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Morelia viridis is now one of the most popular and sought-after cage animals in the world. Not least because the green tree python is always clearly visible in its cage on the branches, but because its beautiful appearance even amazes and lingers people who otherwise have an aversion to snakes.
Thanks to the pioneers of the last millennium, Karl-Heinz-Switak and Trooper Walsh, who have dedicated themselves to the observation, keeping and reproduction of this small python species, Morelia viridis has become a more or less easy to get animal in captivity.
However, keeping these animals is anything but a sure-fire success and cannot be compared with keeping Python regius, Boa constrictor or other well-known snake species, which are recommended to beginners, for example.
On our website we will only go into extracts on the attitude of Morelia viridis and only on our attitude in particular. There is plenty of literature on the subject of posture and we have linked it below.
Book recommendation
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2. Grüner Baumpython - Morelia viridis von Marcel Hoffmann und Markus Motz
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3. Morelia viridis - Das Kompendium von Greg Maxwell
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4. Adventures in Green Python Country von Karl - Heinz - Switak
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Alle hier verlinkten Bücher befinden sich in unserem Bücherregal und sind ausnahmslos zu empfehlen, wobei die Nummer 1 noch immer das Buch von Julander und Phillip ist.
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Female
Blueline OC - Female
Male
Female
General information to Morelia viridis
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Morelia viridis is a small and slender giant snake compared to other python species. As a rule, it will not be taller than 160cm and not heavier than 1.5kg. There are exceptions to body length and mass, but they do not correspond to the average.
With good care, 25 years of age and more are no problem for this snake.
It lives arboricolous and nocturnal in the rainforests of West Papua (1), Papua New Guinea (2) and on the Cape York Peninsula in Australia (3). Additional distribution areas are islands of the Moluccas such as the Aru Islands (4) and Kofiau (5) and the Biak archipelago (6) in the north of West Papua.
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Morelia viridis is native to primary rainforests. There it inhabits, from the lowlands to the mountain rainforests, up to almost 1500m above sea level, the dense forests with trees over 25m high.
Fully grown specimens rest for the entire day in the canopy of the rainforests at heights of up to 30m. At dusk they climb this stretch to just above the ground in order to hunt in a waiting position. After prey has been made or at the end of the night, Morelia viridis climbs back into the canopy to rest or digest throughout the day.
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Although the main concern of our website is to present our animals to you and thus give you a little insight, we would still like to give you a brief outline of how this beautiful and fascinating python is kept.
Basically interested people or potential buyers who have never had contact with Morelia viridis can directly check whether keeping these animals is an option for them and "old hands" in the Morelia viridis "buisness" can see whether they are doing it differently or even similar to almost identical.
We don't go into breeding in particular here. In the projects presented on our website and on social media, you can read short reports on this matter that we have written.
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So let's get into it.
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Welcome to the jungle
Crocodylus porosus - Saltwater crocodile... stay away
Welcome to the jungle
The Cage
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We keep all of our green pythons, with the exception of neonates and newcomers in quarantine, in PVC cages. PVC cages offer a number of advantages over glass and wooden cages.
Compared to glass, it is not least the significantly better insulation and the given privacy protection from the side without having to glue in additional cork, foil or a side wall. Due to the better insulation, you therefore need less power to get the cage to the required temperature, which on the one hand has the advantage of saving electricity costs, but above all, what is much more important, you can keep the humidity in the cage better with less heat output.
Wood has a very good insulation value, similar to foamed plastic, but still has to be sealed so that the cage does not gradually start to mold due to the high humidity.
We recommend professionally manufactured PVC cages, which have been slot together by cold welding.
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All of our cages are heated by so-called heat panels. These are plates that have a heating element built into the interior and are usually mounted on the ceiling and controlled by a thermostat. The panel takes up about 1/3 of the ceiling area with us.
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For the lighting, we use two LED strips with 6500K and 4500K color temperature per cage. This brings out the colors of the animals particularly well.
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We have installed cork panels as rear walls in all cages except the quarantine cages. This not only dims the light in the cage and looks more appealing, but also offers plants in the cage the opportunity to grow and also contributes a little to the climate in the terrarium.
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Earth, coconut litter or humus can be used as substrate, or a mixture of all of these. We have used soil with woodlice, springtails and worms for many years. After a fatal accident with a female of ours, however, we abandoned it and have been using newspapers or puppy pads ever since. It is not particularly visually appealing, but, to be honest, it serves its purpose and is easy to change. I would like to mention one disadvantage of earth here. Now that I see on newspapers and puppy pads how much excretions our green pythons settle in a matter of days, I can imagine that even with woodlice, springtails and worms, the substrate was very germ-rich.
Of course, that is also the case in nature and Green Tree Pythons also hunt close to the ground, but their resting position in the natural habitat is at least 5m-15m and more above the forest floor and thus away from damp earth. This is not the case in the cage.
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Of course, we have provided real branches for the animals in all cages. The branches grow with the animals and should be of different thicknesses. In addition, we have real plants in all cages. These ensure tropical humidity and a rainforest look in the terrariums.
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Each cage has a large water bowl on the floor, which also helps to keep the humidity higher by constant evaporation. In addition, we offer drinking vessels in the form of 250ml bowls at the height they are perched in every cage. The animals also consume water when they have not just been sprayed.
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Temperature, humidity and seasonality
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Morelia viridis comes from the tropical rainforests of West Papua, Papua New Guinea and Far North Queensland / Australia. The temperatures are very stable for most of the year in the range of 24°C to 30°C during the day and 29°C to 20°C at night. Of course there are peaks that migrate up and down. In winter at night there are sometimes temperatures close to freezing point on the Cape York Peninsula for the Iron Range population. Of course, these extremes are very rare and never last long, but they show how robust healthy animals in our care can be. The local forms around Wamena also often struggle with adverse conditions in the mountains during the monsoon season. Nevertheless, Morelia viridis is not yet extinct despite the climatic conditions in the habitat.
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We keep the daytime temperatures of our animals relatively constant throughout the year. From 7:00 a.m. in the morning, when the cage lighting is switched on, till to 7:00 p.m. in the evening, we have temperatures between 28°C to 29.5°C in all cages. Our thermostats allow us to set a natural fluctuation over the day. So the warmest time of the day is around noon. Only the night temperatures vary over the year.
In summer, the rainy season, the night temperatures drop to a maximum of 26°C. This is also due to the relatively warm outside temperatures that we have here in summer. The dry season in our cages begins in mid-September. The night temperatures go down to 20°C. Not least to cycle male and female green pythons for the start of the mating season.
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Today there are specific opinions in misting green pythons.
Some owners and breeders are of the opinion that spraying is unnecessary and can also be dangerous. They are alluding to upper respiratory infections.
The others pointing out that spraying several times a day is an absolute MUST for rainforest animals.
Of course, we don't want to tell anyone how to keep their animals, but we would like to point out the following:
Morelia viridis is an inhabitant of the rainforests and not of the deserts. For this python rain is something completely natural and nothing that would fundamentally harm it physically. If you spray the animals with warm water once a day in the morning, in moderate and not in masses, you will not have any problems. Anyone who turns the cage into a swamp, of course, because they spray extensively several times a day, worst of all immediately before the light goes out and the temperature drops, will probably have to struggle with diseases of the upper respiratory tract in the short or long term.
In January 2017 I (Marcus) personally got a picture of the habitat of Morelia viridis in Far North Queensland. It was the rainy season and it was raining like buckets. The animals that we saw were largely spared from the rain, as the dense canopy of the trees hold back a lot, but they got wet anyway. It's always a matter of measure. Every morning from May to September we spray every animal in every cage extensively with warm water. From the end of September to mid-April we only spray every 2-3 days, but then also extensively.
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Feeding behaviour and feed
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To say one thing in advance:
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Green Pythons are always hungry
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You will never find a healthy and well accustomed animal that would not eat as soon as you offer it food. The only exceptions are the following animals:
1. Males in the mating season (often)
2. Females during follicular development (very common)
3. Females after ovulation (almost always)
4. Females during brood care (always)
This is exactly where the big problem lies in keeping the animals. We keepers often humanize (anthropomorphism) the behavior of our animals, so it is not surprising that there are very many overweight green pythons. After all, they always appear to be hungry when you stand in front of their cages and bait for prey with the tip of their tails. We take feeding our animals very seriously and actually follow a strict feeding schedule. Neonates up to 12 months are given a food animal of the appropriate size every 4-5 days. Yearlings get food every 7-10 days and 2-3 year old animals every 14 days. Animals over 3 years of age get food every 21 days and breeding animals get a food item of appropriate size every 21-28 days. Females, which are being prepared for mating, are an exception. From 2 months before the introduction of the male, they receive a smaller animal every 10 days.
Thus, before the mating season and the possible follicle and egg development, a small reserve can be built up, which is later reduced during the natural brood, which in our opinion should always be aimed for. We only feed mice and rats of appropriate size, with no rat larger than 60g.
"Caudal Luring - Schwanzködern" eines fast zweijährigen Tieres
