he will read my topic so I can get in contact with him..

[ReptiZone]

check out the gallery he has a few pics there you will like to see.

[snakemann87]

ya, dom is great. Is it a baby and hows its temperment??

[Dom]

Tx for the compliment guys :)

I have a nice nasty rock ..

I personally think there one of the nicest looking pythons but also one of the worst python to keep in captivity for the sheer size and temperment..

Although they have alwasy been one of my FAV snake in the world so hence the reason I have one .. I am still debating on wether i will bread them next year or not.. to many cons.....

Check out my gallery - I have got many different pics of it .. plz feel free to ask as many question as you like..

Take care
Dom

[skin78]

thanx dom for replying .. I have a question allready lol.. I heard thta when you handle a rock many times it will calm down and even get a bit tame.. Is this true or not.. Let me get one think straight.. I am keeping this rock nomatter what he/she turnes out to.. I can see your point when it comes to breeding these snakes.. I also have that smae problem with my burm.. here in holland these snakes are dumped when they get near 6 ft and get a bit nasty.. and I don't want to see "my" offspring being dumbed..

[Dom]

Technically .. it could tame down after lots and lots of handling...

Although mine, when I got her .. a lil over a year ago, she was about 3 feet and was nasty nasty ..

I handled her for 6 month straight .. the first 5 minutes of being handled she would bite me repetively and after that .. just hiss and eventualy calm down and stay around my neck for an hour or two...

EVERYTIME I pick her up from her cage she would bite again repetetivly from her cage... no matter how good she was after a while of being handled, she would be down right nasty the next time to pick her up...


The problem is, now she is over 8 feet long and probably close to the 25-30 pounds .. so i have stopped handling her and excepted the fact that my "bitch" will be like so all her life...

Hence.. give it a shot .. but every rock that has been tamed.. were tamed to start with.. I am sure u can tame them down .. it takes a lot of work though and someimes u just don't have the time for it as they become too dangerous ...

I have heard of ppl taming down a nasty rock but never knew how they did it though ..

Personally .. I love her cause shes nice looking big and nasty! And also not the typical burm, ball or retic...

Best of luck with her.. I trully hope u can care for her for the next 20 years.. Keep it mind they grow at an alarming rate.. 2 pounds to 30 in a year......(for me anyway - but I like feeding her :))

[skin78]

I know how big they can get and I allready have a burm that I have had from the day she hatched and now she is near 15 ft so the size won't be the problem with the rock :) temprament is also not that big of a problem cause I will be very carefull with her

[Sunrunner]

Hey guys I have a big 13 foot Rock, when I got him he was severely underwieght, frozen and in every other way...terrible. Bad health, bad, mean, nasty, evil temperment. That was about a year ago, in fact when I met the guy to get him this guy met me at a Tim Hortons in his pick up with the rock in a wet pillow case in the uncovered cab of the truck in the middle of winter!!! It was snowing for petes sake!!

The guy then pulls the snake out of the bag saying how amazingly tame it was...no one wonder it was calm it was a rockcicle. Anyway I got him home into the heat, between me and a real good vet and a rock with the will to live like no other snake i ever seen he pulled through...I told myself no matter how mean he was I wouldn't give up on him. And man he was mean. Mean, mean mean. Now a year later he has gained alot of wieght although he didn't start to eat until about six months after I had him, and he can be handled rather easily by one person, but like all Rocks he is untrustable, I would never let him near my face or neck and he sometimes squeezes my arm so hard my hand turns purple, although he doesn't bite anymore (well at least not as much as he did) he is quite tractable out of his cage. In his cage he is a total azzhole. It took alot of squeezed arms and legs, a number of bites (wow rocks can bite!) and alot of being crapped on (which he still does every time I hold him) but I think he was worth it. Any living creature is, especailly a snake as beautuful and powerful as Rock. Although I have dediced its time for him to move on I still think Rocks are one of the most impressive snakes and a great addition for any ADVANCE herp owners collection.
My best advice if you are serious about this beast is to work with him daily for at least 15 min ensure he is well fed and warm and be prepared to take a few hits and have a very ungrateful pet but Rocks are one of those animals like crocs and condas (both of which I also have) that are awesome to own and watch but ain't that great for fetching your slippers or cuddling with :) Also even though rocks and burms are pretty close in size a Rocks attitude makes it a much more powerful and thus dangerous animal to deal with, never ever think that because you can handle a 15' burm you can do the same with a 15 or even 10' rock, it will kick your azz if you don't give it the respect and caution it deserves.

[Burmies]

Not me but I have been thinking about it.

Burmies

[skin78]

thanx for the help sunrunner. I know rocks need to be treated with a lot of respect and I am willing to give that to her. Now she's a bit sick :( she has a cold but I hope that will be gone very soon so she can go and feed.. I think she ahsn't eaten for a while so my question is should I only give her 1 rat or should I give her a rabbit or a few rats..
I think 1 rat is better for her cause she hasn;t eaten for a while but then again she really could use a lot of food.

[BurmBaroness]

If you feed her too much, too soon, she may regurge. I would try 1 prey item, a little smaller than normal, for the first 2 or 3 feeds, about 7-8 days apart, then you can go to a larger size. That way it's not such a shock to her system.

[skin78]

thats what I thought.. so I will try to get her to feed this weekend.

[LdyDrgn]

I have a friend who took in an AfRock just to get it well before finding a good home for it. He escaped the enclosure and chased the guy's wife into the bathroom! She ran in and shut the door. She was holed up in there for around 20 minutes before she could get out. They can't find another home for that little beast soon enough, I'm sure LOL

[JasonBrennan]

LdyDrgn, do they still have this rock? How big is it that it chased the wife into the bathroom? I am just curious, since I don't live to terribly far away from you (well, at least not to a former truck driver, anyways.)

[LdyDrgn]

He's not very big... still a young'un. But he's MEAN! Gorgeous, tho, one of the prettiest I've ever seen.

[Sunrunner]

I would actually recommend feeding the rock pigletts or guini pigs, they are smaller prey items but alot more fattening then rats, this way u can put wieght on your rock without overloading its system.

[Sunrunner]

Also keep in mind rocks can go a VERY long time without food, longer then any other snake so as long as it has fresh water daily don't worry to much about it not eating for a little while.

[skin78]

yes tonight she ate a chick that i had left in her cage.. I am very very very happy right now.. In 2 days I will try to give her a rat..

[skin78]

well as far as today she is very easy to handle.. she is in shed and I am socking her every day for at least 2 hours in warm water. I have a pic of her http://www.reptielenforum.nl/Forum/uploads/post-3-1050436511.jpg

as you can see on the pic she is in not that good shape but I will get her in great shape.:)

[skin78]

that is possible :) this is the before pic.. the after pic I will take when she sheds.:)

[snakemann87]

i do not own rocks, but wouldnt you think feeding her, then two days later be overdoing it alittle bit?? that seems like powerfeeding to me. I keep all my snakes on a schedule of every sunday, and they're all in great weight and not oversized.

[skin78]

well as you probably know chicks are not that good of food for snakes. My rock was very sick and is a rescue. She is very thin so I wanted to give her a bit of a boost of food. 1 chick is digested very fast and not much for a snake that is near 6ft and hasn't eaten for at least 4 months. So the term powerfeeding is not correct for this snake. If she was in great health and I fed her once every 2 or 3 days ok then you can call it powerfeeding.

cheers niek

[Dom]

Powerfeeding implies feeding it more then it wants.. by lets syay , when she is eating a rat, u stick an other one right on the *** of the other rat so that she has to keep eating.. and so on ..

I feed my snakes LOTS .. but I simply give them as mush as they would like.. if she takes it .. she wants it .. that is not power feeding to me...

I've Already fed my Rock once 9 Sewer rats.. Had to get rid of em and she wanted them all .. but It has also happenned that I have not fed her for a month..

Neway .. Best of luck Niek

[skin78]

yes she is shedding right now.. so when she's done I will try to take a picture.. and otherwise I will take one tomorrow when it's light outside :)

[skin78]

oke here is the after pic :) she came out just fine but she is a b**ch.. she striked at me lol.. but missed me :)

http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/500/1805rotsvervelt3-med.jpg


http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/500/1805rotsvervelt1-med.jpg


Tomorrow I will feed her some rats and maybe a small rabbit :)

[skin78]

yeah I'll be very carefull from now on.. before she shed I could take her out with bare hands but now when I oppen te cage she goes into defencive mode and will strike when I come to close.. what I saw was that she striked at me and at the same time crawled towards me very fats so her striking distence was more then 5 ft :( oops LOL
well I am happy that she is she d now lets get her to feed on rats :)

[skin78]

hehehe no it's not an aquarium vic LOl it's my quarantaine cage...It's a normal terrarium.

[skin78]

and yes she ate for me 4 chicks and 1 rat..

http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/2/1805rostetend-med.jpg

[snkmn]

i would get an african rock python but them and all of the other rocks get too big so my parents wont let me get one