The wait that felt like an eternity...

[awwalz01]

So excited to announce that my 2016 male IJ Jag finally came in! He was a little bit smaller than I expected him to be.

Hatch date: 5/21/16
Weight on arrival (1/12/17): 58g

I bought him two weeks back or so and the weather just lined up for him to get delivered today. I got him from Steven Katz from SBK Reptiles out of California. I would strongly recommend working with him and plan on working with him in the future. Super great guy.

As you will be able to tell, some pictures are with flash and some without. I am in love with his head pattern! He does exhibit some small signs of neuro problems, but I don't think it is bad enough to slow him down in any way and it doesn't bother me personally. Here he is!

[lewis13]

That is a good looking snake. Carpets are awesome!!

[EL Ziggy]

Gorgeous carpet! Congrats on the new addition. I agree with Lewis, they are awesome snakes to keep!

[awwalz01]

Yea that is what everyone is saying. Looking forward to the opportunity of working with the species.

Based on your alls knowledge, does he seem rather small for his age? 55 grams at about 7 months? He seems pretty healthy. Maybe a LITTLE skinny. I know they are leaner snakes, but even considering that, he is somewhat slim.

[EL Ziggy]

I wouldn't be concerned about his size at all. They're a little small when we first get them from breeders sometimes. He should bulk up quickly once you start feeding him.

[awwalz01]

I wouldn't be concerned about his size at all. They're a little small when we first get them from breeders sometimes. He should bulk up quickly once you start feeding him.


Yea that was kind of my thought on it. Not worried about it really. Just wanted an opinion from someone else. Thanks Zig!

[toddnbecka]

You'll most likely be surprised at how quickly he grows, lol.

[awwalz01]

You'll most likely be surprised at how quickly he grows, lol.


I know! I want him to get bigger so bad, but at the same time, I will want him to be small once he is big. Guess I will just have to get another one when he gets big :)

[sockSnek]

My jungle was 62g at 13 months. He doubled in size in less than 2 months.

[awwalz01]

My jungle was 62g at 13 months. He doubled in size in less than 2 months.


Dang that is crazy. Must have been feeding him pretty large meals, yea?

[EL Ziggy]

Dang that is crazy. Must have been feeding him pretty large meals, yea?

You don't have to necessarily feed large meals to get them up to size walz but I do feed my young snakes pretty liberally for their first 2 years before dialing them back. Just for reference my coastal was an 85g yearling when he arrived on 9/2/15, he was 325g on 12/12/15, and 1646g on 12/9/16. I fed him every 5 days for the first two months, then every 7-10 days for a few months, and now he eats every 10-14 days. There was a similar pattern with my jungle. He was 31g at 2 months old when I got him on 9/22/15, 134g on 12/27/15, and 1425g at his last weigh in on 12/25/16. The breeder was feeding my carpets every 2-3 weeks prior to their arrival. I prefer a more growth oriented feeding regiment. I'm sure your IJ will do great on a 5-7 day feeding schedule.

[Tsubaki]

Beautiful critter, love the headpattern as well :)

[MartinD]

Dang that is crazy. Must have been feeding him pretty large meals, yea?

Every time I see your avatar I keep thinking of pizza lol

[awwalz01]

You don't have to necessarily feed large meals to get them up to size walz but I do feed my young snakes pretty liberally for their first 2 years before dialing them back. Just for reference my coastal was an 85g yearling when he arrived on 9/2/15, he was 325g on 12/12/15, and 1646g on 12/9/16. I fed him every 5 days for the first two months, then every 7-10 days for a few months, and now he eats every 10-14 days. There was a similar pattern with my jungle. He was 31g at 2 months old when I got him on 9/22/15, 134g on 12/27/15, and 1425g at his last weigh in on 12/25/16. The breeder was feeding my carpets every 2-3 weeks prior to their arrival. I prefer a more growth oriented feeding regiment. I'm sure your IJ will do great on a 5-7 day feeding schedule.


Alright awesome. Thanks Zig, you are the best. I'm not too worried about his weight. As long as it is because he wouldn't eat and still doesn't want to eat. I'll feed him sometime towards the end of this coming week and hopefully he will take.

[awwalz01]

Every time I see your avatar I keep thinking of pizza lol

Never thought of it like that, but now I can't see it any other way lol. Especially because I worked at a pizza place in high school!

[sockSnek]

Dang that is crazy. Must have been feeding him pretty large meals, yea?

Only a little bit in the beginning because my local reptile place didn't have anything smaller than rat pups and I wanted to switch him to rats sooner than later. He grew into them really quickly though, and now they're only slightly wider around than he is. I've been feeding him every 7-10 days since I got him.

[awwalz01]

Wanted to make an update on my little dude.

After getting him, I never really posted anything about him. He wouldn't eat. After about 2.5 months, he had lost a good amount of weight, so I assist fed him a good sized pinky mouse just to jump start his metabolism. After that, I offered live fuzzys but still nothing. I then started to notice it seemed like he was popping his mouth a little when breathing and has some sticky saliva around his mouth. Guessing it was a RI, so I bumped the heat a little bit. About a week after that he shed out of nowhere.

After the shed, the symptoms of the RI completely disappeared. So I don't really know if he had a RI or not. I was talking to someone who said that he had a carpet that would always show symptoms of an RI before a shed. Rather strange, but the symptoms went away so I'm not complaining! After the "RI" went away and he shed, he started eating like I had never offered him a meal before!! He has eaten every offering since and is super aggressive when it comes to feeding time. It really was a great turn around!

He is now around 75 grams, which isn't much more than what I got him at (58g), but considering the weight he lost, I would say it is rather impressive.

So my theory about what happened was that when my breeder sent him, he was starting a shed cycle, but got super stressed from the shipping/change of environment and didn't shed it off for a while and that is why he wasn't eating. Just a theory though!

He recently just shed again and is looking great. Here are some pictures of my gem!

[Tiny Boidae]

What a handsome boy! My sub-adult P. bairdi does the same thing, and I actually posted on here about it a month or two ago. What brought me back after being away for a year and I kinda just stuck around. So yeah, it never not gets stressful to hear the popping and the whistling when he sheds, especially since it usually starts a few days before he actually turns blue. He's getting darker so I think a shed is imminent.

Australian pythons aren't really my thing, I guess I just haven't caught the bug yet, but if I got a carpet it'd look like that. What a gorgeous little bugger, and he must know it too! Great job with him.

[awwalz01]

What a handsome boy! My sub-adult P. bairdi does the same thing, and I actually posted on here about it a month or two ago. What brought me back after being away for a year and I kinda just stuck around. So yeah, it never not gets stressful to hear the popping and the whistling when he sheds, especially since it usually starts a few days before he actually turns blue. He's getting darker so I think a shed is imminent.

Australian pythons aren't really my thing, I guess I just haven't caught the bug yet, but if I got a carpet it'd look like that. What a gorgeous little bugger, and he must know it too! Great job with him.


Glad to hear it isn't too uncommon! Yea this is my first carpet, but I love him already!

[EL Ziggy]

I'm glad he's eating for you now walz. He's a beautiful carpet. I have a female albino that was tough to get started eating too. She's still inconsistent but we're working on it. Hope to see more frequent updates on your guy. ;)

[awwalz01]

I'm glad he's eating for you now walz. He's a beautiful carpet. I have a female albino that was tough to get started eating too. She's still inconsistent but we're working on it. Hope to see more frequent updates on your guy. ;)


Yea I remember we both got our carpets right around the same time. Your albino is gorgeous!

Yea I hope to be able to post on here more often. College has been pretty hectic this year so I haven't had too much free time (the life of college and three jobs). It is about summer time so hopefully I will have adequate time to browse the forums!

[dannybgoode]

Lovely looking snake. Morelia spilota sp. are awesome creatures. I'm tempted by more or maybe a Morelia bredli.

@TB - Australian pythons rock. Surprising variety - I never realised there was such a diverse number of species and sub species until I started getting into them.