Reptile & Amphibian Forums

There is a beautiful baby male in my local herp store. I would love to get him but I know very little about these snakes.

but borederline obsessed with is more my stand on the various scrub pythons. what exactly is it you want to know? a semi-recent reclassification of scrub pythons, aka amethistine pythons, happened in the late 90s, and the official paper was published in 2000. it split Morelia amethistina into...Morelia amethistina - the southern and barneck scrub pythons, both coming from the island of new guinea. more splitting of this species will be done! M. clastolepis - the moluccan (scrub) python, obviously from the moluccas...M. kinghorni - the australian scrub python, you guessed it, from australia, VERY rare in captivity, last i heard there were less than 10 specimens in the usa. M. nauta - the tanimbar (scrub) python, comes from the tanimbar islands, the latin name means sailor. its speculated that the only way these pythons originally got to the island was to sail or raft on vegitation...incidentally these are the smallest and among the rarest of scrub pythons. and finally M. tracyae - the halmahera (scrub) python, hailing from the halmahera islands this cave dwelling snake is one of, possibly the only, python taxa to have yet to be successfully bred in captivity...also named for a legend in the python world, Tracy Barker. and a note, never classified as part of the former amethistina complex, but a close ancestral relative, is Morelia boeleni, i often hear it and refer to it as the "other" scrub!

if youre interested in getting into scrubs id say hold off on the one in the pet shop...you have no concrete way of knowing what species it is, and since scrubs can be hard to correctly identify without decent locality data its a never ending battle. they are also not for begginers, or keepers that do not or cannot deal with a highly intelligent, very hungry, snake that tends to be outwardly defensive/offensive...they are highly territorial, they have AMAZINGLY SENSETIVE heat sensing receptors, and a feeding response next to none....theyre also timid and will defend themselves readily when they feel threatened. but hands down this group of pythons are my favorite, i currently keep 0.1 clastolepis, 0.1 amethistina (a very lovely manokwari barneck scrub), and 0.1 amethistina from aru island, and she will readily defend herself against anything thats not food. feel free to email me, hopefully some of the scrub keepers, and how few it seems there are, will offer more advice.

J
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Jaymz
"got a bowlin ball in my stomache, got a desert in my mouth. figures that my courage would choose to sell out now..."

If you'd like some pics and info to go along with the details that Jaymz already covered, please take a look at our website below.
Amethystine/Scrub Pythons are some of the greatest snakes to ever make their way into my life. We love to talk scrubs so feel free to email us with any questions you may have.
(btw, pictured is a baby striped Moluccan Python, one of a handful of scrub species)
-Yasser

Spitfirereptiles.com

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Other than their size are these snakes any more difficult to deal with than a regular JCP? Are they good eaters? And what size cage do they need as adults?

they are not like carpets, they are a whole different animal. they are far more alert, more intelligent, much larger in most cases, and usually more hungry. cant forget that they are also territorial...and they possess extremely sensetive heat pits. oooh and my favorite part, long teeth! these are intelligent snakes that will learn routines, test things methodically, track you from across the room, and show you who is boss! depending on species, the most common by far being southern and barneck scrubs, scrubs can attain 15 feet, possibly more, in length. the less common moluccans can attain 14 feet tho 8 to 10 seems to be the average. most scrubs spend a decent amount of time off the ground, all of mine prefer coiling up like chondros to resting on the floor. for this reason i give them branches. scrubs like to eat, most of the time im eagerly greeted looking for a tasty rat, its kinda interesting to have a 5 foot moluccan python come up to your hand and "sniff" you like a dog.

currently all of my scrubs live in rubbermaid storage boxes, as adults theyll have a minimum 4 x 3 x 2 foot high cage, probably larger. these are truely great snakes, i wouldnt trade them for anything. but again they are not for the begginer, and alot of hobbyists are misinformed about their behavior...i put in countless hours of studying these snakes, and im rewarded with 3 beautiful animals, and hopefully many more in the near future.

J
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Jaymz
"got a bowlin ball in my stomache, got a desert in my mouth. figures that my courage would choose to sell out now..."

They are a great snake to work with if captive born for the most part, and I would highly encourage anyone with a decent bit of handling experience to give them a try. They can be tamed, and although some can be totally psycho, others can be worked with if you know what you're doing. You just have to get to know the snakes and how to read them.
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Jim Kuroski

ive been more than a little frazzled since monday afternoon, kid in a big car nailed me in my little car, bad scene. but yeah, getting to know your animals goes along way toward preventing bites, but knowing your animals does take time, and its something that also comes with expierience...dont get me wrong, scrubs are probably the perfect animal for some keepers, but for others theyre probably one of the scariest...on a side note, i dont know why people are so scared of scrubs or have some morbid fasination with making them more evil than they are, talk about misunderstood animals!

J
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Jaymz
"got a bowlin ball in my stomache, got a desert in my mouth. figures that my courage would choose to sell out now..."