I couldn't read all of the responses in depth. but let me say this:
Carpet pythons IN GENERAL are excellent captives. If you simply look at the multiple videos of real life, WILD carpets in Australia you will notice the adults 8 times out of 10 never put up much fuss when being picked up or moved. I'm talking non-captive animals. I think Australian pythons are rather confident and curious and maybe even semi social (still solitary) snakes.
I've been bitten by my boa constrictor, my carpet and my retic. Now with age I can't get my nearly 7 foot coastal to bite me if I want her to do so.
As for a pet snake, carpet pythons in fact one of the BEST species IMO. Wonderfully semi arboreal, they have similar metabolisms to boa constrictors and do not move nearly as fast as retics.
I HIGHLY recommend them. As fas as bites go, any juvenile snake can be, and usually is defensive for a while. Their bites are rather comical, and not at all dangerous. My carpet never drew blood. She's an absolute doll now.
If you get a carpet, use a handling branch for a while to introduce the snake to interaction. I did this with both my carpet and retic and they quickly became comfortable with handling.
Photobucket is down so I can't post a picture of the handling branch but you should not discard the species. I'd take a carpet over a Burm any day. Now that is just my opinion, but depending on your room size, cage size and physical capabilities, the carpet will be the least challenging when it is a fully grown adult. A 75 pound or much, much heavier Burn is a boat anchor. They are fascinating, however, they are one of the heaviest bodied snakes out there. Maybe only second to anacondas.
Also keep in mind that I find fully terrestrial snakes boring unless they are extremely active like many of the colubrids or olive and water pythons.
Reply With Quote