A Children's python should arrive with a paper trail that proves where it came from and shows how it has actually been living. This is a small, generally gentle Australian python, often chosen as a first snake, and exactly because it is small and sometimes shy, its recent feeding history matters more than a seller's verbal reassurance. Ask for the records before or at handover, and check them while you can still ask questions.
Proof of origin, identity, and sale
At minimum, get a receipt or transfer note with the seller's name and contact details, the date of transfer, and the snake identified clearly — species, sex if known, and age or hatch information as the seller supplied it. Captive-bred origin should be stated in writing. Where local rules require a licence or permit to keep this species, the relevant paperwork and any transfer steps for your area belong in the same bundle; check what your region requires rather than assuming the seller has handled it.
If the snake has any distinguishing pattern features, note or photograph them at handover. Children's pythons are subtly patterned, and a clear photo set taken on day one helps identify your individual animal later, especially if it ever escapes or needs veterinary care.
Feeding and shedding records to request
Ask for a feeding log covering at least the recent weeks: dates offered, prey type and size, whether the item was taken, and how quickly. A Children's python that has been eating reliably on one prey size should not need coaxing experiments in its first week, and a record of refusals is equally valuable — it tells you whether a quiet first fortnight is normal for this snake or new.
Request shed dates and notes on whether sheds came away complete, plus the temperatures and enclosure size the snake was kept in. A sudden change in warmth or surroundings explains many first-week refusals, and matching the previous setup at first, then adjusting gradually, is far easier when the previous keeper's conditions are written down.
Health and breeding background worth having
Ask directly about vet visits, parasite checks or treatments, any history of respiratory signs, retained shed, or mites, and get any vet paperwork that exists rather than a summary. If nothing exists, write down that the seller reported no known issues, with the date — an honest blank is better than a gap you discover later.
Where the seller knows them, parent details and lineage notes are worth keeping, particularly for a species with locality variation in its native range. They may never affect daily care, but they cannot be reconstructed once the connection to the breeder is lost.
During the first month, keep your own entries in the same format as the seller's log — same prey description, same shed wording, dates in the same order. Matching formats make the handover point visible at a glance, so if feeding slows you can see whether the change began with the move, a shed, or a temperature difference. Photograph the setup as the seller described it and as you have arranged it, and file both pictures with the log. That small discipline in the first weeks protects you from guesswork for the whole of the snake's life.
Once home, file the receipt, feeding log, shed notes, and photos together and keep adding your own entries from the first feed onward, using KinsLe and Pet Passport to hold your Children's python's origin papers and growing record as one packet that follows the snake.