Reptile & Amphibian Forums

In November of 2004 I purchased a baby 50-50 Jungle x Diamond from Outback Reptiles at the White Plains Rep Expo...

When I got the little girl, she was a deep golden with nice dark black, since then, she has grown from 16" to just over 4'...

The main thing I'm wondering is how common is it for a JCP x Diamond to lose almost all its yellow/golden coloring and turn to a whitish yellow?

She is now looking more diamond (there is not a scale on her body that does not have a whitish pale yellow speck), but her coloring is very "reserved."

I personally do not care about the coloring, but I might be selling her soon, so I'm trying to dig up info as to whether she is actually a JCP because she is seriously lacking in the yellow coloration, her "fill" color actually reminds me of a Coastal than a JCP... I will post a pic tomorrow night if I get the chance, hopefully someone can enlighten me...

Here's pic 1, sorry for the poor shots, but she wouldn't stay still....

Pic#2

I know that she is definitely a diamond, but what else? Could she really be part JCP, maybe a very very very white JCP?

She looks like a Diamond x Jungle to me. There are a lot of white phase DxJ's out there. There are also ivory jungles, which have little to no yellow.
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Anthony Caponetto
www.ACreptiles.com

I have seen some amazing black and white jungles in the last few years, and they seem to be selectively breeding them for that trait. Not only that, but there are white lines of diamonds as well. I think you have yourself a mighty fine snake.

Thanks guys!

One more question, she (no name in 1.5 years of ownership! lol ) constantly stays in her water dish. She only basks when I pull the water out...

The humidity is 69%, almost constantly, and the temps are: 85 ambient day/76 night.. Basking 95 day/82 night...

I can't figure it out for the life of me why she has started to do this... It literally just started about 1.5 months ago, and nothing has changed in husbandry, etc., that I can think of...

Most frequent reasons a non-aquatic snake starts hanging out in water dish are to regulate temperature or relieve a skin irritation. Most common skin irritations are either pre-shed or mites. Definitely check for mites, and keep in quarantine until you figure this out. Also, your snake looks like a diamond-jungle cross to me. I really don't think there is any clue to differentiate these species based on color, as I have seen the range of yellow, white, cream, gold, etc. in both jungles and diamonds.