Carpet python size proportional to enclosure?

Aussie Pythons & Snakes Forum

Help Support Aussie Pythons & Snakes Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Status
Not open for further replies.

eLusive

New Member
Joined
Jun 21, 2012
Messages
8
Reaction score
0
Hey there fellow snake heads.

Conversing with a snake owner recently who claims carpet pythons grow proportionally to the size of their cage. I have been doing some tertiary internet searches but not finding information that really talks about this.

He states - from his experience - that while the snake was in a smaller enclosure, he found that the snake moved around and ate less (makes sense; less expenditure of energy) but the snake wouldn't grow so large. When moved to a slightly larger enclosure, the snake moved around a lot more as it had to go further between water, heat and hanging branches, so it ate more (dur; I know) and consequently grew larger.

If his snake wasn't a couple years old and rather small for it's age, I would be highly skeptical of his claim. Yet I cannot find any information relating to this. Was wondering if any other snake lovers here have seen the same phenomena or could point to some reading that helps confirm/deny this?
 
I’ve seen large 7-8ft carpets in 5x2x2 enclosures happily living

All they do is put a wall in between the hot end and cool end with a hole for them to climb over
 
Last edited:
Yeah it didn't sound right, especially given that I can't find any supporting evidence.
 
Your friend is wrong. It is purely up to how much food you offer them. He was making up excuses for why his animal was underfed.

Not sure if "underfed" would be a reasonable description. Over the past few years I've really reduced the amount and frequency of feeding I offer my pythons, because I believe it better mirrors what wild snakes get. Sure, they don'y grow to maturity in 2 or 3 years, but no wild pythons, especially the bigger species, would do that in the wild anyway. I think my animals are in tip-top condition, are active although they don't grow as fast, I'd be willing to bet they are healthier and would live longer than the overstuffed specimens kept under a system that has just been accepted as normal for the last 30 years. I do however, grow hatchlings out fairly fast for their first few months to get them beyond the "fragile" stage (although I don't think you could ever call a healthy baby carpet "fragile").
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Latest posts

Back
Top