Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi all! I've been trying to do my research on Carpet Pythons... one snake that I don't have yet but they look interesting. I've read what I can find, but does anyone have experience with these snakes? Any suggestions on which kind to get? (irian jaya... coastal... jungle...?) I want something that's not horribly nippy when young, but super sweet when grown. Are they good eaters? How often do they need to feed? When grown, what is the suggested size for an arboreal tank? What's the speed of these guys? Cornsnake fast or ball python boring? Any help would be great. Many thanks in advance!
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Shelter pets are best! Stop breeding designer mutts!

Carpets are great! They are generally nippy as babies, but will usually calm down. All my adults are handleable without too much concern of bites. They are very reliable feeders, and only stop for breeding season. It is hard to beat a nice jungle carpet python for beauty. Carpets will need a slightly larger cage than a ball python, as they are fairly mobile and active. They are fairly non-demanding and seem like a good python for beginners to experts. They are definitely some of my favorites!
Justin
AAR

gorgeous snake. i got a story though. i just sold mine. waiting for payment to ship it away. but when i got him he was nice as any snake. gorgeous and all. but thewn he got mites. im guessing theyre smarter than people seem to believe, because he bites a lot, but only me. ive had other people hold him no problem, but me, nope. gotta get that red stuff flowing. i will not say anything bad about them, just i feel theyre extremely intelligent, and are able to recognize certain things. it hides when it sees the bucket i used to put her in when she had mites, as well as hates spray bottles, and hisses when even sprayed with water. theyre gorgeous and very interesting though, mine would also always stay on the bottom, even though he had many poles and branches to go to, which isnt like most others ive seen. dont let this talk you out of it though. there was a little while when we were friends, until those damn bugs! but before them she was awsomely tame and handlable.

I'm a king snake/milk snake guy, but I do have two pythons. One is jungle carpet. He's great. They are known to be nippy when young, but I was only ever nipped once and it didn't even break the skin. It was more of a cautionary "leave me alone" bite than anything out of real fear. They are easy to maintain (in my opinion easier than balls). And they eat. And eat. And eat. Mine is always hungry, and in fact, I feed him the leftovers when my other 14 snakes don't eat. Whether it's a pinky mouse or rat, whatever. He cleans up the leftovers. The one big thing to watch for is this voracious feeding response. Make SURE your pet knows that it's you reaching in to handle him and not food. As I said, I've only had one bite and it was a long time ago.
Carpets are very alert and mine comes out of his hide box almost every time I enter the room. He's a little jumpy if I don't support his whole body, but is otherwise as tame as my ball python. I even did a presentation at my fiancee's school yesterday and he was calm even around fifty second graders.
As far as speed, I wouldn't compare to either corn or ball. Think rattlesnake. They hit their prey fast and hard and it even impresses me sometimes.
I would recommend carpets, even for a beginner. The key, in my opinion, is to handle the snake enough so that neither you nor it is afraid of the other.
For some more information to a beginner's questions about carpets, I just made another lengthy reply to someone on the morelia forum. You might find some of that info useful.
Good luck!
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