breed Library > Snake > Pythons

Description

Python is the common name for a group of non-venomous constricting snakes, specifically the family Pythonidae. Other sources consider this group a subfamily of the Boas. Pythons are more related to boas than to any other snake-family. There is also a genus within Pythonidae which carries the name Python. Pythons are distinguishable from boas in that they have teeth on the premaxilla, a small bone at the very front and center of the upper jaw. Most boas produce live young, while pythons produce eggs. Some species of sandboas are also called python.

Proportions

Pythons range in size from 1 to 6 metres (3 to 20 feet) in length. Some pythons are among the longest species of snakes in the world; according to the Guinness Book of World Records the Reticulated Python holds the record for longest snake, at 10m (32ft 9.5in).

Things to Note

All snakes are carnivorous, eating small animals including lizards and other snakes, rodents and other small mammals, birds, eggs or insects. Some snakes have a venomous bite which they use to kill their prey before eating it. Other snakes kill their prey by constriction. Still others swallow their prey whole and alive. Most snakes are very easy to feed in captivity, apart from a minority of species.

Snakes do not chew their food and have a very flexible lower jaw, the two halves of which are not rigidly attached, and numerous other joints in their skull, allowing them to open their mouths wide enough to swallow their prey whole, even if it is larger in diameter than the snake itself. It is a common misconception that snakes actually dislocate their lower jaw to consume large prey.