New Jaguar Carpet!

[giambi4343]

my first post here so i figured i should post a few pics of my new addition:)
i have been looking for one of these for a few months now. i found one for $125 from someone local that was moving in with his girlfriend, who hated snakes. i was a bit weary when i heard the price, then i checked him out and he looked amazing!!! i have him in my 29 gallon tank right now. he is about a foot and a half long and completely tame. he never bit the previous owner and proved that by holding him for over an hour and not even showing any hint of aggression. let me know what you guys think of my new baby:)

also, any suggestions to a name would be great. my girlfriend and i are arguing over a name haha.



enclosure
http://i51.tinypic.com/2vx3j9l.jpg


MY BABY BOY!!!!

http://i55.tinypic.com/2ekqjc8.jpg

http://i51.tinypic.com/289y520.jpg

http://i51.tinypic.com/xy34w.jpg

http://i51.tinypic.com/358wf7k.jpg

[infernalis]

http://www.thamfriends.com/mat.jpg

[Ch^4]

Welcome! That's a handsome Morelia you have there...congrats! Mine also loves the highest place in her viv ;)

[Lankyrob]

Welcome, you may want to add a hide into the enclosure. My Jungle likes climbing around but also likes chilling in his hide as well.

[Will0W783]

Very handsome JCP you've got there-- I'm not sure he's a jaguar though. He is very high yellow, but the angular patches and pattern make me unsure that he is actually a jaguar. Can you post some more pics?

[Lankyrob]

I must admit kim my first thought was IJ??? I am certainly no expert tho so wouldnt like to sway judgement.

[Will0W783]

Jaguars usually have a very reduced spinal pattern, and the dark areas are more rounded, almost like the bubbles in a lava lamp coming up the sides. The zig-zag angular pattern is more characteristic of a JCP, or jungle mix. It's possible the previous owner was sold the snake as a "jaguar sibling" or normal clutchmate to a jaguar, and didn't pay attention or didn't understand and sold it as an actual jaguar. For comparison, here's a shot of my female 75% jungle jaguar (she's not the brightest jag, but has great bloodlines and stripe genetics in her too). But you can see the differences in how the pattern is composed. I would be willing to say with a fair amount of certainty that the OP's snake is not a jaguar.
http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh115/Will0W783/91861097_photobucket_34804_.jpg
http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh115/Will0W783/91861097_photobucket_34805_.jpg

[giambi4343]

what would you say it is then? also, did i pay too much?!!??

[Will0W783]

I would say it's probably a high percentage jungle cross...probably a jag sibling. That means that someone bred a jaguar to a normal carpet and got some jaguars and some non-jaguars in the clutch. In that case, all the non-jaguars in the clutch are sold as "jag siblings". Some really cool stuff can pop up in those siblings though. Yours appears to have a cool reduced pattern going on there, and some very nice tipping. I don't think you paid too much- you paid fair market value for a very nice carpet! Jag siblings usually go for $125-175. Jaguars go for $400-900 depending on who bred them and how old they are.

[marvelfreak]

Hello and welcome! I have to agree with Kim, but still a amazingly beautiful snake. Some Jag sibling turn out looking as sweet as Jags.

[Will0W783]

I know, Chuck. My jaguar sibling male, High Voltage, is one of my absolute favorite-looking snakes. There is some thought as to whether pattern abberancies can be carried in the siblings and passed on to future generations when they are bred back to a jaguar. A good friend of mine is working on one such project with a very neat abberant jaguar. Volt is that snake's brother and therefore might be quite the genetic spectacle if he finds something to the siblings.

[giambi4343]

he actually still doesnt have a name:P i cant think of an exotic one and i have been litterally thinking everytime i drive to and from work haha.

[Will0W783]

Naming them is the hardest part- you have to think of things until something just "clicks." I've got so many snakes that I'm running out of names, lol. I came up with Volt's name because shortly after I got him I was telling a friend about him and how he just looked "electric" with his bright glowing yellows. They said "Like the yellow on the Danger High Voltage signs?" And it just fit. So he's High Voltage, aka Volt for short. And when I found my female, I played off the electricity thing and named her Electra. But sometimes I've had snakes for a few months before coming up with the perfect name. You'll get it, just be patient and keep your thinking cap on..lol. He's a really neat looking carpet!

[giambi4343]

kim,
i am still holding you to your word for breeding:) i am anxious to see what my male would produce?!

[Will0W783]

Lol, no problem! As soon as he's ready, we will work something out. He seems to be a very good-looking fellow. I've kind of got a carpet python sausage fest, with 4 males and only 2 gals, but one male I don't know the lineage and don't intend to ever breed, and one of the other males won't be ready for another 2 years probably.

[giambi4343]

i just took more pictures about ten minutes ago! when i opened the cage, he was hissing a little but no striking or anything like that. after i pickep him up with snake tongs, he was fine out of the cage. i couldnt believe how strong this little guy was. he wrapped around my middle and ring finger and was turning them purple! he loves the camera. he was holding perfectly still when i needed him to:) also, he kept reaching for the camera when i would put it close to him. actually really funny. i am begining to trush him a little more each time i hold him. i was bit once by an adult carpet and was probably the worst bite ive ever gotten.... so that is always in the back of my head. i dont show fear towards him, because i know snakes can feel fear. anyway, here are some pictures ive taken:) enjoy!!!

http://i51.tinypic.com/2u7w2ev.jpg

with flash
http://i56.tinypic.com/95psp5.jpg

http://i54.tinypic.com/21mtg6a.jpg

http://i53.tinypic.com/bevv45.jpg

http://i55.tinypic.com/9kaw5x.jpg

[giambi4343]

http://i56.tinypic.com/muvlds.jpg

http://i55.tinypic.com/33bd8uq.jpg



with flash. looks like hes coming out/going into the shaddows
http://i52.tinypic.com/2eye7fb.jpg

http://i54.tinypic.com/j9sn5v.jpg

this is a picture of him squeezing the hell out of my fingers. you can see them purple!
http://i56.tinypic.com/2ii8wth.jpg

with flash
http://i52.tinypic.com/igx95e.jpg

[Will0W783]

Wow, he has got a seriously cool pattern...I can see why he could be mistaken for a jaguar. The head pattern doesn't fit though, but he definitely has something interesting going on with his pattern. It will be cool to see if it proves out genetic or adds some abberancy to jaguar babies.

[giambi4343]

when you say the head pattern doesnt fit, what do you mean? you make a good point about what he can produce. thats why im so anxious to breed him:)

[Will0W783]

The head pattern is too dark and thick, and the lines all connect. This is rare in jaguars, which usually have reduced patterning all over the body, including the head. Since there is so much variation among carpet python head patterns though, one has to consider several factors when judging what is a jaguar and what is not. The eye color (jaguars have striking light silver, sometimes almost white eyes while regular carpets have darker pewter to charcoal eyes), the head pattern should be choppy and reduced and abberant (some look like demons, or skulls, or flowers or TVs, or letters), the side patterns should be rounded and look almost like bubbles coming up from the stomach and should not connect at the back (normal carpet pythons have dorsal patterning and the side patterns connect while a jag's back is almost always the base color with no pattern), the overall pattern should be reduced and well spaced, and genetics (you cannot produce a jaguar if neither parent was jaguar). Jaguar is a co-dominant (aka incomplete dominant) morph- meaning that 1 copy of the gene will look different from normal but 2 copies will also look different from 1 copy. In this case, a single copy of the gene gives a visible jaguar, and 2 copies of the gene is always lethal but would produce a leucistic animal. The longest a leucy carpet survived, to my knowledge, is 12 hours after hatching. Most die in the egg and never hatch. No one is sure why the condition is lethal in carpets but not other pythons like balls and Burmese. The siblings in a jaguar clutch are called "jag siblings" but do not carry the jaguar gene at all. However, they tend to be a bit more abberant in pattern than pure locality carpets that have no jaguar in their bloodlines and can be really neat snakes. Once you've seen enough jaguars, the morph becomes very easy to distinguish at a single glance. Here are some links to good pictures of nice clean jaguars and explanations of the morph:
http://us.123rf.com/400wm/400/400/amwu/amwu0811/amwu081100419/3930114-jungle-jaguar-carpet-python-morelia-spilota-variegata-on-white-background.jpg
Anthony Caponetto Reptiles - Jaguar Carpet Pythons (http://www.acreptiles.com/pythons_carpet_jaguar.htm)
Propagating Carpet Pythons (http://www.kyherpsoc.org/carpetpythons.html)
http://www.reptilechannel.com/images/article-images/granite-jaguar-carpet-pytho.jpg

Also keep in mind that most jaguar carpets are not locality pure. The jaguar gene exists only in coastal carpet python subspecies. However, coastal jags are usually cream background with brown patterning, and people have bred coastal jaguars with pure jungle carpets or with IJs to create the more colorful jaguars. The siblings are all "mutts" as they have no pure bloodline anymore. However, they are still cool snakes. I will have to get you some pictures of High Voltage- who is one of the brightest carpets I've seen in a long time. His brother, Jigsaw, is a very famous jaguar who is producing some of the neatest abberant jags (dont' look like normal jags at all- very choppy) and is himself very unusually patterned. Here is a link to a picture of Jigsaw (owned and produced by my good friend Mike Curtin in NJ):
Jaguar Carpets :: Jigsaw 1 picture by curtinherps - Photobucket (http://s992.photobucket.com/albums/af49/curtinherps/Jaguar%20Carpets/?action=view&current=Jigsaw1.jpg&currenttag=Python)