Jungle or Coastal? Still am not 100% sure

[Kyle Walkinshaw]

Here's some shots of my little carpet python. He was sold to me as a "jungle" so he better be but his yellows don't really seem to be coming in much to me. He's only about approx. 5 months so maybe i'm just being impatient?? Tell me what you all think, the more thoughts the better :)

In this shot his colors are bright on the right side and dull down on the left side, thats not the camera thats how they are. Is that normal?

http://gallery.****************/data/19354SSCN1233.JPG

http://gallery.****************/data/19354SSCN1232.JPG

Thx in advance,
Kyle Walkinshaw~

[vanderkm]

Can't see the photos of yours, but our pair of youngsters were starting to get yellow by that age, though I suspect there is lots of variation in speed. There is a lot of range in jungle color as well - many people show photos of their yellowest, but the mother of ours was actually a chalky, cream color and she still produced yellow youngsters when bred to a yellow male. Karel Bergman has photos of a range of colors on his web site at http://www.morelia.ca/ under Articles and in his photo gallery.

This is our female at 1.5 year of age after a big meal.

Mary v
http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/507/63sydney_i_resized.jpg

[Dom]

can't see the pics as well .. try to repost them ..

and mary lol thats a definite jungles lol

Nice looker too

[Zoe]

The pics didn't work because they are from king.snake.com. This is what happens to your code when you type king.snake.com correctly: **************

Save them to the ssnakess gallery.
But I'll post them for you now:

<img src=http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/500/135pic2.jpg>

<img src=http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/500/135pic1.jpg>

Looks like a coastal to me.

[Kyle Walkinshaw]

Thanks Zoe!

I know the side striping is usually coastal but does anyone know if it is possible in jungles aswell? I know I saw another juvi. jungle pic with only slightly less striping...?

Regards, Kyle Walkinshaw~

[JIMI]

dont base classification on striping. because i've seen jungles with insane amounts of striping before. also in pattern variation. I had a jungle with lateral striping, and no banding .. its pattern was totally different than all JCP's you've ever seen lol.

hard to say for sure, but 85% sure that's got some coastal in it at least, and that's based just on colour. if you can get pics of the entire body, then something could be told by the pattern.

also, how old and large is it right now? looks like a baby, that's why i'm saying its got some coastal based on the colour.

[JIMI]

and ya i noticed that about queensnake.com ... you cant post pics from here on queensnake either. I almost got banned once because i tried a bunch of posts with ssnakess.com extensions lol.

[Dom]

Id say its probably a coastal with a bit of jungle influence..

either way .. its a beaut!

[JKUROSKI]

why don't you do a scale count for him JIMI....lol

[Kyle Walkinshaw]

He/she is very nice, its temperment has improved sooo much and an awsome feeder but I just really had my heart set on breeding pure jungles... :( MEH..I'll just buy two more jungle a few IJ's and have a larger carpet collection than expected :)

Jimi, here's a body shot of the carpet, i'll post some more later tonight when I get home from work.

http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/507/700sscn1254.jpg

Kyle~

[JIMI]

the pattern doesnt exactly scream "coastal" to me... i think that the stripes just throw off the JCP pattern to give little hints of what coastals usually have. it's a JCP for sure, but it still aint pure.

[vanderkm]

The Barker's book lists some differences between jungles and coastals in the head markings that may help. They report jungles have a very distinct black line through the eye, another under the mouth from the corner of the jaw to just below the eye and these are softened, greyish or absent in coastals. The jungles have a very distinct pattern on the top of the head, where coastals have more blended coloration. They report jungle eyes as being consistently darker and looking black, compared to coastal eyes often looking grey. There is a lot more on scale counts, etc but I thought these distinctions might be helpful.
Our crossbred (previous post) is very jungle like in appearance, as is yours - aside from the striping, but the light eye and perhaps lack of the black line under the jaw might support that it has coastal blood. Still a pretty snake, and the suspicion that it is not pure may be just the reason you need to get more - which is never a bad thing!

mary v.

[Kyle Walkinshaw]

Mary, he actually does have a black line under the jaw, it just cannot be seen in any of those shots :) but I guess the eye it still a little grey compared to other JCP's

[Kyle Walkinshaw]

JIMI, how do you know for sure that mine is a JCP?

[snakemann87]

Im not too good with Morelias, sorrry.

[rocket]

i am certainly no expert in regards to the classification of snakes even regarding the different python species but i have spent my life growing up in and around the areas that these two specific snakes live naturally in the wild. i noticed that one of the people who replied to your post said that it may not be pure. i am not too sure that i agree. from what i have seen of your post it looks to be more pure than most of the ones i see in this site. alot of the native jungles are not that brightly coloured. the colours are usually strengthened through selective breeding which is not always an option in the wild. personally i think that you have a fine specimen of a jungle python native to the atherton tableland area of north queensland. good luck with your herping experiences and i think that you have a very nice snake that looks healthy and that alone should make you happy. good luck. happy herping.

[JIMI]

the head pattern is too crisp to be a coastal. i've never seen a coastal with a crisp classic head pattern that you see on JCP's and IJ's. also, the pattern on the body just doesnt throw any hints that it's a coastal. the colours mostly confound to what you'd find in a JCP, but there are a few colours that hint some costal influence. definitely not a coastal. and not a pure jcp.

[Katt]

I'm with coastal all the way. That lateral striping is pretty "coastalish" to me.

Just checked the heads on my coastals. One looks pretty crisp on the head to me and she's pure.

Count the scales just past the nose, I've heard the coastals have five, the JCP's have four. All my coastals have five and some degree of lateral striping.

[Kyle Walkinshaw]

My "JCP" has 4 scales on the nose where Katt said all hers have 5, this is asuming i'm looking at the right place.

Thank you everyone for all your input :D


Regards,
Kyle~

[JIMI]

i've had pure jcp's with 5 as well. i've never done coastal head scale counts before so i cant say anything there. lateral striping is a common find in all carpet pythons.