Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Sorry more dumb Dwarf Retic questions.

Jampea Retic males 7-10 avg., females 10-14 avg.
Super Dwarf males 4-6 avg., Females 6-8 avg.

I was up from 10-2:30 am just fiending and scouring for info. I love the grey and greens and the faces. If the Jampeas come from the bla blah jampea island, where do the Supers come from? After going over the pics i saw i couldn't come to a conclusion on weather there was any color differences between the two? In one post on another site it looked like the super was lighter and more brilliant than the Jampea, then on Mike Wilbanks site i couldn't see much of a difference. Here's a pic of my two Boas for your trouble. Thanks!

I would agree with you completly except for a couple of things. When you are looking at a 14' Jampea female it is much more of a Maximum size than a Avg size for the form. I would be willing to bet that the avrage sizes of CB Jampea adults would be somplace near or less than 10 ft, that of course on avg. Exceptional sized specimens do exist in both the dwarf and standard forms, as well as thoughs animals who are naturaly smaller than avrage. When looking at our history with these animals they were first found producing as WC animals at around 6' for females. It is not realy untill sombody raised these animals in captivity, that it was known they were even capable to reach "AVG" lengths. I would speculate you may see somthing simular when super dwarfs are actualy bred in captivity. Also the origin of super dwarfs have remained secretive. Heres a link to a few shots of our Jampea retics -Shaun D
Jampea Retics

Thanks for your response. I wonder why "they" would be quiet about where the supers come from, maybe its not entirely legal or something. I have been looking at pics of your babies and yearlings and i am intrigued. Still a fence sitter though trying to figure out if it's the right snake for me. I have actually talked to you over the net in the past about an Olive python. I have another question if you dont mind.....As far as handling goes do your Jampeas fly when you handle them, i mean keep moving full speed or do they sometimes sit still? Last question, do they grow faster than a BCI? Thanks alot again.

Olives are another favorite of mine but breeding them has proven to be a real pain. I would assume the Super Dwarf locale remains a secret due to financial protection, however legalities could be another reason. As for your boa question, our yearlings have managed to reach on average about 4.5 ft in the last year, there are a couple of females who have reached 6 ft. The larger animals were of course fed heavily for maximum growth. Despite there length the avrage weight of the animals is little over 2lbs at one year. Prehapse someone else may know what the average size of yearling boas are? As far as handeling, they are very currious while out of there enclosures mostly just content to climb up and down on your arms, and prehapse perch on your shoulder. At least untill they can reach somthing else to investigate. They are not whippy or slithering at full speed to escape but a slow steady crawl in wichever direction they are most currious about. I hope that helps some feel free to contact me if you have any other questions. -Shaun D

Hi.

I have an '03 male Jampea that I got from Shaun. It's a great animal, never tried to bite me, and is easy to handle. Sometimes he is curious and moves around (not quickly though), and other times he's content to just hang out around my arm. But here's a neat thing...if I put him down on my couch he'll hang out, then do a little bit of exploring, then sit for a while. Whereas my adult IJ carpet python or female Colombian bci will try to escape or dig down to hide under the cushions.

My male Jamp never showed any fear toward me. I think that may be because Shaun interacted with the babies and handled them right from the start, instead of just putting them in racks and leaving them alone except for feeding/cleaning.

I'm very glad my male Jamp has this personality, and it is consistent. Based on this, he should be a pleasure to hang out with when he's an adult.

Regards,

Bill

To my knowledge, there are 3 known 'dwarf localities'. First was the Jampea. Second was the Kayuadi. Third one is the Kalatoa island form, very similar to Kayuadi's, but they can be distinguished. I have never once seen this put anywhere on the internet...however, they have been imported in small numbers around the world, and there is no legal reason to say why they still cannot be exported. However, keeping the location secret would slow people up.

Ofcourse....the Superdwarf's may be something completely different. I don't know. I've seen the 3 localities I know of in the flesh...but not the so called 'superdwarf'. My gut feeling is that the Kalatoa and Superdwarf are the same thing...but hey, I might be wrong.

Ive also heard that the supers come from Kalatoa, but there are something like 30,000 islands in indonesia and the sundas where the dwarfs originate are bound to be several hundred I would just like to see some documentation that indeed they come from this island. However while dealing with collectors, importers, and exporters you can not be lead to assumptions. These are tricky people to deal with, that will tell you absolutly anything you want to hear to make a sale, and to protect there income. I would not be suprised either way, But as it stands I would not assign the locale to super dwarfs. When dealing with the Jampea & Kayuadi animals it is important to realize they are both simular in herpetoculture as dwarfs and listed scientificaly as the same animal. Indeed I have had both and it is difficult if not impossible to differinciate between them.

Thanks guys for the great feedback and info.