Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am going to be purchasing a new breeding pair of pythons. I am debating between jungle carpets / irian jayas and a pair of cape york spotted pythons. I owned a JCP in the past and he passed away due to heart failure (he was autopsied and his body donated to the study of the condition) but he was a great display snake with a nasty attitude. I want to get back into JCPs but spots intrigue me also. The question I have is whether or not spots make good display snakes - I would imagine they are similar to ball pythons? My guess is they're pretty inactive when compared to JCPs. Any one care to comment or lend some advice regarding this? I am going to the reptile show in Atlanta next week with intentions of purchasing a pair so please let me know!

I have both, and as far as visibility is concerned, the JCP's are much more interesting to watch. My spotteds tend to spend most of their time being "anti-social" and hiding. It seems the only time I see them is when it's feeding or breeding time...now I know how my wife feels

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"He who would stifle debate rather than engage in it, does so at the expense of his integrity and credibility"

Mike Curtin

Hello,

I have a number of both species for many years and would say you cant go wrong either way.

As far as a display snake JCP's might be considered more visually appealing and in my experience spend more time out of their hides.

However, spotteds are a piece of cake to keep and can be kept in smaller enclosures. Plus, they are just really cool little pythons. I will always have them around.

Probably haven't helped you much, but let me know if you have any additional questions. JCP's are cool as they are mid-sized snakes with enough heft as adults to be impressive, but still pretty easy to keep. Spotted are cool as they exibit cool python behaviors in a small package and are pretty hard overall.

I sold all my JCP's a few years ago, but still have several spotteds. Let me know if you have more questions.

I picked up a 1.2 trio of baby children's pythons, which are very similar and also stay small, just recently and although the male is very feisty (which I hear is normal when they are babies) my gals are very timid and they are very cute little guys. Funny to watch something smaller than your pinkie finger try to take you down though! LOL! Mine are very curious and move around fairly regularly... but I hear many of the species lose their spots as
they age...

I also have a 1.2 trio of adult carpets... I love them too and think they are very visually appealing, spending time in the branches as well as on the floor of their enclosure. However, they are much larger, which equals more food and larger caging, but of course, I still have both! My carpets are all handleable, no bites yet. My little male is puppy-dog tame, and is the one I take out for folks to see... he's growing still though. One of my two gals is pretty big and hefty, but I breed boas... so both of these species are fairly easy to maintain compared to my biggest boa gals ;p

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Steph S.
Boas...
1.1 Albino boas (Loki & Hope)
1.4 07 Het. albino boas (Petty & Lady,Sierra,Madeline,Lola)
0.1 Reverse stripe poss. het albino (Cookie)
0.1 Salmon/hypo (Scarlet)
0.1 Anery poss. het snow (Missy)
1.0 Anery (Reno)
1.0 Probable Super Salmontine(Kahn)
0.1 DH Sunglow (Bonnie)
1.1.1 Hypo het anery
1.0.1 Het. Anery (Guy & ?)
0.3 Normals (Ophelia, Sasha, & Lulu)
1.0 Surinames (Solomon & Surreal(deceased)
1.3 Hog Isles (Mr.Orange & Peaches, Tang, Isis)
0.0.1 Central American (Sassy)
1.0 ATB (Satan... seriously!)
Pythons...
2.1 GTPs (B., Monty & Jewel)
0.0.3 BPs (MJ, Precious, Houdini)
1.2 Carpet Pythons (Jackson, Charlotte, & Cassandra)
0.1 Blood python (Akaia)
Misc.
1.1 Mandarin Ratsnakes (Jack & Jill)
1.0 Boxer/Pitt Mutt (Tyson)