Coastal/inland carpets difference in appearance

[CheshireCat]

Do the mcdowelli look like cheynei but are more dull and not yellow? Are there any other visible physical differences eg extra scales?
We're pretty sure about the species of one of ours because it's quite yellow after shedding and we were told it was an inland. The other adult, and the babies, are brown and cream in colour. This adult was described as coastal and the babies as "carpet pythons" when we bought them.
Ive checked online and it's not clear which sub species these are as pictures on 2 different sites aren't the same for the mcdowelli.
It doesn't bother us at all whether they grow to 6 or 12 ft as we love carpets, but it would be nice to know definately.

[Ed_r]

Definately looks like a Coastal. Mine gets pretty yellow too after a shed. They seem to come in 2 color patterns, The real dark backround, and also a light kinda tan color. The snake in my avatar is a Queensland Coastal.
I dont know how to tell on young snakes usually on older snakes the Jungle Carpets get a brilliant yellow, big difference from the coastals.

[Wrasse]

I don't know much about Jungles. However, on passing the pic around to friends in Brisbane that breed and keep snakes, pretty much everyone came back with... "It's a coastal". (ie: mcdowelli)

Geoff reports he collects a lot of snakes similar in pattern & colouration to Mr Ploppy, in Tingalpa, which is a suburb about 20 kilometres out of Brisbane.

I am still trying to find scale ref's to see if this can be sorted out with some scientific evidence.

How old and how big is he btw ?

Oh yeah, and Geoff said.... "Looks like a coastal and regardless of what he is, it is clear he is a racing snake, cos he has a #2 on his head."

[CheshireCat]

Originally Posted by Wrasse

Oh yeah, and Geoff said.... "Looks like a coastal and regardless of what he is, it is clear he is a racing snake, cos he has a #2 on his head."

I think that's the camera angle really, Ive never looked at his markings closely before. They're more like the face of a little manic depressive!
Ive no idea how old he is, he's about 6ft and he's not grown much (if at all) in the 2 years we've had him

The attachment is of the other one we have, she;s a lot murkier in colour and just a little longer than him. We bought her on the same day.

[savannah_babe]

I found one of those in my backyard!!!!!!

[Ed_r]

How old and how big is he btw ?

From what i know he is about 3-3.5 yrs old. I got him as an adoption, and was told at the time he was 2 yrs old. At that time he was a tad over 6' (he was heavily fed, using the gorge/fast method) He supposedly fed him 3-4 rats at one sitting then let him go for 3-4 weeks between feedings.
Since I've had him a little over a year not he is pushing 8'. When i got him I fed him 1 jumbo rat every 7-10 days, or when he started trying to attack me for food . When the rats stopped making a bulge in him, I moved him up to small rabbits. rabits weigh 1-1.5 pounds. He keeps the same feedig schedule too, though during the winter he is fasting.

[telefrag]

I have seen cheynei that looked kinda like that.

But I have also heard that some people somewhere along the line have bred cheynei back to variegata (are there any mcdoweli in captivity outside Aus?)

But I dont know for sure on that.

[Ed_r]

telefrag, what does that mean? These are not mcdoweli ?

[telefrag]

I was under the impression that there were no M.s.mcdoweli in the United states, or outside of Austrailia for that matter.

What we always refer to as coastal carpets , I always thought they were M.s.variegata. But taxanomy changes frequently, so I guess thats hard to say.


Its been many years since I have kept up with Indo-Austrailian pythons

[Ed_r]

Interesting. Any ways to do a positive ID? Would like to get him a g/f but want to make sure they are the same. Every female I have seen that claims to be coastal, is way smaller than this male. He's pushing 8' at approximately 3 yrs old, all the females i have seen have been 6' tops and said to be over 5 yrs old.

[telefrag]

Its hard to say, when dealing with animals from a area that doesnt normally allow exports, true id's are often problematical at best without knowing where founder stock came from.

many years ago when exports were not as restricted animals did make it to other countries, but who really knows where they came from.

Im far from an expert on that subject, I just heard that variegata were what were called "coastals" or "queensland" carpets.

But I have experieneced the same enigma (???) with female carpets, I had one that was at 6 years still only barely 6ft long. and a male just a few years older was nearly 2 feet larger.

[Ed_r]

Funny thing is I have heard from some OZ keepers that have coastals, and they claim that he females are usually 10-12' I just don't want to be intentionally cross breeding them. Who knows maybe my male is the same subspecies, just with very good genes.