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World's Biggest Burmese Python is 18ft and Lives in a Three-Bed House in Tewkesbury UK

Marcus Hobbs put out an appeal on Facebook asking for farmers to donate rabbits going to waste as food for Hexxie who also eats stillborn deer, calves, goats and pigs

Daily Mirror UK, 11 NOV 2019.





Marcus Hobbs with partner Amy Leach, Nigel Sligh and Hexxie (Image: Gloucestershire Live / SWNS)


A dad who bought an eight inch snake as a pet has seen it grow into the world's biggest ever Burmese python - measuring more than 18 feet.

Marcus Hobbs, 31, still keeps Hexxie in his three-bed semi house in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, despite her being able to squeeze a human to death in minutes and swallowing them whole.

But IT worker Marcus is confident Hexxie will never strike - although he doesn't handle her when the his sons, aged four and one, are nearby.

He bought Hexxie from a pet shop eight years ago - and watched her become a 110kg (17 stone) whopper which he feeds with rabbits, stillborn deer, calves, goats and pigs supplied by local farmers.

Looking after Hexxie is expensive because she eats so much and she produces a chalky poo once a month - large enough to fill a bin bag.




Marcus Hobbs houses the 18-foot snake in a vivarium (Image: Gloucestershire Live / SWNS)






"You would have to push your hand back into her mouth to unhook her teeth. If you pulled you would be pulling her teeth further into your skin."

Marcus said Hexxie is laid back because she has grown used to being touched by humans over the years.

He said: "I handled her every day and a lot of people will not do that.

"You can’t have a snake that big that’s trying to bite you because it would mean you would not be able to go near her. Especially as she’s in a confined space.

"You have to be regimented because the only way to stop her biting you is handle her every day when she is young until she gets used to it."

Marcus needs to enlist the help of other people if he needs to move Hexxie whole but added that he knows how to peel her off, tail first if she starts to coil around him.

He cannot say for certain he’d have the strength to do so but explains that she would let out a loud hissing noise followed by a foul smell as a warning to leave well alone if she was stressed or unhappy.




Marcus Hobbs with partner Amy Leach, sons Benjamin, four and one-year-old Joseph (Image: Gloucestershire Live / SWNS)


He added: "I would not let it get to that stage."

Under pet laws there is no requirement for a licence to keep non-poisonous snakes and Marcus is sceptical of tales of much smaller Burmese Pythons escaping or killing.

A ten-foot one has been blamed for the death of a zoo keeper in Caracas, Venezuela previously.

Marcus said: "A license would cost a lot of money and would not make any difference to people who are stupid or do not have any common sense.

"You couldn’t lose Hexxie. If I opened that tank door I don’t think she would even come out. She’s happy there, that’s her place."

Marcus paid £2,000 for the vivarium, £30 for each of the bulbs and the heating has to be constantly on full blast.

There’s also vet bills to consider and the stress of where to get food from.




A Burmese Python's mouth is full of of hundreds of pin shaped teeth like fish hooks (Image: Getty Images)


Marcus caused a stir when he put an appeal asking for farmers to donate any rabbits going to waste as food for Hexxie who can eat at least half a dozen at one sitting.

Marcus said: "Usually I have lab rabbits which are hard to get hold off and expensive but I know farmers shoot them as pests and a lot of times they get thrown away.

"People say they can’t believe I would ask such a thing but I wonder how many of them have cats or dogs. You don’t feed them carrots and broccoli, do you?

"I have never killed an animal and would never want to, but these things I have, they eat animals."

A local pet shop owner now puts him touch with farmers who can help.
Marcus had his first snake for his 13th birthday and believes it's down to watching Steve Irwin on the television.




The pythons eat stillborn deer, calves, goats and pigs (Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)


He said: “My family have always been into wildlife so I was always destined to get some sort of animal.

“But it’s snakes that just fascinate me. I can watch them all day long."

Marcus met partner Amy, 31, while they both worked at a hotel in Cheltenham.

They eventually hooked up at a leaving do - and she quickly realised that it would be a case of "love me love my serpent".

She said: “I knew before we got together. I was well aware they were part of his life...whether I liked it or not.”

Animal-lover Amy added that she was okay with reptiles, but said: "I’m more your fluffy, cute, type of animal person.”

Now the she understands her Marcus' emotional attachment to his slithering pets her main issued is how much household space they take up.

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