Well...I did it.

[sockSnek]

http://i.imgur.com/V0Uk4kV.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/adQmWN5.jpg

I've been so hyped up about this all day. Boyfriend and I finally talked through everything and picked up this little guy. It was really hard picking between this one and his brother since they're pretty much identical in appearance and temperament.

These photos don't do him justice. He's much yellower and cuter in person. He is also crazy soft. He was on hopper mice, so I think I'll wait till he eats a few of those before switching him over to rats.

The AP cage won't be here for ages, so I've got him in a smaller cage for now, which is probably for the best anyway.

So...he doesn't have a name yet. Any suggestions?

[SWDK]

Nice little JCP you pick up. Carpets are fun snakes. I'd try to switch to rat pups as soon as it's big enough to handle them. I had a carpet that was a mouser and it got to be a pain feeding multiple mice each feeding.

[trailblazer295]

Great looking carpet, good luck with the little guy. I feed mine a rotation of mice, rats and chicks

[EL Ziggy]

Very nice carpet sock. They're a blast to keep especially if given climbing/perching options. Best wishes with the beautiful new addition.

[dannybgoode]

Nice snake. I'm delighted with mine-definitely a must for any collection. As El Ziggy mentions male sure you have plenty of climbing branches in there and you'll be rewarded with plenty of hunting/ambush poses, particularly after lights out.

Also don't underestimate the prey size they can take; 20-25% of body weight for a growing juvenile not unreasonable. You'll look at the mouse or rat and think they'll never take that and then oh, it's gone.

[Tsubaki]

He looks great, congrats :D

[MartinD]

Great looking snake, as he's a carpet python how about Matty, as mat is another name for a carpet.

[dannybgoode]

I'd get him on rats asap. The longer you leave it the more chance he'll be a bugger to swap.

[MartinD]

My girls is 16 months old and I picked her up on the 28th September 2016 and she had been fed on medium mice and I decided to try her on small wiener rats and she took to them no problem.

Some people say you could give a boa a sweaty sock and it would eat it lol.

[sockSnek]

Thanks guys :)

Do you think it makes sense for a 13 month old to be on hopper mice? For all I know, that could be normal, but instinctively I had expected him to be eating bigger meals by now. It's really hard to find detailed information about growth online and none of the care sheets I read said anything specific beyond "switch to rats asap and feed 1/2 - 2 times their diameter".

Once he's settled in (so in like a week) I'll be able to weigh him and try feeding.

[dannybgoode]

Carpets can be pushed beyond 1 1/2 - 2 times girth. Whilst not recommended they can go to 5 or so times girth-they're monster eaters for their relatively slender build.

I'd at least be trying him on good sized rat fluffs-you'll be stunned at what they can handle.

[Andy_G]

Very nice pickups!

Adult mice or similarly sized rats would suffice.

[EL Ziggy]

Carpets can handle pretty large meals but I usually stick to prey items that are 1.5 - 2x the girth of the snake.

[toddnbecka]

Very clean pattern, the yellow will get even brighter with size and age.
I fed my first carpet python similar-sized prey relative to body diameter as my other snakes, and found he (?) grew faster than the other species. Then one day I found he had escaped his enclosure and was feasting on a tub full of breeding mice. Had already swallowed 6 and had the 7th/last one in coils, and would have happily finished that one too if I hadn't interrupted the binge.
Up until that point I had been feeding 2 large adult mice, figured it was time to switch to small-medium rats instead. I haven't weighed the beast, but he's grown from a hatchling to about 6' in just about 2 years I don't think I've stunted his growth by not feeding larger items.

[dannybgoode]

Very clean pattern, the yellow will get even brighter with size and age.
I fed my first carpet python similar-sized prey relative to body diameter as my other snakes, and found he (?) grew faster than the other species. Then one day I found he had escaped his enclosure and was feasting on a tub full of breeding mice. Had already swallowed 6 and had the 7th/last one in coils, and would have happily finished that one too if I hadn't interrupted the binge.
Up until that point I had been feeding 2 large adult mice, figured it was time to switch to small-medium rats instead. I haven't weighed the beast, but he's grown from a hatchling to about 6' in just about 2 years I don't think I've stunted his growth by not feeding larger items.

They're feeding beasts aren't they! Not to be pushed to the extreme but not to be underestimated either for such slender things-particularly when they're young.

[trailblazer295]

Wow i better rethink my feeding of my young carpet. She needs new food anyway.

[dannybgoode]

Girth aside-20-25% of body weight got the prey item is not unreasonable. They're machines when it comes to food!

[toddnbecka]

That's something I've been wondering about but haven't ever seen any research on. How much of a larger meal is actually digested and utilized by the snake, and how much passes through as waste, compared to a smaller meal? Obviously feeding more often am\nd/or larger meals will increase growth rate, but will it produce a larger animal in the long run?

[Andy_G]

Obviously feeding more often am\nd/or larger meals will increase growth rate, but will it produce a larger animal in the long run?

Most definitely it will. Snakes fed heavily without a doubt get larger and do so much faster, but is that always a good thing? Not so much. Genetics would be the main influence of adult size, followed by food intake and respective temperatures second. Many smaller localities of species remain as such because of the lack of available food (tarahuma mountain boas would be one example) coupled with temperatures in their geographical range, both of which said populations have adapted over generations to overcome.

[sockSnek]

Yesterday, he came out of his hide and perched for a bit while I was away, but then hid before Boyfriend could call me down to see him. Pretty sure he's taunting me on purpose. :P

Also, I've decided to name him Teddy.

[Albert Clark]

Nice addition. Congrats.

[Dawna]

Congrats....beautiful...enjoy