Hello From CO

I have been out of the reptile hobby/ business for a while and it is amazing how much it has changed. I wish there was a site like this back when I was breeding. In the early 90s I had about 100 snakes and 60 lizards in my breeding colony. I sold mostly to wholesalers and pet stores but, for a while both USPS and UPS stopped shipping live reptiles and killed my ability to make sales. I ended up selling off most of the collection and shutting down the rescue that I funded with some of the profits. It is nice to see an easy way for breeders to sell their offspring. I have to wonder if this is also part of why there are so many new morphs of just about everything! I need to update my knowledge base too, like when did Corns stop being Elephae and start being Pantherophis? I will try to be helpful when I can and get back up to speed. Right now I have some carpet pythons, rosy boas and some miscellaneous stuff that I have just for pets. Most have been acquisitions of opportunity and there is no real plan to get back to breeding, although the rosies are old enough. I just missed my collection and as I am retiring in a few years it seemed like time to jump back in.

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Welcome back into it. A lot of people here are very knowledgable and will help you regain your bearings.

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So happy that the passion for reptiles didn’t die, so happy that you are getting back into the swing of things. :wink: <3

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Hi! Glad to see you

Welcome! My knowledge is rather limited but i have been asking questions and absorbing answers like a sponge. Im about to start breeding carpets (read as, in a few years i hope to breed even a single clutch haha) i love the look of em, i could not get into balls, too chonky for me :slight_smile: . Carpets seem to be starting to work their moph count and variety up though. Will be cool to see where it goes!

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I have 3 carpets, all purchased cheap from those who could not care for them. I have a female Caramel Jaguar, a male Pure Darwin Albino and an unsexed Jungle. The jag was very small when I got her but the owner was still scared of her because she was “mean” and tried to bite him. it is the calmest snake in the world now. The Albino, the one I paid the most for was an extra from a potential breeder. He really just wanted a good home for him and when he saw my set-up sold to me cheap and the jungle bites at everything, it has bitten me at least a dozen times and I have never had so much trouble calming down a snake. It is about 3.5 feet so the bites are getting a little painful which is why the last owner gave it up. I love the size and shape of carpets, especially their heads. and I love the patterns. Even a normal one is pretty. I will add a pic or two of my jag. When I got her she was eating pinky mice and I am about to feed her a small adult rat on Saturday. They grow up so fast! I am a terrible photographer

BTW

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Ive got 2 albinos (50% darwin 37.5%carpet 12.5% papuan) that ill be recieving in about 3 weeks after my business trip, i have a sunglow carpet of unknown subspecies mix named lucina and a axanthic het granite papuan named mr. Noodle (he was so friendly i decided to name him after elmos friend from elmos world hahaha) im not a great photo taker either haha. The first 2 pictures are used with permission of the breeder i purchased from, the later 2 pictures are my own haha.! (My tenant was holding lucina in the last picture, which is why the tattoo haha)

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As for the jungle thats a biter, from what ive seen, tags are defensive bites and grab and wrap is feed response. Usually its able to be significantly lessened with training geares towards whether it is poorly socialized and afraid, or if it thinks your hand is food. Have you only had them for a little while, or are they just being stubborn because they have been untrained for so long?

no very nervous snake. strikes at everything. tags but does not hold on. if I mist the cage it strikes at the water. never really looks at rest. every time I see it it is in strike pose . Carpets usually out grow the nervousness and nippiness, this one has anxiety issues. need snake xanex. I will get it to calm down, I probably just need to spend even more time. It does settle down once picked up but then it will bite for no reason. Some snakes, like some people, are just jerks!

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Dunno about jerks haha, maybe mental and thinks everything is out to get it, but i dont think snakes can be jerks haha. Hopefully one day it doesnt think the worlds out to get it. By chance have you considered the tank could possibly be too large? Perhaps it feels constantly unsecure. If thats the case perhaps a background for the siding, or more hides may help it feel more secure allowing it to calm down after handling and over time so that its not always in “life or death” stress levels :slight_smile: i dont know your setup, so dont know if these are things you have already considered, but just some friendly advice!

good question but the cage is not too big. It is actually in one side of a divided 55 gallon. the divider is wood so it can’t see the other snake. it has climbing sticks . there is no hide. I have put several in there but it never used any of them. It is also in a room at the back of the house with no traffic and I usually pull the desk chair in front of its tank too just for more isolation I tried a smaller cage. didn’t help and it could not move around much. I think it just needs to get a bit bigger to feel safe. It is still pretty small. The Jag was just as bad at first and she calmed down in less than a week with regular handling. I used to have an African rock python named Ogre that was mean his whole life. It seemed to just be his nature. anyway thanks for the conversation, haven’t had people to talk snakes with for a while now.

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No problem at all, i wish you good luck with getting back into the hobby! Sounds like you are doing everything you can to work with the snakes you have. Im sure they will come around haha.

By the way beautiful snakes you got there

More pics, the setup with the divided 55, ( that is a Huachita Map turtle in the little tank underneath) and the close ups of the Darwin albino and the jungle (you can see it is in strike pose)

thanks much! Cant wait to see them grow and figure out what i can add to the carpet python community :slight_smile: hopefully i can produce something worth while and give back to the community thats been helping me out.

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