Jags, for or against

[Retic]

Hi Emma, good to see you posting on here I would disagree to an extent on the availability of pure morelia in the UK, I have seen most forms available quite readily and now even Darwins and Inlands but yes more specific locales are obviously harder. Again there seems to be this misconception that everything available overseas is mixed up and crossed to death, this obviously isn't the case as there are many purists in other countries as well. The thing is that even here if a seller tells you a Jungle is from Tully or Mission Beach or wherever we have to take their word for it as they don't have distinguishing marks that make them unique to that area.
As you say you are able to get practically any animal in the world so you are extremely lucky. So what is the one you can only dream of ?
I will ask around about a female Olive if you like.

@ cement, yes pure are really hard to get hold of here. not so much your coastals, bredlis and jungles but your locale sp., darwins and inlands then yes they are.

again its also about buying off trusted breeders over here. id rather pay a bit more for an animals whos what im told it is. there are only a few breeders here id buy off due to this reason.
its funny but over here Jag sibs sell for more than a pure coastal!

i can get hold of the majority of animals i want (only one i can only dream of!) so we are spoilt here a bit, its the price of them thats the problem meaning i can only add the pures at a slow rate!
still cant get a female olive python though!

@longgii as you know we have a massive problem with cross bred boas over here as well as the carpets. there are always loads of "what am i" threads on that other UK site! im even going as far as to have my hog islands DNA tested before i breed them so i can see how muddied their bloodlines are.
in the UK Jags are always going to be big but there seems more people line breeding and the RP bredli line is really interesting.

 

[cement]

@ cement, yes pure are really hard to get hold of here. not so much your coastals, bredlis and jungles but your locale sp., darwins and inlands then yes they are.

I would imagine that with the locale specific side of things in regards to the desirability of Australian pythons to keepers overseas would not be a significant factor over simply obtaining a pure bred specimen. I would think that the locale specific component would mean a lot more to people who have visited some of the places and seen firsthand many of our reptiles that have a bit of area specific uniqueness about them. It certainly made a huge difference to my attitude, that’s for sure. Perhaps in some small way, this is in part why the Jags don't really mean a lot to me.

For me too. Also I realize that at an older age I appreciate things differently. After spending so much of my youth in the Aussie bush I have an understanding of the timelessness of our country. Who am I too muck with millions of years of evolution. To me, (and this is why I am labelled a purist), nature is a humbling experience. Plus the fact that I have seen wild diamonds that would win at any show, and i love the feeling of releasing them back into wild... kinda gives me an inner smile as they melt back into the environment that some greedy bastard isn't getting their hands on this one. Each to their own.

 

[PilbaraPythons]

Cement
As an ignorant Kiwi who came out here in 1982 I saw my first live snake at Taronga zoo, a green Python. I was absolutely blown away by its beauty and instantly had a huge desire to own one. Back then it wouldn’t have mattered where it came from, if it was cross bred or whatever. Those factors never entered my head, I was simply hooked on the general beauty of snakes .29 years of further experience reading, catching, keeping and exploring many parts of Australias great wonderland has instilled a great proudness ( even though I am a Kiwi) and appreciation of this country’s great herpetofauna. Afterall, how could it not. Perhaps being a Kiwi simply meant it was less likely that I could take this country wildlife for granted seeing it for the first time. For the same reason I suppose I never had any desire to keep exotics, as to me Australia native reptiles were exotics to me ( no snakes in NZ). I sometimes hear people say that Pygmy pythons are just an ugly Childrens python. After spending heaps of time in their natural habitat, I see it different, a unique beautiful little python and wouldn’t want to see it any other way. The concept of hybrids and Jags with defects just seems so twisted to me. But each too their own I suppose.

 

[cement]

I was deer hunting in New Zealand a couple of years ago and fell in love with the country there too. The place we were hunting was a hard two day tramp from the road if you knew where you were going. We were fortunate to have been flown in for 6 days by the head ranger as goodwill for build him a roof over his deck at home, I found a live kiwi burrow, a significant find, considering the lack of wild kiwi now. The river kept us in trout, and the venison was quite allright too. But the bush, or should I say very old growth rainforest (never logged), just blew me away.Incredible place that recharged the batteries like nothing else. I know what you mean mate.

 

[Australis]

Beautiful country cement.. before reading your post i hoped it was a local haunt... one day.

 

[Seraph]

Hay sorry if this question is a little silly but what exactly defines a jag. Ive seen jungle jags n they are beautiful but how do they come about.

 

[Renenet]

I sometimes hear people say that Pygmy pythons are just an ugly Childrens python.

Ugly!? Who says that? They're beautiful little snakes.

 

[BigWillieStyles]

I really think the pure lines of Black and Gold Jungles have so much more going for them and wont muck with our already limited gene pool.

 

[GeckoJosh]

Very interesting results so far...