Will and Mary Leary came with some snakes and a computer with *lots* of pictures. We were a small group and we crowded 'round to see and hear everything.
Jungle Carpet pythons are originally from Australia. They have not been imported to the USA since the 1970s, so the carpet pythons here are bred here. Except for Irian Jaya pythons - they're from Papua New Guinea.
Jungle Carpet pythons can reach 6 to 9 feet in length as adults. They have good temperaments and make good pets. Diamond pythons are from a cooler (more southern) part of Australia, and are able to withstand cooler temps. Some varieties of Carpet pythons will do ritual combat, wrestling like rattlers for dominance in the mating game.
The native ranges of these snakes often overlap, and DNA testing shows there's not much difference between Jungle and Carpet pythons.
Discussion touched on Diamond Python Syndrome which is characterized by URI, bad muscle tone, fragile bones. The affected snake goes into a downward spiral and there's not much can be done. Perhaps the reason for this is that our stock is often highly inbred; our original stock was very small and now everybody's related. Unofrtunately, there's no new blood coming, as export/import is prohibitted.
Carpet python babies are often rather dull in color and get brighter as they age, unlike many varieties of snake.
The Bredli is a desert species. The others are from more jungle-like areas.
Will and Mary keep their snakes in very simple cages: hide box, water bowl, and a branch for these snakes are semi-arboreal.
During the computer slide show there were pictures of eggs, so there arose a long discussion on incubation. Will and Mary are strongly for Maternal Incubation. These snakes will coil around their eggs and are able to twitch their bodies and raise the temperature within the coil by as much as 10 degrees F. They will tuck their heads inside the coil where the eggs are and breathe, thus raising the humidity for the eggs. The mother will bask and return to her eggs when all toasty warm. She'll even move the eggs with her coil.
But Will discovered that one does *not* disturb the mother and eggs once she gets settled, for that can disrupt the pattern. He wanted pictures so he lifted the lid of the nest box. She freaked and never left her eggs again. :(
Before this she had been willing to eat while incubating the eggs. She wrapped the rat and then wrapped around the clutch, scenting the eggs. This will often make for better feeders. When she twitched, the whole clutch would twitch.
Will notes that the eggs are resistant to slugs going bad, but a rotting embryo is different. It can poison the whole lot.
When the mother is incubating the eggs, you should keep the enclosure at the lower end of the temp range so she can raise and lower the temps to her liking. Lower temps often lead to larger babies, though longer incubation.
The snakes they brought were beautiful and pictures do not begin to show the lovely patterns and colors. The big black and yellow adult looked like velvet - not shiney at all. I wanted to touch because that was so unusual, and he felt smooth, but not slick.
Many thanks to Will and Mary Leary for this delightful evening. We very much enjoyed the pictures, conversation, and shared knowledge!
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Neonate Jungle Carpet Python |
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Jaguar Carpet Python |
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Irian jaya |
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Yearling Jungle Carpet Python - note the high color! |
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Adult male Jungle Carpet Python - the colors were golden yellow and matte black |