Reptile & Amphibian Forums

We've just accquired a new (red phase?) yearling male australis... And we absolutely love him. We picked him up at a show recently (About 3 almost 4 weeks ago) , the vendor couldn't tell us anything about him, other than he that the snake was imported and that they had him for two weeks and it hasn't eaten. He's fed for us, each week (about every 6 days), 2 scented pinkies. Everything I know and/or can find on australis says that they have a slow metabolism and eat every few weeks... Is this normal for a juvenile to eat so frequently? In all my years of being a hobbist, I'm finally stumped. Should I keep feeding him at this rate or should I cut him back? I'd also like to know if any one knows any good breeders of australis, we'd like to get another one, but we can't find any captive bred speciemins. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

The snake your holding is Candoia c. carinata not bibroni austalis! thanks....Tom Crutchfield

By the way thats an adult snake not a juvenile....Tom Crutchfield

Ditto. It looks to be a nice red phase Waigeo Island Carinata. I would probably go ahead with non-scented F/T pinkies or fuzzies. I am thinking at that size and the fact that he has already eaten, he is good to go.

Nice snake!

j
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John R. Stebbins
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1.1 Candoia bibroni australis
0.2 Candoia carinata carinata
2.0 elaphe guttata guttata

Carinata huh? I'm new to candoia, I'm used to larger python, and boa species so please forgive all the questions. How you can you tell the difference between the 2? I'm stuck with whatever the vendor told me which was a follows; male, solomon island tree; import. I think I read somewhere that female carinata lack clocal spurs is this correct? If it is I've got a female, that is about 22 inches, isn't that a bit small for an adult? Thanks guys I really appreciate the help.
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"How can you say the gods are merciless when they've robbed the snake of its limbs to give other creatures a sporting chance?" - Unknown

A carinata is a much smaller species than australis. Average maximum lengths for carinata are about 20-24 inches. If your male is 22 inches, he is a good sized carinata (of which I am jealous, btw, its a nice looking specimen). Australis, on the other hand, can grow to 6 feet. At first glance, in some photos, the morphology of both is very similar, however, australis is longer and thinner than carinata when you look closely. From the photo you posted, if you are familiar with Candoia, you can see that it is carinata, just based on size and pattern (australis mostly has slightly different patterning), and you can also see that it is a Waigeo Island variety. Not rare, but not as common in the pet trade as those from other parts of Indonesia.

It is not uncommon for dealers who are not familiar with Candoia to get the IDs wrong. It is not a real common genera in the pet trade (relatively speaking) and a great deal of folks just don't know how to ID them...

Oh and trust me, you are lucky that guy is eating pinkies!

Hope this helps,

j
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John R. Stebbins
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1.1 Candoia bibroni australis
0.2 Candoia carinata carinata
2.0 elaphe guttata guttata

Oh by the way, all Candoia can be sexed by the presence or lack of spurs. It is very easy: Males have them, females don't.

Spurs on Candoia are pretty prominent too, so there should not be any guesswork. It will either have them or not.

Check the bible by Conway, great info on Candoia:

http://www.kingsnake.com/candoia/
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John R. Stebbins
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1.1 Candoia bibroni australis
0.2 Candoia carinata carinata
2.0 elaphe guttata guttata

except vipers, some female vipers have spurs...
i thought i heard there was some sort of paper written about classifying the different candoia species, but i've never seen it. the best way to know what's what is to look at as many live candoia and as many pics as possible, and still you'll make mistakes, but after a while, you can kind of figure out which is which. a while ago i found a paulsoni that looked surprisingly like an australis... but i agree you most definitely have a full sized carinata carinata.

oh, and about 5 posts down is my adult female carinata

Well than its definitely a female. And thanks everyone for your help. It's greatly appreciated. But I still have one question that was left unanswered... Does anyone know where or who I could get a captive bred speciemin from? My wife and I would like to add more Candoia to our collection, so species doesn't matter, but everyone I've found that has them, they're all imports, I just had my carinata d-wormed, I would like to not have to go through that again, my only herp vet around here is 3 hours away.
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"How can you say the gods are merciless when they've robbed the snake of its limbs to give other creatures a sporting chance?" - Unknown

you won't find many if any, they're so few and far between. paulsoni is sometimes bred since they're the largest with the largest babies, and some of the member here have finally obtained pairs of australis, but no one really breeds them much. i'm going to breed my carinata, but that's mainly to see how well i can raise the babies, because although im stocking up on anoles first, but my female is full grown but still only eats pinkie mice so switching to rodents could be quite troublesome.

I don't think I have ever seen any cb carinata...I am sure they are out there somewhere, but like quick said, pretty rare.

I have my australis paired up, hoping for the best, but it is unlikely this year due to only a single male. But you never know...I will eventually find a suitable male(s) carinata to pair with my females, but that is a project for the future...
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John R. Stebbins
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1.1 Candoia bibroni australis
0.2 Candoia carinata carinata
2.0 elaphe guttata guttata