Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Is there any way to tell what a babies color will be when grown, outside of seeing the parents? I have a new jungle carpet that I was unable to see the parents but was told they were "high yellow". The baby is very patterned however brown and tan. Is it normal for them to go from brown and tan to black and yellow?

Yup, hatchlings go from a grey-black coloration to yellow-black colorations rather quickly. Most do a complete change in the first 4-6 months, and after that they continue to get brighter until for the next few years.

When they get old age the brown sorta takes over the yellow (to my knowlege...) A few rare specimens have retained the yellow over their entire lifetime, but it is rare.
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Current Collection:
0.1 Antherystic elaphe guttata guttata - Corn Snake
1.0 Elaphe vulpina gloydi - Eastern Fox Snake
0.1 Elaphe obsoleta obsoleta - Black Rat Snake
0.1 Leucistic elaphe obsoleta Linheimeri - Texas Ratsnake
1.1 Morelia spilotac cheyni - Jungle Carpet Python
0.1 Tiliqau scincoide - Blue Tongue Skink

Badly worded sentence... sorry lol

They get brighter for awhile but stop eventually.
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Current Collection:
0.1 Antherystic elaphe guttata guttata - Corn Snake
1.0 Elaphe vulpina gloydi - Eastern Fox Snake
0.1 Elaphe obsoleta obsoleta - Black Rat Snake
0.1 Leucistic elaphe obsoleta Linheimeri - Texas Ratsnake
1.1 Morelia spilotac cheyni - Jungle Carpet Python
0.1 Tiliqau scincoide - Blue Tongue Skink

How old is your snake? The Jungles I've raised have all got brighter with age, but I also picked them from cluthes where I saw the parents. It truly is a waiting game if you don't have any reference points. One thing to note is that most are normal or dull in coloration and only select few have the bright yellow and clean patterns.

My snake is very young - maybe 30 days old if that (shes about 18" long and very thin)? She has a very clear and detailed pattern consisting of dark brown and tan which are divided by narrow black between the dark brown and tan. She is beautiful. The thing I am concern about is the specialty reptile shop that I bought her from in NH said she was a "high yellow" and the parents were both "high yellow". My question is are "high yellow" jungle carpets dark brown and tan when babies. It seems hard to beleive that they will change from Brown/Tan to black/yellow. I want to make sure I wasn't sold some other type of carpet python.

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Takes all kinds to make a World...

I agree. It can take two years to really see what the colors will be like, it sucks waiting but very rewarding seeing the colors brighten with every shed.

Personnally, I would demand a pic of the parents. JCP's vary tremendously and one way of increasing your odds of getting a hatchling that could turn out to be a really nice adult is to see what the parents looked like. Most often, nice parents produce nice offspring (not always but it helps with making a decision).