Quote Originally Posted by DennisM View Post
since Artemisace is planning crosses, locality/purity is obviously not an issue with this snake. But you are correct that if locality/purity is a concern, Nick is the man, he takes this stuff quite seriously. it's nice to know that you are getting documented lines, if that's what you want to do. I think most carpet keepers who develop a sizable collection will have a mix of pure/crosses/who knows in their collection. I like and keep all of the above.

I would have to disagree that they are all the same. True that the husbandry is the same and that they naturally intergrade. But I think there is an clear difference between what our hobby considers to be “pure” jungles, IJs, coastals etc. The caveat is that there has been so much crossing in the hobby you can never be sure. will there really be a difference between a “pure” jungle and a jungle that has just one coastal in the family tree 8 generations ago? I doubt it.

One thing is for sure, as Gio says, “any carpet python is a very enjoyable, rewarding pet”. I’ve kept dozens of them for over the past 20+ years and they are certainly that.
When I say they are the same, I'm not making the implication that there is no difference between localities, though research points to jungles and coastals sharing identical DNA which could make one come to the conclusion that a jungle is actually a smaller locale of coastal. Once again the study and research is ongoing here.

I should have maybe specified that in captivity, without locality data carpets are pretty much the same snake. When people add IJ to coastal and cross diamond into the mix and originally had a cross of some unknown combo you wind up with a carpet python, and when that happens, a carpet is a carpet. Not even Nick Mutton was able to tell me what my coastal was crossed with when I asked and sent him several pictures. It's a carpet python, was the only conclusion we could come to. There was some speculation as to what was possibly mixed in but certainly nothing was conclusive. Based on that, there is nothing different at all about the care or habits of mine verses any other type carpet python sans a pure diamond.

Maybe that helps with the point I was making about being the same in general.