Pandora's Thread

The first python finally joined the family today! This girl was 100% worth the loooong wait for shipping.

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Meet Pandora, a 2020 female West Papuan carpet produced by Nick Mutton at Inland Reptile. Her reduced headstamp always drew my eye back when I was looking for a Papuan carpet in the Fall, before Life Ensued and I had to cancel my plans for a new snake. Things improved, and when I saw her updated picture in January, I was sold! She was actually the last of her clutch left, so it feels like it was meant to be.

She's been a solid citizen so far -- very active and curious, but not nervous or nippy. I've also been told she's also a solid feeder. She seems to be enjoying her new box and settling in well thus far. As of tonight, she'll have a week to herself to properly settle in ahead of her first meal here.

Here's to a few good decades, Pandora! I hope you'll enjoy them as much as I will.

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Congrats! Excellent snake, excellent breeder :)

Beautiful addition WP! I LOVE her head stamp!!

Excellent choice on all fronts.

What a beauty and what a display animal the will make.

Congrats!

Simply precious! :love: As fine a "decoration" as I've ever seen on a snake hook.

Pandora is beautiful! WOW! Stunner.

Keep us posted, as I am sure you will do. Cannot wait to see her grow.

I just posted a long response in your thread asking about feeding CP's, so I'll just comment on what a great looking carpet she is here.

I do recommend, as with the boas, to hook train. Yafe can be a little hissy when I go to pick him up, but he's all talk. Some CP's are all talk and some aren't. Either way, nice to warm them up with the hook. Additionally, that can be a good way to interact with them while they get used to being handled. They love to wrap around the stem of the hook.

Pandora continues to settle in well here. She sticks to her hide during the day and seems to enjoy coming out after sundown to poke around a bit. She passed a few urates on her first night home and stank up her tub, so I decided to switch her to coco chip a bit early to deal with the smell. (Is it just me, or are python urates smellier/muskier than boa urates?). Her new favorite hide is the tiny little cardboard box that previously held my new vanilla extract -- after seeing how much she likes it, I've decided to hold on to a bunch of other tiny little cardboard boxes for when that first one finally kicks the bucket. Pandora shall not be left wanting for boxes!


...there's a non-zero chance she may get a roommate in the quarantine room soon. My "no new snakes until everyone's in adult enclosures" policy included an "unless a friend needs to rehome something" clause, and I actually had someone ask if I could invoke it today. I'm seriously considering doing so since it's for an easy-to-manage species that's both sentimental and one I've seriously considering taking a dive on. The room would be totally shut to new additions for the foreseeable future if I do so, though. As one family member astutely pointed out, a fourth snake could potentially make it hard to find new rentals in the future. All the places I've ever talked to were okay with two reptiles, most sounded like they'd be okay with three, but four? Four could potentially be the limit, even if said reptiles aren't particularly large.

Good luck making your decision. I know what you mean...a couple doesn't set off alarms, but 4 could turn into 20 in the minds of some people.

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Originally Posted by Bogertophis

Good luck making your decision. I know what you mean...a couple doesn't set off alarms, but 4 could turn into 20 in the minds of some people.

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Thanks -- I feel like I'll be needing it. Leaning towards yes, but could still say no. I'll drop a hint for those who are interested: we're dealing with a Lampropeltis species here. And not one of the toy-sized ones.

It definitely doesn't help that four often turns into twenty for a non-insignificant number of snake people. :rofl:I've heard it said that people have either one, two, or twenty snakes, from people both within and (curiously) outside the hobby. While I'm definitely past two, I won't be going anywhere near twenty. I've cared and herp-sat for collections that size and larger and I know I don't want that many animals. Just a few decently-sized pets to enjoy over the decades, please and thank you.:)

Lampropeltis? Pssst! Do it! Say :yes: (yeah, I'm bad...)