This beautiful snake is an individual of a species commonly known as a BLOOD PYTHON due to the amazing red / orange colours which they can have as adults.  Babies like this one, which hatched in August 2008, are never as brightly coloured as their parents but as they grow their colours develop and become richer and more reddish overall!  This individual already had a really rich orangey base colour and should prove to be an especially beautiful colour once it is an adult!

This particular species of blood python originates from the Asian countries of Sumatra, Malaysia and Thailand, although like all of my animals this one was bred in captivity and started its life hatching from an egg in Southampton!  I will update the page to show how its colours change after it sheds its skin for the first time (usually at about 3-4 months of age which is unusually late compared to most snakes) and also as it continues to grow in the future...