Northern White-Lipped Python (Leiopython albertisii)

Captive Care

Temperatures
The temperature should be around 30-34°C at day time and about 20-22°C at night. At these temperatures none of my Northern White-Lipped Pythons has had any problems with respiration infections! White-Lipped Pythons actually do not bask much but, will look for darker and cooler places over the day where they can shelter. In their natural habitat they will shelter under fallen down leaves.

Humidity
The humidity should be around 70-85% constantly. This python is very sensitive to wet conditions or to low humidity. The cage should be misted at least once a day to keep humidity up. But you shouldn't mist the python. You can also provide damp moss where the python can lay down on.

Photoperiod
Should be 12 hours a day over the year.

Behavior
Wild caught species are know for biting and from my own experience I know that this is true. But there are some horror stories told about this beautiful python being bad tempered. I'd rather take some of these pythons than a pit bull. All the White-Lipped Pythons I've seen and owned yet were very alert snakes and very fast, too. CB's as well as WC specimen will hiss and try to bite when picked up out of the cage. They calm down after they are outside the cage being handled. Some people say that their CB's get quite tame with a frequent handling schedule. White-Lipped Pythons sometimes show a behavior that is uncommon to most other python species. Coming near to them they start to hiss without moving. It's a short repeated short hiss like *sss* *sss* *sss*. I noticed my first White-Lipped Python did this and all the other I have had and still have to do this but actually I didn't care about it because it seemed normal to me.
Other Northern White-Lipped Python owners report the same experience and describe it as follows:

[...] frequently hisses for no obvious reason. This hissing behavior I had never heard of [...] and it was something that I always interpreted as aggression. I have noticed a very distinct difference between the casual hiss(almost like short exhales) and the aggressive hiss (long, drawn out and loud), but would have never known the difference because this is something I've never read about in any book. [...]

Dave Barker describes it like this :
"White-Lipped Pythons "talk" using a series of small hisses. It's done on purpose. It's usually a friendly thing. Ringed pythons and reticulated pythons also do this, but WLPs are the most "vocal" snake I've ever dealt with." ( comment from Dave Barker ). In my experience White-Lipped Pythons love to climb and often look for higher places for basking or shelter. For that reason you should make sure to protect the animal from getting burned by light bulbs or infrared heaters! My male White-Lipped Pythons often wraps around a cage I built to protect the animals from getting burned be the bulb and crashes right into the water bowl *splash* when loosening the coils. This happens almost every night. I have yet not seen any serious wounds but some damaged scales. Other WLP keepers report the same, though. They also love to get under the water bowl and spill all the water into the enclosure or "trash" the inventory.

Breeding

Sex ditermination
To be sure, there is only probing.

Sexual activity
Barker and Barker (1994) report the White-Lipped Python to be sexual inactive until the age of 5-8 years in captivity. They seem to mature at the age of 4 years. Most often it takes a couple of years until they first breed, so I guess Barker and Barker are right!

Time of mating
In the northern hemisphere usually from December to February; mine mated in January and April in Germany.

Mating behavior
There were no male-male combat reported by Ross & Marzec but, they reported that putting together two males of different size the bigger one has dominated the smaller one. At last the smaller male died because of dehydration because the bigger once threatened him so that he didn't leave the hide box for drinking. I haven't seen any combat, too. I've seen the female whipping her tail and and opening her cloaca when ready to mate. J. Walls ("The living pythons") mentioned that if caged together they would fight viciously and he also says cannibalism was reported. By now, I actually never heard this from other breeders nor did I experience this yet. The male will stimulate the female with his spurs.

Gravity
Ross & Marzec noticed signs of gravity in March and April. The python refused to feed. The period of gravity is ( depending on the temperature ) 56 (Tarbet ,1983) to 60 days. My female layed eggs after 64 and 71 days.

Clutch size
The clutch size varies from 7 to 15 Eggs. Tarbet (1983) reported a clutch size of 13 Eggs at the Oklahoma City Zoo. My female one layed 10 eggs and the second time 13 eggs. Other breeder also report 10 - 13 eggs.

Incubation
Tarbet (1983) incubated with moist Vemeculite (1:1) at 31°C (+- 2°C). Removing the eggs from the breeding female can be a challenge because the female is very aggressive an will strike with her mouth wide open. Ross & Marzec report that at the IHR a female destroyed her clutch when trying to remove the eggs. I have incubated the eggs in damp perlite, keeping the humidity at about 90-100% and at a temperature range from 30.5 to 32.5°C (86-90F). The neonates hatched after 68/ 66 (the first) to 70/69 (the last) days after egg disposal.

Neonates
will follow soon!

Raising juveniles
Actually I kept all neaonates at 32-28°C over the day and 24-20°C at night. They are healthy and quite active at night. They are very alert and will even strike at the water drops when being sprayed. Young White-Lipped Pythons are quite aborial and will feed on fuzzy mice. I had two animals refused feeding on normal pinkies, so I had to find something more interesting. Movement stimulates the neonate's feeding response and as baby mice don't run around that much I was looking for something of that size but more active. I found african dwarf mice and everything worked well. Young White-Lipped Pythons are often looking for places to hide, such as under the water bowl or something equal. I've seen them dig a tunnel system in the substrate where they move in.