How old is old?

[Armand]

I have here a 7 year old female ball python. Would it be considered old?

[snakehunter]

I have heard that BP's can reach the age of 17-20 yrs old, but that is what Ive heard, so Id say your snake is about middle aged.

[csolis]

No,not at all.I believe there was a ball python that lived 40+years. the average lifespan is probaly around 20-30 years old.

[Paul_Begg]

spot on carlito, the record age for any snake was acheived by a ball python that was 47 when it died. so as for 7 being old, id have to say it is a frisky late teenager right now!

[Armand]

What about breeding age?

[mykee]

Females have been known to breed well into their teens, possibly older. I have a 13 y.o. LTC and she gave me 6 last year.

[Darren179]

My female ball python is three. It sure would be nice to see her live into her 40's. If im ever to reduce my collection to just one it would definatly be her.

[Jeff_Favelle]

I have one that is at least 15 years old. More likely she's 20+, as I've had her for 13 years and she was a 5-foot abused adult when I got her. She laid 5 eggs last year (2004) with 3 duds, 6 perfect eggs in 2003, 7 eggs in both 2000 and 2001. I'm trying her again this year. She almost didn't make it when I first got her from a guy who was keeping her in an aquarium and using a 100W bulb for heat. Yikes. And to think that people still try to "keep" them that way! :(

[jfmoore]

The oldest-known snake (referred to above), a male ball python, was collected in West Africa and was already of “young adult size” according to former curator Roger Conant, when it began its stay at the Philadelphia Zoo on April 26, 1945. It died of liver disease on October 7, 1992, after almost 47 and one-half years in captivity. Interestingly to me, also, Dr. Conant said that “it grew relatively little in length or weight after it was in our possession.”**

A funny detour in its life was taken in the late 1940’s when it (and a couple of week’s later, an emerald tree boa) disappeared. After the newspapers were alerted and published front-page stories, a Baptist minister dragged his young son (the snake thief) back to the zoo with the animals. I presume the last four decades of the python’s life were less eventful.

I see no reason why snakes wouldn’t reproduce as long as they are healthy, no matter how old they are. I suspect that those which are raised and maintained in an abnormally fat state will have shortened life spans. Time will tell.

A male I got as an adult more than 25 years ago still breeds enthusiastically. A female I got as an adult in 1982 still produces large clutches.

-Joan

(**From "The Oldest Snake" by Roger Conant, <i>Bulletin of the Chicago Herpetological Society</i>, April, 1993)