Alternative to dwarf retic

My Jungle carpets have very nice personalities. The female is about 8ft and very inquisitive. She's always on the move while being handled. All my carpets seem to settle down at around 1 year old. The Jaguars are really cool and affordable now too. I keep my Jungles in Boaphile 422s and my Irian Jayas in Neodesha 3ft cages. Mine are out 99% of the time and like to climb at night.

i really like the idea of a carpet python now. how much do carpet pythons change as it grows? I want a adult that is bright yellow like this

http://www.acreptiles.com/main/image...termarkpng.jpg

but the babies i see usually looks like this
http://www.acreptiles.com/main/image...termarkpng.jpg

will all of them turn yellow over time? key of like a reverse aging effect of bumblebees in bp?

Carpets can change color dramatically from when they are hatchlings to when they are grown. From my understanding, they are a couple of years old before they reach their full colors. The important thing is seeing the parents of the one you are looking to buy, and even better if the breeder can show you one and two year-olds from the same pairings. It still isn't guaranteed, but it will give you a good idea of the baby's potential.

I already have some babies in mind and the price is quite reasonable.:) I'm still a little concern with their temperament though, people from other herp forums and groups are telling me carpets are in general very nippy, it is only the rare ones that are calm. some are even saying in general retic are less nippy and more tame than carpets..... any truth? Look up videos on youtube and there are quite a bit of video of carpets acting aggressive compare to say boa and burmese.

Also how fast do carpet usually grow?

Who are these "other forums"?! Don't you know that BP.net is the end-all-be-all of herp experts?! :salute: My IJ is very inquisitive and active. She is NOT "nippy". I think people who make those generalizations are referring to babies, not adults. especially since I can't imagine referring to a bite from this girl as a "nip". My girl was already an adult/subadult when I got her, so I can't attest to growth rate, but I bet Google can help there. ;)

they are not english forums :P. look up their growth rate seems like they grow really slow compare to balls.... looks like my new addition can spent quite awhile inside the bp rack:D

I have a 3 yr old Irian female and I can tell you that when she was a juvi she was definitely nippy. It took some time but now shes sweet as pie. I have gone away for a week to a week and a half at a clip, and she wasnt really handled when I was gone, and she has been fine.

With regular handling and TLC shes has grown in to being a fine addition to my collection. Plus I love arboreal pythons and her colors and patterns are so unique they definitely pop right at you (esp since colors seem to be important to you)....

IMO if you want something even more crazy but be forewarned they are aggressive, go with a Cooks Tree Boa. Wicked coloring and crazy looking eyes but they are nippy.... Was the first snake to ever sink into me too...

Good luck with your search! Whatever you get I am sure it will be great...

Carpets can really be hit or miss. I have 3 carpets and have handled quite a few others. I would say there is about a 70% chance a carpet will become an easy to handle, trusting snake.

I have an adult female Diamond Jungle that I got at about a year old and have had her for about a year and a half now that is still pretty jumpy. She doesn't strike anymore but you can tell she still doesn't like being handled. I would not trust letting anyone else hold her unless they were ok with possibly getting tagged. a 6 ft jumpy carpet can be a little intimidating to some.

I also have a male Jungle that that I got about the same time as the girl that I hand picked as a hatchling. He has never even struck at me and is super calm and inquisitive. He is one of my favorites.

Then there is my Coastal Jag who is only about 8 months old and wants to bite everything. Hoping he will calm down over the next year because he is gorgeous and I want to be able to show him off without scaring the hell out of people...

Not trying to scare you off from Carpets but just want to make sure you understand that Carpets are nothing like Ball Pythons and aggressive ones usually will not calm down on there own, and can take a lot of working with to get them to calm down. That being said, they are an amazing species to work with and are a great stepping stone for people wanting to work with larger snakes.

yea that's what others been telling me too. whether the carpet turns out tame or not is really luck of the draw. If i pick a carpet that is relatively tame at a hatchling will it stay like this as it grows? Don't have any breeders locally so I will get the baby shipped, gonna have to trust the breeder's word on whether the baby is nippy or not

I had 2 females to choose from for my Irian Jaya, the one with the nicer head pattern was nippy (but at around 50 grams and hungry I wouldn't expect anything else). The one that came home and is still in QT surprised me by being very curious but showing no inclination to strike. After being picked up she didn't even show signs of wanting to flee she just checked me out thoroughly, wrapped around my arm and got comfortable.
Seeing her demeanor totally sold me on that girl.
What started as strictly a pet has me already thinking I should keep an eye out for some I-J axanthics, granites and maybe some jags.

O/T: Normally I am not a fan of hybrids but you "have" to see these, especially the 2nd snake.
http://moreliatrophyclub.com/Hybrids.html
Even if that bit everyday it would almost be worth it just to see that daily.

Oh and you really should see Treeboa's snakes in the Morelia subsection of bp.net. He has some very nice specimens.