New Rock pics!!!!

Here are some pics of my rocks I took only moments ago...only wish had someone her to take of pics of them while I am holding them. My favorite(female 3) is doing awesome. I had her out with me for like 10/15 minutes today and she was cool as could be. Let me move my hands around, walk around, touch her nose ect. Not only is she the tamest...she is a pig!!! She eats three times as much as the other girls(good combo in my opinion). Without further adue...... Dan M.

Alright the last four pics were the three females from Ben Siegel(first two are of my favorite, who looks terrible in the pics for some reason, while the others look decent. Anyways anyone know alot about Rock locality want to tell me if this other female here might be a southern or something??? Her head is small and her pattern crazy, and she is smaller than the other girls while eating as well or better than the others. Anyway here are two of her and one of the normal male. I have a screaming patternless male on hold at Prehistoric who will be unveiled in August!!!! Take care, Dan M.

Nice looking Afrocks! I have a tame 5 footer (named "Stone") who is just amazing. Theses are my fav pythons and one of my fav snakes in my collection. I have a 6 panel room divider in my living room that he will hang on top of for hours. Also got him a kiddie pool that he will soak/swim in and never wants to come out. In the winter, I put him in the bath tub for a few hours a week (during cleanings and such).
The only prob I have with mine is he will not take f/t rats anymore....only wants live. He used to take the f/t but now refuses. I have to get him back on them, hes taking med/large rats now and hate feeding live, screaming rats, and I won't deal with live rabbits in the near future.
Your Afrocks are all P. sebae (common or Northern, the big guys). P.s.natalensis are a much darker snake with a faded arrow pattern on their heads, as opposed to the lighter colors and complete, prominent arrow shape on the heads of P. sebae. I've been looking for P.natalensis with no luck. Bob Clark has them on his list but he told me he will not have them available this year.
I saw (and considered) the paternless guy at Prehistoric, he is real nice.
Some advice: I would give them a bigger water bowl, they like to soak. Handle them often!
I hope you have a lot of room to house all those Afrocks. I keep mine in a 40G breeder tank with a litter pan for a water bowl, and hes in there often. He'll be bumped up to a 75G tank in the next few weeks then a custom encloser when he reaches the 8-10' mark (wanna go 8'L x 3'W x 3-4'H).
Here is a link with some cool Afrock pix: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/tezmitch/african.htm
I'll post some pix of mine soon.
Good luck with them!

Thanks for the compliments! They will all tame down on there own in time. I firmly believe, as I have said many times before that the less you handle rocks the sooner they tame. These are not my first rocks by any means. I have owned adults in the past. They are an animal that likes to make descisions for themselves, and are much calmer if you let them come out as opposed to take them out. On the subject of a larger water dish, I dont like to give them one large enough to soak in because they tend to do it all the time, which is not natural for this species. An occasional soak is fine, but in the wild these are often found in drier areas, not quite so much humidity. If you notice, no matter what the humidity, a healthy rock will normally have a full shed(or close to it). Have you tried f/k for yours as opposed to live. Then maybe after he gets used to that he will make the next step to frozen. Mine all eat live currently, and when the time comes will be switched over to f/k, but never f/t, I hate it(too time consuming IMO). Also why not rabbits?? Once he gets to adult size a rabbit is a much better meal for him than rats, and most likely more cost effective as well. Here are some pics of my other rocks I had once upon a time(two of one and one of the other...as you can see mine was a big fan of bunnies, look at the hug he was giving him lol). Take care, and good luck with yours, Dan M.

Your welcome! The big guys are nice as well. What happened to them?
In Africa, Rock Pythons are often found in and around water, especially adults. It is still a more dry climate but they do enjoy water. I don't think they need it, but do enjoy being in water. In my opinion, it is natural for them.
I'm going to try the f/k rat for his next feeding (after the shed is done), and hopefully that will get him into eating dead. I DO want to feed rabbits, and prefer to when the time is right, just not live ones.
Be well....

....And as far as handling them, I guess I got lucky with with mine, he was tame from the day I got him. Well, I got him as a dehydrated, starving hatchling shoved into a little deli cup at a reptile show. I think hes knows I gave him a second chance and is nice. Sometimes he'll hiss just a little bit when I take him out but thats as far as it goes. Getting him to go back in is another issue, he hates it!
Back to the water thing, you should try a larger water bowl for one of them and see what happens, or put them in a room temp bath, they really should like it a lot, swim and just rest. Mine doesn't even try to get out of the tub or the kiddie pool.

On the subject of what happened to my adult Rocks... I sold them last November when I sold my collection to David @ HEH. They are doing quite well and I was actually going to buy one of the males back from him, but I kind of decided to pass, and he has decided he wants to keep him anyways. He sends me pics about every 2 months or so of all those that I sold to him, and they are all great animals whom I miss terribly. You become so attatched to snakes that have such great personalities and I had put together a collection of absolutely awesome snakes. Thats why I have never gotten into ball pythons, the lack of individual personality kills me! David has told me several times how much he loves my bigger rock male I sold him (the one eating the rabbits in the pics). He said he and his wife both enjoy when he is out and about. I hate talking about them lol, makes me miss them, my water pythons, my retics, and my borneos terribly.

I have actually never had a rock take a serious shot at me. I have had some huff, and some bluff, but never any that really wanted to put me down. If you want to see a rock python get nasty, take them outside and put them on open ground lol. Rocks get a bad rep much in the way retics and bloods used to. People remember the days of imported adults and such, and of course an animal that is wild is going to take things personally for a bit, but even WC adults can calm down if you are willing to spend the time. I absolutely love Rock Pythons (probably my favorite species) and look forward to producing captive bred babies and hopefully helping to change the scope of them in the Herp world. Good luck with yours!!!! Dan M.

Alright.... I couldn't wait to show off the Patternless male that I am having shipped here in the beginning of August. Patrick at Prehistoric Pets was nice enough to let me use this photo until he is here and I can take my own. Hope you like him as much as I do already!!!! Take care, Dan M.

That is a real good looking paternless/broad band. How big is she? About 5'? I spoke to Prehistoric about a twin stripe, but will wait on it for now. I want to continue working with my current Afrock and thin the herd of Ratsnakes that I have first, and maybe look into pairing my Rock next year.
I agree, I think Rocks get a bad rap because of a lot of wild caughts years ago and people unwilling to work with them and understand them. They are very misunderstood. They are my fav pythons as well. More attention needs to be put into them, as well as studies. With all the morphs of Burms out there, along with there sluggish ways, people just go for them as opposed to a Afrock. Afrocks are much more active then a Burm, and I'm sure you know that handling a 10' Burm is "easier" than a 10' foot Rock who wants to explore and move (at least thats what I noticed in my experiance with both snakes at that size). A friend of mine had a 10' Rock that was a handful to control for the first few minutes. Years ago I handled a 8' wild caught Rock that was absolutley psycho! It snapped once at me (missed) than decided to take the largest crap on my that I ever experianced. Nasty! Yea, that got me to put her down, not the snapping lol.
A friend of mine works with a lot of Amazon Tree Boas, and he gets those handleable, and if they can be tame, I think almost any snake can be, and a Afrock would be much easier than a tree boa.
I have had my Afrock outside on the grass and he loves it. And yea, he would hiss a bit when I pick him up but thats all.
BTW, what method do you use to pre-kill rats/rabbits?
How big are your old Rocks that you sold now? Its cool to be able to see their progress even though you don't own them. I do the same for someone who sold me a Yellow Ratsnake that she was attached to. I know what you mean about being attached to a snake. I could never get rid of my male Everglades Ratsnake that I have had for close to 10 years. I have a cali kingsnake as well that is not paired up (and don't plan on it anytime soon), a mad crapper when handled and isn't the friendliest snake but she has great peronality in her cage and once shes done making her mess when handled. I couldn't imagine not having her.
What an addiction!

The male above is about 6 feet or so. He will be brought up to size and is already at a decent age, so I am hoping to get him breeding by december/january when the rock season is in full swing. As far as killing rats/rabbits, I just hit the rats on something, and he always took his rabbits live. There are a select few species that I will allow to have live food and rocks are one of them. My rocks have never ever missed a strike and always get it by the face and coil hard, so I have never had a bite from a food animal or anything. With rabbits I often hold the back legs while the snake is killing it if I have any concern that the rabbits legs are able to freely move about.

If it makes you feel any better I had a 12/13 foot female rock wipe her all down my shoulder chest and leg one day while crapping. It was great lol. I didnt realize she was going when I picked her up and boy did I regret it! Still love her to death though.

As far as my other rocks(former) go I am not sure on exact size, but I think one is 9' and the other 10-12 I would assume(he was 10 feet when I had him). Take care, Dan M.