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I recently rescued a subadult jungle carpet from a pet shop. It is about 4ft, and was kept in a cage that was 18 inches by 12inches. It had no branches or anything to climb. Its now in a 4ft x 3ft x 2ft cage with plenty of branches. It is extremly nervous and aggressive, does anyone have any tips? Thank you.

first let it settle in and learn it's new enviroment. Then after a week or 2 try taking it out and letting it climb on you like you are a branch, do not try and hold it, or keep it from moving it will only upset it more. keep doing this for an hour or so daily, they can be quite aggressive snakes when they are smaller.I have a jungle diamond cross that is about 8 months old and is very cage defensive, but after a few times out she is starting to settle down now, just be persistent and hopefully your carpet will come around. you can also take some of your worn clothing and keep it the cage with the snake so it gets used to your smell. Most smaller carpets come around as they mature.
Chris
CJinNH

i strongly agree with chris

What you're perceiving as "aggressive" is actually just fear. They are "nervous", and that's why they are nippy. They don't bite out of meanness or spite, just out of fear. In their world there are two kinds of creatures. Those that are small enough to be eaten and those that are large enough to eat them. You fall in the second catagory, so naturally they are afraid. Only through regular, gentle handling will your JCP learn to trust you. I have two JCP's, one bit me everytime I picked her up for about a year, the other is totally docile. When the biter has bitten it wasn't bad, just a quick nip and let go. When she did that, I'd never drop her or put her right back in her cage. I think she learned that biting wouldn't get me to put her down, and eventually learned that I wasn't going to hurt her and now bites infrequently. Good luck and keep us updated with your progress.
Kirk

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1.1 Jungle Carpet Python
1.1 Ball Python
1.1 Corn Snake
0.1 Gray band Kingsnake
0.1 Desert Kingsnake
0.1 Pueblan Milksnake
1.0 Bullsnake
1.0 Rhodesian Ridgeback (Hondo)
0.1 Spouse (WC)
0.0.8 hatchling ball pythons

Hi,
I agree with the other two replies but would just add a cherry. I had a JCP with melanin sold to me as Satan's Son (or something like that as a joke of how aggressive she was) on kingsnake classifieds. Anyways when I handle her she was quite aggressive and saw everthing that moved or touched her as an enemy. So I decided that she was all talk when she bites, which all small snakes are (unless venomous), and I don't flinch or pull away when she bites and keep her out until she calms down for a while. One good way to get them used to movement is to Open their cage 3-4 times a week to just change the water or something that involves the interior of the cage and not the snake. That way she/he won't think everthing around it moving is attcking her or food. Hope it goes well and the majority of JCPs are aggressive at first and just need to be handled because most breeders doesn't have time to teach all their babies to be nice. Hope your training goes well and I recommend acreptiles.com/Anthony Caponetto for Carpet Python info.
Sincerely,
Mark Leppin
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