2 yr old carpet - weight?

[Aercadia]

Hi guys, DH is a little concerned about [carpet girl]'s weight. We were told she was a 2013 (month unknown), and she currently weighs in at 251g, a little over 3 ft long (guesstimation). Everything we've read says that Carpets grow to about 4 ft (on average) in the first year, and we've had a hard time finding out about their weight at any regular kind of interval.

Does that sound right for her age/size? He's worried she is underweight, or possibly that she was mislabeled and is younger than we think. Your thoughts?

[John1982]

Much easier to tell what kind of shape she's in with a picture. I wouldn't be too concerned so long as she has good muscle tone though. Plenty of folks, myself included, grow carpets on the slower side. They can also sometimes be tricky to switch over to rats, another reason she might be on the smaller side if the previous owner was showing some tough love to a stubborn converter. Many of the aussie species don't handle overfeeding well and it's better to have a slightly skinny animal as opposed to a sausage.

[Gio]

Hi guys, DH is a little concerned about [carpet girl]'s weight. We were told she was a 2013 (month unknown), and she currently weighs in at 251g, a little over 3 ft long (guesstimation). Everything we've read says that Carpets grow to about 4 ft (on average) in the first year, and we've had a hard time finding out about their weight at any regular kind of interval.

Does that sound right for her age/size? He's worried she is underweight, or possibly that she was mislabeled and is younger than we think. Your thoughts?

What type was the carpet you bought? Did you guys get a Darwin or IJ? Those two that I mentioned are on the smaller end according to most sources.

My coastal X is 2 years old in 5 days. She is about 6 feet long and looks like this:




The photo is about 2 months old so she a bit longer now.
She is more than likely crossed with jungle or diamond.

She is still relatively slender, and is a bit thicker than a garden hose in some areas. I feed Large rats, quail, and chicks.

Contrary to what some folks think, carpet pythons are capable of taking HUGE prey items without any issues and as mentioned above if the previous owner was feeding small prey, the growth of the snake will be much slower.

Growth rates are different with each individual snake and you may want to ask to see the parents of your snake to see the potential adult size.

This is the mother of my snake. This photo is already about 3 years old and the breeder's girlfriend was holding her up here to show her size.



I'm told now she is close to 9.5 to 10 feet long, but that is still a slender looking snake IMO.




You should take a few photos, but there isn't a reason for concern at this point unless you see a glaring issue. If you bump up prey size you will see increased growth. If you are having issues with transferring to rats, try to scent the rats with chicks or quail prior to feeding. I had to keep some of my frozen rats in a bag with frozen chicks to get my girl interested in eating. My snake has been and can still be picky.

The weight of carpets comes with proportional growth so if you still have a short snake, the weight normally won't be much.
I recommend the book THE COMPLETE CARPET PYTHON I think that will give you an understanding of the Morelia group.

Get your snake feeding once settled and it will grow.

[Aercadia]

This is the best I can do for a scale reference right now :( Sorry. She's hiding and we don't want to pull her out (she got a little stressed out yesterday because we had to finagle the lights). This is a pic taken a couple days ago, and a pic I grabbed just now - the tape measure is resting up against the wood. The enclosure is about 18" deep.

DH says she's eating rats, but he's going to double-check what size.

She is a Tiger Jungle Jaguar, if that helps for sizing.

[John1982]

She looks in fine shape from what I can tell from the picture. They tend to stay on the thinner side until they close in on their adult length, then they'll bulk up a little bit.

[Gio]

She looks in fine shape from what I can tell from the picture. They tend to stay on the thinner side until they close in on their adult length, then they'll bulk up a little bit.

I agree,

And wow, what a beauty! I don't see anything wrong there at all.

You may just be comparing to royals at this stage. Carpets are more slender early on.

[Reinz]

I absolutely love her!

Hope to see more pictures of her adventures and travels.

[Aercadia]

Thank you! We'll definitely check out the recommended reading, and we super appreciate the opinions :) Our best guess is that she is just a little younger than we thought, but that's no big deal - as long as she looks healthy, that's our primary concern.

Here are a couple pics of the DIY Display Case (sans girl, she's hiding in the drawer at the moment) - please ignore extraneous mess/dirty glass/glare - also, temporary box hides are temporary. We got the nice hide to place over a hole cut in the floor which communicates with the drawer, the others will be replaced in the near future.

[Gio]

That's nice, and I really like the upper shelf idea.

Maybe grab some thick vines and have them go across the cage, and add an LED Moonlight so you can view night OPs.

That's going to be a fun display when the little one settles down in a bit.

Looking again, I think the body on that snake looks substantial and not at all thin. Perfect in my nonprofessional opinion!

When you release it into the new cage snap some pics as I'll bet the climbing after hours will be quite entertaining.

[Aercadia]

Maybe grab some thick vines and have them go across the cage, and add an LED Moonlight so you can view night OPs.

We were actually looking at the vine idea - we found some at Petsmart, but the packaging didn't indicate how they attach to the wall (obv sticky cups won't work in this case) so we didn't haven't gotten any yet - any idea how those work?