Snakes & Exercise

[Albert Clark]

What a marvelous collection EL! They all look amazing, and you obviously have been giving them attention to detail. It shows in each one of them. Yep, constrictor fitness guru/ instructor extroadinaire!!!! Lol.

[Gio]

Zig,

You have a male Bredli too don't you?

I'm close to getting my guy out for some pictures when it warms a bit. My fella is a September 2017 hatch. He's not overly long right now but he is quite the dense package of muscle.

I read a thread a while back that you were expecting your Bredli to be your largest carpet. How's he doing these days?

I'm missing my Jewel. She was an 8+ footer before she passed. My newer crew members here are not there yet, and there is no rush but I wouldn't mind seeing your male Bredli since we share the same species.

[EL-Ziggy]

Zig,

You have a male Bredli too don't you?

I'm close to getting my guy out for some pictures when it warms a bit. My fella is a September 2017 hatch. He's not overly long right now but he is quite the dense package of muscle.

I read a thread a while back that you were expecting your Bredli to be your largest carpet. How's he doing these days?

I'm missing my Jewel. She was an 8+ footer before she passed. My newer crew members here are not there yet, and there is no rush but I wouldn't mind seeing your male Bredli since we share the same species.

Brother Gio,

Jewel will always be the Queen of Carpets on this forum to me. We all miss her. She was a beautiful specimen. I have to admit that I'm a bit disappointed with my male Bredli. I really thought he was going to be a big boy, but he's actually the smallest of my 5 carpets. I have no idea why this guy doesn't grow like the others. He's kind of a finicky feeder but I still thought he'd put on more size. He'll eat mice anytime but only eats medium rats occasionally and I usually have to scent them. He's a 2015 animal that I got in 2016. Here's a picture of him and one of my 2015 JCP. The JJxJCP in my original post is a 2016 animal. As you can see there's a huge difference. The Bredli is about 5' and still pretty thin and both the jungles are 7'+ and much thicker. The Bredi is one of my son's favorite snakes though so he's not going anywhere.

2015 Bredli w/2009 kiddo.


2015 JCP

[Gio]

That's crazy LOL! He still looks awesome.
Do you think he would like quail? All of my snakes except the Royal love quail, and I love what it does for their gape. Lighter and leaner than rats, but so much harder to eat.

I will say Jewel was a terrible eater but what was strange to me is she grew the most in her last 3 years. It was completely unexpected and once the retic was out of here, I started noticing she was catching up to his length. I think he left here at about 9 feet. Jewel was a tad over 8 as I mentioned. Thanks for the kind words about her. She was the best mixed, mutt for $80 I could have dreamed of.

I'm not sure how much more my Bredli will grow either, however I'm hopeful he's got more in him. He's going to hit 5 years old in September. He's a strong eater and if he's behind in size it is because he was one of Nick's possible breeder males before we made the deal and he was fed less than the typical non-breeder pet. Mind you, I still feed with the seasons in mind here so I'm not stuffing him.

I have a study saved somewhere that I can't find at the moment, that discusses successful early feeding in some species of pythons. The study is called;
THE SILVER SPOON EFFECT.

In a nutshell, the first year of feeding determines size as an adult. It states well fed animals end up being the largest later in life and playing catchup after the first year didn't seem to matter.

I'm not able to recall what species they were looking at. I know Jewel did the opposite. She grew later in life and was never a consistent eater.

I don't think the study applies to a lot of python species though and I'm not sure what the variables were.

I'm a bit off topic so I'll get back on.

Thanks for the Bredli picture!