Coastal Carpet Python

[metallisch]

This is my April '11 coastal female, she is an absolute sweetheart. Her appetite is starting to get crazy but she doesn't seem interested in rats, only mice.

http://i.imgur.com/KVKSV.jpg

[marvelfreak]

Very nice. Would love to see a full body shot of this girl.

[Lankyrob]

If you keep giving in and offering mice when she wont take rats then she never will eat a rat. You need to have more will power than she has and ONLY offer rats evey 14 days until she gives in and eats one.

When she is full grown you are gonna have to feed her LOTS of mice to fill her up!! :)

[MoreliAddict]

Reason her appetite is getting crazy is because she's on mice. Only offer rats for a while, try to hold out until she takes one. Once they take their first rat, they're usually set for life.

An adult Coastal could take 15+ mice in a single feeding, you don't want it to get there.

Nice looking Coastal.

[metallisch]

Sorry, I meant to say April '12, just in case anyone was confused.

I just needed to get food in her belly because she came to me with a slight RI that I ended up providing oral antibiotics for. The comment about willpower is right though, I have a problem with caving to the wishes of my herps ;)

Thanks for the motivation everyone! I'll get her on rats yet.

[UwabamiReptiles]

Nice coastal, I would also like to see a full body shot if you have one. Good luck switching her to rats, some can be a pain to switch over.

[metallisch]

Your wish is my command...

http://i.imgur.com/m2ji5.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/3JMK6.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/uBShw.jpg

See a bunch of photos of the rest of my collection (including the ones I just posted) here:
http://www.ssnakess.com/forums/photography-discussion/95864-my-herps-inverts-image-heavy.html#post780287

[nicks75]

That's a great looking snake. Are you sure it's a coastal, at least a pure coastal, it looks more like a jungle?

[metallisch]

That's kind of what I was thinking, but the mother of this girl was 12 feet long. She's not quite as bright yellow as some of the pictures suggest. I'm really not sure, I guess time will tell..

[metallisch]

Hi all, I've dug up photos that the breeder sent me of the parents of this snake. Perhaps this could be meaningful information as to genetics of my snake to someone with more experience than I?

http://i.imgur.com/3Sw6S.jpg Female

http://i.imgur.com/bVp66.jpg Male

[shaunyboy]

That's a great looking snake. Are you sure it's a coastal, at least a pure coastal, it looks more like a jungle?

^^^^^
thats exactly what i thought mate

it looks like a pure jungle rather than a coastal

imo the parents don't look very coastal either

good looking carpet mate

as said,its best to get him on rats straight away,as sometimes the older they get,the harder it is to change them over

it will take lots of mice per feed to fill an adult carpet

cheers shaun

[Snakeman8]

awesome snake, i love carpets.

[durinar]

yeah carpets rocks.....

[shaunyboy]

stop offering her mice altogther,as sometimes the older the carpet gets,the harder it gets to cross them over,from mice to rats,it takes a lot of mice to feed an adult carpet python...

SCENT the rats with mice..

heat a rat and a mouse up,then burst open the mouse,and smear the mouse blood and guts over the rat,then give the rat another quick heat,then offer it to the snake on feeding tongs

you can also brain the rat,puncture the skull 3 or 4 times,with a pair of scissors,until you see grey liquid coming out the puncture holes (brain matter)

give the head another quick heat and offer to the snake...

do NOT offer mice,NO matter how long your snake holds out for,it should take scented prey once its hungry..

once you get it taking heavily scented rats,then reduce the amount of scent every 2nd feed,until the snake takes unscented rats

cheers shaun