hey everyone we're doing another species spotlight today and today we're working with a really cool
species that i actually haven't gotten to work with too too much and that is the woman python
so as before i had mentioned that i had had these for quite a while in quarantine but now i
have them in the bank snake room so i get to work with them quite a bit more so we're just going to
get right into it talking about this really cool snake species so the woma python found throughout
central and western australia they are sometimes called the ramses python sometimes called the sand
python or sometimes just the woma and i believe in australia which i'm probably going to get a little
flak foam but i'm doing my best here is they actually pronounce it weima python in australia so
waima python is how you probably hear that being spoken in australia but either way these are an
amazing species of snakes so these guys are one of two species belonging to the genus aspedites
and latin aspedites basically means shield bearer which is in reference to turn your head please
these very large scales on the top of their head kind of shiny similar to like the lampro peltis um
that means like shield belly that's the very shiny large iridescent scales on the top of their heads
their coloration can be very variable especially throughout the range but essentially these
guys are found in the more arid deserty types of landscapes of the continent of australia where the
blackheads being the other species of aspedites are usually found in a little bit more tropical
areas these guys body shape is very similar to that of like say an african or a central asian boa
to where their heads are very round with a little narrow point to the top they have smaller eyes and
they're a little bit farther up the head which is alluding to essentially their biology is meant for
them to be very fostorial or they spend a lot of time underground which if you go out to the middle
of central australia and you go out to that red dirt desert which is why a lot of their coloration
is those earth tones like this is to kind of blend in with that you will find them mostly at night
fairly nocturnal and then during the day they'll be in burrows underground or they'll be under
fallen trees or in logs so that's actually where they spend a good amount of amount of their time
and when they are hunting for food they will oftentimes go into those burrows underground
where they're spending a good majority of their time hence their biology they're a pretty small
size python as far as python goes and honestly there's a lot of really weird things about these
animals as far as pythons go so as i said before they're a little bit small things considered um
they're usually about four and a half to five and a half feet long they rarely exceed six feet but
larger ones have been documented especially in the southern part of the range there have been
a couple that have actually exceeded eight feet but that is a monster they don't happen very often
but this is a good size this is our female so you know she's probably come here oh what do you think
probably about five feet maybe from nose to tail so a good size little animal she's still putting
back uh back on weight from when she had eggs she didn't like to go right back on food very well
but that actually brings me to the next thing so as we said before they're going into burrows
and stuff looking for food woma pythons and all of the aspires to the blackheads too
are generalists as far as their diet goes so they'll eat kind of anything but they are very
well-known and well-documented reptile eaters they eat a lot of lizards and even a lot of
snakes in fact they are one of the more documented species of cannibals of their snakes they very
often predate each other no one's not entirely sure as to why that is but it actually makes
sense about some more of their biology why they are reptile hunters so if you look at the head
of the womas you can see that there are no facial pits that are present in most or pretty much all
python species as well as there's the labial pits of the pit vipers like rattlesnakes and things
woma pythons and blackhead pythons don't have those facial pits so theoretically
they're not using heat to go find their prey although they have recently done a study where
there is a small scale at the front of their rostral scale which is the front one on the
underside although she's being really good that it might actually have a little bit of heat and
temperature sensitivity and reactivity so there might be what is essentially a very primitive form
of that temperature and heat recognition of the very front of their face they do
eat rodents they do eat ground birds so they do eat warm blooded animals but they also do
heavily eat uh reptiles um and again so talking about weird stuff for them being pythons so
there are pythons they are constrictors but some of their feeding habits are a little off
so when again they're underground a lot so they go into an animal burrow looking for a reptile
or a small mammal a lot of times those burrows are very narrow that don't allow them to fully
grab a hold of that prey item and coil them up and constrict them to then eat what happens a
lot of times is that they are so narrow they will grab a hold and then sometimes they'll only get
like just one coil length of their body and kind of press it up against the wall
and so when that happens a lot of times you'll see older larger mature animals with a lot of scars
and scratches along their face and along their bodies because of what happens is they do that and
then that doesn't immediately get that animal and subdue it quickly so there's a struggle and they
end up getting scratched up a lot which is why in the hobby we do a lot of frozen thod meals because
a larger prey animal can hurt or really inflict a lot of damage or injury to your pet reptile
but overall these guys are an amazing snake they've honestly been a staple in the hobby
for decades they've just been never quite as popular as a lot of the other animals obviously
because they don't really have morphs they have a lot of really cool and interesting patterns
a lot of variations i said before they can be more yellow they can be more red they can be darker
lighter as far as i know i don't think there are any morphs at least in the states there might
be some in australia and maybe over in europe where more of them were exported legally or not
to europe than they were to the united states and so they have a little bit of a larger population
to work with but i'm not sure i couldn't find 100 sure that there were in fact genetic morphs
just a lot of variation and really cool lines what are you doing silly little girl
um in captivity these guys do do very well um they have amazing prey responses and food responses
um so essentially it's almost like keeping a larger king snake where
um you'll know that from a lot of other like you know youtube videos and content creators
you'll see the woman the blackheads just like flying out of the cage to grab that um these guys
she she did lay eggs which is why a lot of times they can have a harder time coming back onto food
but overall both her and her boyfriend have great prayer responses they do very well and then as
far as husbandry goes they are very similar to that of like say a carpet python where they're
a little bit more forgiving and hearty when it comes to people figuring out their husbandry needs
whereas something like a rainbow boa is much more receptive and reactive to getting their
husbandry requirements exactly right these guys can essentially handle it a little bit better
not to say that you should go out and get a carpet python or a woma python and just expect you to
figure it out you should still absolutely do your research and watching this video as part of that
again but these guys do very well they do very well an adult could work very well like say a four
by two enclosure which is kind of a good generic staple for a lot of species of snakes and that
like four to six foot range of an animal that four by four by two by two enclosure works very well um
you know they don't need as high humidity requirements as say a ball python or a boa
constrictor so in like 50 to 70 versus like 60 to 70 is the lowest you could go with a ball python
so a little bit less they are fairly nocturnal but they look amazing with full spectrum lighting
and they will absolutely bask just like we have seen with our pine snake and our blackhead of
python who has uvb on her enclosure as well as several other snakes that were fine they
do do they do bask they do seek out that uva and uvb lighting and they just look
gorgeous under that full spectrum lighting so i absolutely recommend you putting a bulb on there
um but as far as heat goes you know the mid 80s is a really good one that's that more consistent
temperature you'll find under those large logs in those burrows a small not super high basking
spot you know about 90 or so is a good basking spot for these guys the one thing i will say
that every single person and every single paper that i read in researching these lomas is that
they love hides they do love to feel secure once they do feel secure they will absolutely just like
most species of snakes take advantage of that the whole area you give them but they do like
hides because they are a little bit more cryptic they are a little bit more crepuscular nocturnal
so during the day they love to feel secure so no matter what enclosure you end up going with
be it like a christmas tree tub that trees in for right now a 4x2 or even a much larger custom one
make sure that you have one or two larger hides for a full mature adult to be able to get in both
on the warm and the cool side and then you know some like heavier climbing branches and like the
little half cork bark logs and tubes and things work very well for these guys they're an amazing
species of snake i love them to death they are so cool i absolutely jump for joy at the ability to
be able to keep these things when the opportunity arose for us when we were approached if we wanted
to get these pear and i said absolutely sorry you might hear the reed frogs going in the background
um but these guys are a great great species of snake they're not super common but they have
been in the trade for a while and just like all australian species essentially what we have in
the states and over in europe is really all we got we can't have any more new bloodlines because they
haven't uh all exportation out of australia is put which is probably a good thing but what that
means is that we have a smaller genetic diversity to work with and so always doing your best to go
and find different people who work with the animal but they are fairly affordable they're fairly easy
to keep they don't get super large even when compared to some of like the other australian
pythons like the olives or the carpet pythons great great animal i wouldn't necessarily like an
easy beginner one but they do make a great pep reptile and i would recommend for any of those
looking for maybe the next step up as far as husbandry requirements and experience from say
a ball python i would absolutely recommend a woman python like that because they don't get
nearly as large hopefully you guys did enjoy this video um you can check out the whole playlist that
i have of species spotlights i like to do this with all the different species that i have and
eventually we'll be branching out to some other really cool ones and borrowing some animals from
other people that i do know if you have questions comments concerns please let me know down at the
bottom of this you can check out the instagram facebook patreon i try to do tick tock but i'm
i'm working on that i promise hope everyone's having a great day and we will check you next time