Dammit! Now I have to buy one

[Derek1]

Per my last thread. My nephews wife has come around and letting him bring it home.

I'm going to keep my custom enclosure that I have been working on because I am now fascinated with them and must have my own. I have the husbandry down.

Questions: Just going off of memory from when I first got him and started to research.

School me on the GTP species and what to buy. I think there are 3 main species? Mine/His is a Biak. But when I originally scanned the classifieds I saw some crosses and some Red ones. Best to buy IYO. Any breeders y'all recommend?

[smy_749]

Biak is a locale. There are two species now officially. Azureus and viridis I believe. Biak, Aru, merauke, sorong, etc. etc. are locality animals. Biak is most common and has a rep for being nasty and keeping yellow into adulthood. Aru is known to be of the calmest and has a nice bit of blue. Designer animals are mixes, prices vary on genetics. I would go cbb if you can afford to pay a bit more. There are plenty of breeders on the groups on facebook, none Ive done business with so I cant comment.

[Laughingman868]

Just another word on CBB, I would definitely agree to go that route and pay a little more to ensure whatever you get is healthy and parasite free. I don't think its a huge deal to get a nice looking farm bred animal just make sure you go with some one who is reliable. Thats huge If something happens to the snake, a reputable breeder will answer emails and calls and be as helpful as possible, if you just go with the cheapest animal from any one you can find theres a good chance the seller won't be very helpful should a problem arise. This is what iv experienced at least.

In the off chance that you look on craigslist, which I don't condone usually but thats where I got my jungle, make sure you physically inspect the snake very well before buying. Look for mites, listen for an RI, I even asked for him to wait for me to arrive to feed him just so I knew he was eating.

Good luck with the purchase. Also, if your not a member join the MVF.

[yeloowtang]

ahhh man !! that's too bad, maybe the wife will change her mind when he start buying rodents to feed it :)
but
I agree about the CBB, try to find them if you can... many flippers out there that bring them in from Indonesia, they pay 75-125$ for them and flip them at 350$ many die and most are infested..

as for locality, it doesn't really matter unless you are looking for something specific, like high yellow, high blue !! but in the end any basic locality will turn green :)

as for the red/yellow that is the colours the babies are born with, most ofd the time we see yellow, but the red ones usually come from the biak or wamena (called something else now)
be it red or yellow, they will both turn green as adults and the red turns to yellow before it does green..

here's a few shots of the biak i got as a red neo

at 2 months old
http://i1279.photobucket.com/albums/y539/YELOOWTANG/python1_zpsfdd80f1e.jpg (http://s1279.photobucket.com/user/YELOOWTANG/media/python1_zpsfdd80f1e.jpg.html)

at 1 year old
http://i1279.photobucket.com/albums/y539/YELOOWTANG/gtp2_zps7166e827.jpg (http://s1279.photobucket.com/user/YELOOWTANG/media/gtp2_zps7166e827.jpg.html)

at 2 years old
http://i1279.photobucket.com/albums/y539/YELOOWTANG/DSCN2511_zps7ca7e14d.jpg (http://s1279.photobucket.com/user/YELOOWTANG/media/DSCN2511_zps7ca7e14d.jpg.html)
http://i1279.photobucket.com/albums/y539/YELOOWTANG/DSCN2731_zps7fad8639.jpg (http://s1279.photobucket.com/user/YELOOWTANG/media/DSCN2731_zps7fad8639.jpg.html)

i need to take new pictures of her, she still has alot of yellow, she's 3.5 years old now..

hope you find one that you like :)

steph

[Derek1]

Great info guys and gals as always! I've been out of pocket the last week and haven't had much time to read up/ do any research. I'm going to reread these post and surely I'll have some questions. This is a pic of the enclosure I had ready for the other one, but now ready for the new one. I still have to mount the heat tape and seal the top and therm, but that's easy stuff.

http://i686.photobucket.com/albums/vv223/Derekmeredith/7E8ED6B6-AF46-464B-BBE4-9247E1D56E89_zpsrrys721t.jpg

[Minkness]

Dude....that is a gorgeous set up!!!

[shaunyboy]

the more complete chondro,by gregg maxwell is a great book to buy,it's pretty much the GTP Bible mate



cheers shaun

[yeloowtang]

agreed !!!! awesome looking set up, your GTP will be in a sweet home.

best of luck in the hunt for one..

can't wait to see what you find :)

[smy_749]

I dont know if heat tape will be able to heat that, run it for a few days before the animal goes in. Either way looks great

[Derek1]

Took a lot of looking around, but I finally found a cbb red biak I couldn't pass up. I'll have him Thursday.

http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0269/7837/products/Biak_Green_Tree_Python_RED_BABY.jpg

[EL Ziggy]

Congrats on the beautiful new addition Derek!

[Derek1]

I dont know if heat tape will be able to heat that, run it for a few days before the animal goes in. Either way looks great

I sealed the top with Plexiglas. I turned on the heat tape about 1pm. The enclosure was pretty cold as I had it in my truck all morning. When I left the office the temp was 80 with no lighting. That was after 4 hours. I'm thinking it will come up a couple more once the soil and everything warms up. Not 100% sure what I'm going to do on lighting yet. Thinking CFL or LED? I think if I use CFL it will climb another couple degrees and I'll be able to maintain 86.

I'm off work tomorrow but I'm going to call my secretary and see what the thermostat reads from overnight.

[yeloowtang]

SWEET !!! congrats on finding such a cute littelr ed neo :)
it will be happy in that set up..

the hardest part now ?? is you have one, others will follow LOL :-D
it's hard to only keep one...!!!!!

[Derek1]

Got him in and set up this morning. He was not in a good mood to say they least. He settled in nicely though. Gonna try and feed tomorrow. His last feed was 14 days ago. I'll get some better pics once he is settled in completely.

http://i686.photobucket.com/albums/vv223/Derekmeredith/B6773F9D-7F3A-4722-9A05-97284C80DCD7_zpsivhw2fvy.jpg

[yeloowtang]

looks good !!

before you try feeding him, wait and see how he acts once the lights are out..
if he's in the hunting mode, you can always give it a shot, but it's always best to give him a week to settle down in his new home..

I say that and after a couple days, when i see they are in the hunt position, i always give it a shot just to see how they react.. mine have always taken food by the next couple of days.. :)
but if it doesn't after 5 minutes of trying, don't stress it by teasing with the prey, just stop and give a couple more days..

[Tracy33]

Wow !!! That is an awesome set up , well done . :cool:

[Derek1]

I put another piece of 6" heat tape on the back top, behind the background and that helped.

He's at my office now so I did my first feeding at about 4pm today. Went really well! He seems happy.

http://i686.photobucket.com/albums/vv223/Derekmeredith/8297BD6A-61EC-4446-B943-C785FC937923_zpsslnqqz8f.jpg

[psychocircus]

How's this guy doing? Can I ask where you got him?

[Derek1]

How's this guy doing? Can I ask where you got him?

Doing great! I'll get some pics tomorrow. He had a simi poor first shed. Had parts of shed hanging off of him. But shed over the weekend and had a complete and awesome shed. He's my office snake. I feed him during the day as it's my office snake and get a great feeding response. He loves the top branch as most do, as that is where the most heat is, but he's picky. He doesn't like anything out of the ordinary close to his perch where he stays. His shed was close to his spot and he moved to the middle perch until I removed it. He never leaves the top, unless it's nighttime hunting, which he does well as I've gone up to the office to watch him at night.

Bought him from Omni Reptiles. Good smooth transaction. John was honest and good to work with.

[Derek1]

First pic is from Tuesday. I forgot I took it. With a good whole shed. Fed him shortly after. Then the other from today. Great eater. Actually a CBB but is always looking to bite. I'm going and put a FT in a dish at the bottom on the next feeding and see if he goes down and gets it at night. I would like to get him on a more natural pattern.

http://i686.photobucket.com/albums/vv223/Derekmeredith/66CAC74C-83B0-4B8E-8FB3-ACDFDEAFF79A_zpsfk7omhmo.jpg
http://i686.photobucket.com/albums/vv223/Derekmeredith/E3F472A0-6076-4F14-94B2-8155D3E3D16A_zpsvtwjmuom.jpg

[EL Ziggy]

Beautiful snake and nice enclosure Derek.