What is the life span of a Burmese Morph?

[Viper]

I have been told that a Burmese, Albino, patternless or other morph will die in capitivity and has a life span of about 4 years??

And that they never reach lengths of 15 plus feet?? This are only speaking of capitive breed Burmese color morphs.

Can anyone shed some light on this?

[kerry is cool]

no they live just as long and grow just as big. you just dont see as many big albinos or patternless or what have you. casue not as many people keep them and they havent been around for as long.

[petsareus]

Burmese pythons can typically hit 15 foot and over 100 pounds... but anyway, to answer your question: Albinos do not have melanin in their bodies, that is the dark pigment in the skin. This typically makes them pretty near sighted and sensitive to changes in lighting, and bright light. They should not be taken out in the sun, as they can burn very easily and the light is very hard on their eyes. Heating for them should be provided with an under tank heat pad, not a bulb.

As far as I have seen, there is no reason why it should affect life span though. Burmese pythons can easily reach 20-30 years old if cared for properly. What does affect life span though is the fact that Burmese pythons have been so badly inbred to maintain the albino gene. This also makes them suseptible to respiratory infections. Overfeeding is also a major factor in Burmese pythons, people tend to feed them way too much because they almost always act like they are hungry - growing too fast can put strain on the internal organs (these snakes can easily hit 7-8 foot in a year if overfed). Plus, bing obese puts extreme demands on the snake's liver, heart and kidneys.

Good web site which will give you great info:

www.reptimania.co.uk/burmese.htm

[Viper]

Thanks Noreen,

I was talking with someone yesterday in Austin, and learned something new. Thanks for the link. Same problem albino people have too.

[Viper]

kerry said:

no they live just as long and grow just as big. you just dont see as many big albinos or patternless or what have you. casue not as many people keep them and they havent been around for as long.

From what I understand, it's the opposite, they have been bred to much. I thought the same thing you did.

[kerryiscool]

yes they have been beard to much by the same person. but the change is only in the look not the size and life spand

[Viper]

I would beg to differ...if you do a bit of research albinism in humans, as well as other abnormalities, is often accompanied by other, less obvious abnormalities.

An obvious case-in-point is that fact that albino burms are known to be more voracious eaters, whereas "patternless" are known to be less ravenous, and do not reach the sizes that regular phase burms do. This would indicate that there are other issues in the snakes DNA and metabolism other than the pigmentation anomalies.

If their appetites are directly related to different pigmentation anomalies, what other aspects might be affected across the board in a particular phase?