Coastal carpet python head size

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tommis85

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Hey guys and gals, been doing some googling on my suspicions of Kaa, my 6 year old Coastal, having a smaller head than usual. So-called pinhead syndrome that some people experience with their snakes.

So, after only being able to discover causes I have decided to see what fellow coastal owners think....please advise.

Also, at his age, would further upping the prey size help in coaxing some more growth out of his head (to adapt etc) He is currently on jumbo size rats of which he gets 1 every 3-4 weeks or so.

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Here're some recent photos of him...would you agree his head is a bit below average size??
 
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I've always thought a small head and slender body was a trait of many australian pythons as a whole, which i assumed (particularly body size) was an adaptation to hot climate. But I can't speak with any authoritiy on this, purely my own observations. If this is correct, perhaps your coastal's head isn't anything too far out of the ordinary?
 
Yeh that is true...pretty much true for a lot of the bigger-bodied pythons out there especially your boas etc. However, the coastals are meant to have a distinct triangular head that stands out from the neck, which Kaa does, but it seems to be proportionally smaller than specimens I've seen in photos...
The smaller head can come about from both over-feeding and feeding prey that's too small (thus encouraging either a massive body because of excess food, or a small head + massive body because of large quantity of small food).

However, I do believe I have kept up with a healthy food plan for him...always had pretty big feeds at intervals that are timed with him wanting more etc (ie, he comes out of his cage looking for food and has "passed" his meal from 3 weeks ago etc)
 
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Looks fine to me. I think that head size can be a function of genetics, and especially age as much as anything else - the very large, obviously very old Carpets we see occasionally can have very large chunky heads which you never see in captives. Some of these snakes may be 25+ years old, and I don't think that there are many snakes in the hands of private keepers which reach that age. Your feeding regime sounds fine for a good sized adult Carpet too.

Jamie
 
Thanks Jamie, yeh I've just been a bit curious about it that's all. That is also very true about those big grandpa snakes, or freakishly huge specimens people find in their sheds. I guess one of the other reasons would also be that out in the wild the python will take whatever it can? So more often than not it will take down prey that it can only just manage to swallow, like possums and bandicoots and what have you. So when you never know what and when your next meal might be you'd probably want to develop the biggest jaws possible yeh?
 
I think the jury is still out on the "pinhead" syndrome thingy. If it exists at all (and I'm open to being convinced about this) it could possibly be caused by overfeeding when young bringing about very rapid body growth, but I can't really see it being a result of too small prey items - the head isn't a muscle that might respond to exercise. I think if more captive snakes lived for as long as some of the very old, sedentary wild animals we see sometimes (I remember a huge, old South-west Carpet which used to live in a rabbit burrow complex on a farm near Perth, which I saw on & off over a ten year period - its head was massive) we might see our animals develop a bit more head size... but then... maybe its head was that big from eating rabbits...:(! Oh well... who knows???

Your snake looks fine and very healthy anyway :)!

Jamie
 
Looks fine to me mate, actually think its a beautiful looking snake :)

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We find that wild retics have bigger heads than similarly aged pet ones

Put this down to opportunistic feeding on larger prey items
 
Thanks for all the comments guys! Haven't been on here for quite some time now, good to see this place is still full of helpful peeps!

I'm in favor of the theory of adaptation to bigger prey from an early age too. We all feed our juvies pinkies and mice and whatever whereas a wild young snake would already be in a life-death struggle with god knows what for it's first meal! There's every chance that the young snake would have to put away things 2 or 3 times bigger than what we'd give it hey?

And thanks for the comments on the snake guys - he is a very pleasant animal indeed! Not a single bad bone in his body!

I wonder if Kaa would adapt to larger food items now? Jumbo rats are insanely expensive...maybe it's time to look in to other animals that will push its abilities?

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And he does seem to take whatever you throw at him...in this case an XL adult rat (thawed)

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Just measured him - he's 2.3m at the moment. What are some of the biggest food items you guys have given your carpets? I'm assuming that at this size he'd be able to take something much larger. He will down the jumbo rat in about 10-15mins...
 
Your snake looks fine. I don't personally beleive in the pin head myth either, but I do know that feeding bigger food items does stretch the mouth and after swallowing, the head always looks bigger until the skin and muscles shrink back to normal size. Continuing to do this will continually stretch the fibres of the muscle tissue and skin around the jaw skeleton and yes i do think this will ultimatly produce a bigger stronger head.
I have come across really old wild female diamonds that are just under 9ft long and very skinny, but they have a massive head structure. The exact opposite to pin head syndrome myth. But these old girls are real grandmas and probably not much longer in this world.
 
Thanks Cement, sounds like the myth may be busted then ;)
Well I might see if I cannot find some bigger food for him as these jumbo rats are a bit pricey! See what happens hey? I might even post an update on here at some stage if I notice anything.
And yes I know exactly what you mean with the diamonds - I've seen tick-infested scrubs in a similar state :/
 
He's a lovely big boy! Looks healthy too. I know what you mean about jumbo rats being expensive, I'm glad adult pythons don't have to be fed every week.
 
Any quail or pigeon breeders your way, tommis? solar17 has pigeons that would eat a jumbo rat for lunch..
 
Tahlia - yes he doesn't look too bad hey? In those photos he's due for a feed tho - right now he has a lot more body to him as he's digesting a jumbo :) Yeh I've only just upgraded him to the biggest rats the petshop has (frozen feeders offcourse) and that should see him sitting pretty for around a month. It's when he suddenly winds up sliding over your computer desk at night that you know he's ready for another feed ;)

Pythonlegs - funnily enough I did get on to him last night. He seems to have some big rats there and other critters in stock but it would involve driving for probably 4 hours return or so.

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There you go peeps, some pics for your Saturday viewing pleasure :) And thanks for the comments!

I try to get the young man out for some vitamin D as often as I can. Some of these pics are from when he was a bit younger...

I've also attached a pic of his parents - you can definitely see which one has the dominant genes!
 
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