Cage recommendation, sub adult coastal carpet python

[threezero]

So as of now, i have my only coastal carpet female house in my ball python rack. I haven't weight her recently (too feisty, its hard to get her to sit still somewhere for me to weight her) but i estimate her to be around 1200g -1300g right now and i can tell she is still packing on size. She is outgrowing the tub pretty fast and its little hard to manage her inside the small tub. I'm considering upgrading her to a pvc cage in a few months.

is she big enough to spent the rest of her live in her permanately cage yet? meaning am i as this point safe to invest in an adult cage for her that she will spent the rest of her life in? or do i still need to upgrade later on and stick with a smaller cage now?

She is a super aggressive feeder so i'm not too worry about bigger cage stressing her out but who knows maybe a bigger cage will make her feel more insecure and more mean…on the topic of feeding. which type of door is best to get for an aggressive feeder?, she literally flys out sometimes and i have to gently scoop her back in, but she still would loosen her bite on the rat to strike at me when i do that. is sliding doors better of the one piece flip up ones?

any recommendation on brands and model to go with? i have a RBI rack and love it very much but it doesn't appear RBI makes any pvc cages last time i check. My budget is around $200 give or take a little for both the cage and heating element. Some priority would be easy of cleaning, and built quality. Does a mainly ground dweller need a shelf?

any inputs would be great and would be awesome if any of you guys are willing to show off your carpet cage setup

[threezero]

one thing to add, i feed live because i breed my own rats and it is much easier for me to feed live.

it pretty easy to pop open the tub and throw a rat in that shut it quickly right now but sometimes it will still strike faster than i can react and thats when i usually end up with snake and rat outside tub and a big mess trying to get him back in the tub and him trying to defend his rat from me.


now that i think about it it seems even harder to throw in live rats with sliding doors? does anybody here does it?


she is not easy to handle and every time i try to handle her for more than 2 mins she will try to strangle my arm to death and i have to forcefully remove her from my arm. right now i can just drop her in the tub after i untangle her before she has a chance to to strangle me again, with a sliding door or flip up door will i have a easier time or harder time? some of you must keep aggressive specimen in these type of housing?

[Gio]

Hey bud,,,

Here is what I have going on. I just bought a female coastal although it looks very jungle. She is an April 2013 baby and I moved her to the boa constrictor's old cage.

Here is our setup.

We also have a royal python but the coastal or jungle or cross is totally digging her 48" x 24" x 14" cage. It's the top cage. This is before we bought her.



And this is how she hangs out now.

[vangarret2000]

It would probably be fine to move it into its permanent tank. I generally only upgrade once for any species of snake and never had issues doing it. What size tank are you planning on moving it into? A 4x2 is generally ok for a carpet python but I would recommend a 5x2 for a coastal. My coastal is in a 5x2. I also have my jungle in a 4x2. The 4x2 works for the jungle but I plan in building it a bigger tank in about 2 months. I like them to have the extra room more for easier clean up really. I keep 2 hides in my tanks for them and proper sized ones take up a bunch of the floor space so my jungle ends up dumping on the hides a lot. My coastal has that little extra room so it doesn't really happen in its tank that often. I also wanna build a taller tank for my jungle too. Coastals don't really climb at all once full grown so you don't need height in the tank I you don't want it.

Both of them are in sliding glass tanks. If find that works good for feeding and putting back in the tank when holding as half is blocked off so less chance of them trying to climb back out. And for feeding I just open the side they aren't on so they will have to move sideways to strike at the rat instead of out of the tank.

[vangarret2000]

Carpets aren't really an "aggressive" specimen. They are just more active and faster then other species. Some can be nasty but most really aren't. They are a more aggressive feeder but it really isn't as hard to deal with, as it may seem to you right now, once you have more experience with it.

[vangarret2000]

Hey bud,,,

Here is what I have going on. I just bought a female coastal although it looks very jungle. She is an April 2013 baby and I moved her to the boa constrictor's old cage.

Here is our setup.

We also have a royal python but the coastal or jungle or cross is totally digging her 48" x 24" x 14" cage. It's the top cage. This is before we bought her.



And this is how she hangs out now.

Is the picture of your snake showing its natural colors or is the lighting not great in it? You just mention you think it might have jungle in it so I was wondering what it looked like. Do you have more pictures of it showing it fully? Belly too? Carpets get cross bred so much it is more likely then not to have some percentage of different subspecies in a subject now a days so it could be likely you have a coastal jungle cross. If it is a yellow coloring that makes you think that also remember jag is a coastal trait so it could just have some of that in there too.

[Gio]

Is the picture of your snake showing its natural colors or is the lighting not great in it? You just mention you think it might have jungle in it so I was wondering what it looked like. Do you have more pictures of it showing it fully? Belly too? Carpets get cross bred so much it is more likely then not to have some percentage of different subspecies in a subject now a days so it could be likely you have a coastal jungle cross. If it is a yellow coloring that makes you think that also remember jag is a coastal trait so it could just have some of that in there too.

Hello,

Yes, here in the US I know the gene pool is quite diluted and crossed.

Just so we don't screw up this thread, here is more of my new pickup.

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...1-Very-excited!

Having read some from Nick Mutton and learning a lot from the guy who build my cages, I feel I could have a cross, a coastal or a jungle.

Oddly, both parents are coastal carpets and I have the picture of them posted.

Feel free to chime in on that thread.

[threezero]

thanks everyone for the advice.

i wouldn't say my girl is aggressive, rather its super defensive, most of the time she strikes me with a close mouth. I want to handle her more but if i do attempt to handle her longer she strangles my hand and tips on getting her to relax on the strangling would be much appreciated. Right now i keep the handling to a minimal, no longer than a few mins at a time before she realize she's is on my hand and starts to strangle me.

Any brand in particular you guys recommend? i would like one that has minimal gaps so its easy to clean?

[vangarret2000]

If you want them to be better at being handled the tip is to handle more not do what's minimal.

[MarkS]

The carpets that I have are very enthusiastic feeders and curious and active when out of their cages but I wouldn't say any of them are 'aggressive', they're definately a lot more active than ball pythons. You do want to be wary around those teeth at feeding time though. A 3 X 2 or a 4 X 2 cage will be fine for life but you'll probably want to go higher so you can put in a climbing branch (say 18" high or so)

For tips on handling, I'd say that a lot of people hold their snakes too tightly in an effort to control their actions, snakes HATE that. Don't think of it as holding your snake, it's more like letting them hold you. Hold them very loosely and let them move. Guide their movement rather then restrict it. I like to think of my hands as a snake treadmill.