Getttin a Snake

[FoxxyAzn]

Went to this lil pet store near where I live and saw this legit lil creature. A Jungle Carpet Python! Parents said I can have it after friday. Interims come out on friday. But im not worried. How are JCPs? are they good tempered? DO they need a humidity thing? Ive read abunch about them but i wanna hear from experienced people. What is your opinion on them?

[NennaMeerkat]

I know it isn't what you are asking but I have to wave the flag of caution on buying a reptile from a pet store instead of directly from a breeder.

As for JCP there are many people around here who will be more than happy to help you out with your questions on them. From what I have read they are decently cool snakes :)

[infernalis]

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

[DeesBalls]

Not all pet are bad though, I got 6 out of 7 reptiles at set stores and they all are great.

But I will say, a breeder is always the better choice if possible.

[Lankyrob]

Welcome, depends how old the JCP is, younger ones tend to be nippier than older ones but all snakes are different. In the UK we say that carpets dont need humidity, however, our relative humidity pretty much never falls below 50%.

Any questions just aks away,we have many carpet keepers here.

[FoxxyAzn]

its a local store. i talked to the owner's son( read on a site that many pet stores sell those caught animals ) and he said he got it from a breeder a snake/reptile show in Atlanta. Do lil snake nips hurts? cus if its lika ferrets kinda bite i got no problem. even got bite by my neighbors lizard. i got a high pain tolerance. i have broken my back before

[FoxxyAzn]

literally! not one of those attention hounds! haha car accident last year.

[dshin963]

Lol as long as you are patient handle periodically and maintain proper husbandry you will be fine
That being said what are your plans for housing?

[Lankyrob]

Snake bites are NOTHING compared to a ferret bite, even a cat bite is worse than a snake bite, thinking about it a hamster or gerbil bite is worse than snake bites. Snakes teeth are very very sharp so they puncture easily into the skin so not much pain, getting them off can be fun if they dont release, main thing is to try not to snatch the hand away as you can damage the teeth.

[FoxxyAzn]

hahaha thats not bad!! and im keeping it at my parents place hahaha the snake i played with is a baby. bout a foot i believe. lil over. haha never been a math person. I gotcha! yeah! i saw this video on youtube of this guy whose reticulated python had its teeth in his ankle and he was more freaked out that his friends were going to break its teeth then his blood pouring out hahaha but i understand that! bites, cuts heal within days. but abuncha broken teeth would take a much more time and maybe never heal

[dshin963]

Lol as long as you are patient handle periodically and maintain proper husbandry you will be fine
That being said what are your plans for housing?

[stephanbakir]

Jcp's are great fun once you put the work in.

[mistersprinkles]

Went to this lil pet store near where I live and saw this legit lil creature. A Jungle Carpet Python! Parents said I can have it after friday. Interims come out on friday. But im not worried. How are JCPs? are they good tempered? DO they need a humidity thing? Ive read abunch about them but i wanna hear from experienced people. What is your opinion on them?

Hi welcome.

I would suggest you seriously not buy from a pet shop. Ever. Any animal. Go there to see animals, and then find a breeder. The internet has totally changed the way things work. You can find anything in 5 minutes, much higher quality. Breeders sell their lowest quality stock to pet shops for very little (say $25 for a ball python, at the most), and then that pet shop sells that animal at $90. For $90 that breeder would sell you a much higher quality snake with much nicer markings.

You can find a carpet python breeder on craigslist, or other classifieds like that, or through a reptile club in your area, that you can find in 2 seconds on google. IF you totally can't track anything down, then get the snake from a pet shop.

You'll need a big enough enclosure for the snake at various stages of life- you can start with a smaller one if it is very small, as well as proper heating, and the ability to be warmer and cooler at either end of the enclosure, and food and water. That's about it.

Carpets in general are not the most polite snakes in the world but they're not mean. You will probably get nipped a few times when the snake is small. Just be gentle with it and don't react. It can't hurt you, even as an adult. Snakes can't bite down. They don't have the jaw joint or muscles for it. If anything it'll leave a scratch but you could not really call a snake bite painful unless the snake is 8ft+ and has a very large head. So don't worry about that. If you've ever been bitten by a very angry hamster/rabbit/ferret/guinea pig, no snake bite will ever hurt that much. Even an angry 7 foot boa constrictor is maybe 1/20th angry hamster.

Humidity wise, that depends where you live. If you lived in Nevada or Arizona where the humidity is not high at all, you might want to regulate to the snake's natural humidity (I think it's 60% you want to look that up). If you live in, say, Miami, then absolutely no need to concern yourself. I don't know how people live there... I barely made it home without melting.

[stephanbakir]

Had a retic bite down on my jacket once, closest a retic has come to biting me. Ruined a high quality leather jacket:P
Getting bit by a small snake is fun, but the larger ones are a trip to the hospital.

[mistersprinkles]

Had a retic bite down on my jacket once, closest a retic has come to biting me. Ruined a high quality leather jacket:P
Getting bit by a small snake is fun, but the larger ones are a trip to the hospital.

:yes:

Trip to the hospital. Dude. Come on. I've been bitten directly on the hand and arm by a snake with a head the size of a fist several times. Not once have I been to the hospital. I took some deep fang penetration from a very large European adder once too. That was lame. No hospital though. I don't recommend the experience. But it's not the worst thing that could happen. I'd much rather an angry large boid bite me than an angry ferret. No snake is going to give you a puncture wound down to the bone unless we're talking 12ft>, or you're a small child, in which case you should not be handling a large snake, or anything over 3 feet IMO.

[stephanbakir]

Tell that to a friend of mine, hes got a scar about 7 inches long on his chest from when his cat jumped up and scratched the snakes tail, the snake flipped out and nabbed him.
Keep in mind this snake was dog tame, turns out they don't like claws in their tail.

Large snakes have the potential to inflict allot of damage, most never will and will make amazing "pets" but they will always be "wild" animals and should be treated like wild animals.

[mistersprinkles]

Ok, but that's not a 'necessary' hospital trip. I can't see any non venemous snake inflicting any damage that would actually require a trip to the hospital other than to prevent undersirable cosmetic scarring. You can't get any kind of life threatening injury other than suffocation from a large boid.. And suffocation is sort of a non-grey-area thing. You tend to come out dead on the other end.

[Wolfus_305]

Hi,
Welcome to the forum!

I have a jungleXjaguar carpet that I have had to get rid of because she's VERY bitey and I just cannot handle that.

If this is your first snake I might suggest something a little smaller or something that is known to have a more docile personality, such as a ball python.

Make sure you do lots of research on the proper care your new snake will need. if you have questions don't be afraid to ask here, lots of very knowledgeable people

Kendra

[stephanbakir]

I can't see any non venomous snake inflicting any damage that would actually require a trip to the hospital other than to prevent undesirable cosmetic scarring.
I can think of a few locations on my body i wouldn't like getting bitten, eyes/jewels/neck ANY significant damage to these areas and I'm going to the hospital, eyes and neck are very delicate and while the eyes probably wont be life threatening, its still worth the trip.