Blood or Short Tailed?

What's the difference and how can you tell?

My guy was sold as a Sumatran Blood. But his coloring seems so much lighter than other Sumatran Bloods I have seen.

The blood pictured IS a Sumatran Red Blood. If you look under the eye, your snake will be lacking 3 scales that touch the eye, Borneo Short Tails and Sumatran Short Tails both have the extra row of subocular scalation, red bloods do not.

Pic#1 Red Blood Head shot


Pic#2 Borneo Short Tail Heat shot


You can clearly see the extra row of scales under the eye of the borneo.

Thanks for the excellent examples. I will give him a close look tomorrow. And, thanks for the lesson. The information is very useful. I can use it to impress friends and family!

I thought the short tailed thing was just a marketing ploy to sell the borneos. Is there an actual physical difference?

Yes Wes, their is. Accual scale count on each species is different and which is why they are now all classified as different species. All 3 species used be classified under the same genus python curtus sp. That was fixed a few years back when they realized they were all different.

Cool and thanks for the info. I've always liked bloods but haven't had any in a long time.

Sam,
you obviously know much more about these animals than I do. Would you be willing to share more of what you know? I would be extremely grateful for the education.

See, I didn't know that there are three species. What is the natural history of the three species? Are there any significant differences between them that would be applicable to captive care and breeding? Is there extensive hybridization? If so, should we be concerned? What are the common husbandry failings for people keeping these snakes? Should more people be breeding them, or is the market saturated?

I think that anything you can share would be a very valuable contribution to this forum. I want to know and understand these snakes that are among my favorites. Thank you.

Blood and Short Tailed Pythons are one of the biggest misrepresented animals on the market today. If you would like more info on bloods and stp's you can check out MY forum that is Blood and STP specific as well as some other topics.

I think most of your questions can be answered there and if not, I can answer them for you.

I am not sure if listing my forum is breaking the TOS, I hope not, and I hope you come over and do some reading, you will be very happy that you did.

The Blood Bank

Thanks for the referral. I shall check it out.

I did go to your site last night, did some reading, and bookmarked it so I can go back. There is some good information there. I got many of my questions answered.