GTP's or ALBINO's

[GreenWillow]

In my experience GTPs (of any age) bite less than than young olives (of any colour)!

 

[Retic]

Jamie, I have lost count of the number of times I have said that on here Some sort of mystique has grown up around GTP's to the point people seem almost afraid to own one.

Albino carpets/olives/maccies are a hell of a lot easier to care for and breed and sex than GTP's.

If you're aware of the requirements of GTPs they present no more difficulty than the other species you mention. They are effectively only an arboreal carpet with a need for higher humidity and a generally more stable temperature management regime. Neither of these things is difficult to supply. The main problem until fairly recently has been successful incubation of eggs, but even that has been pretty much sorted now, and there is plenty of information out there about that.

Jamie.

 

[Morelia_Hunter]

This is my opinion: Pros and cons of all species mentioned.
GTPs: I find them to be hardy snakes, not for beginners though. They are not very tollerant of keeper errors. They also have very large clutches that mean they will not hold their market value for as long as say olives would. Beautiful snakes though. The next phase in keeping in Australia would be that breeders will start holding on to their clutches and would start looking for hold backs for breeding programs. People are still to focussed on owning one of these snakes and do not really care about special colours and patterns. Watch out for the morph boom that is already on its way here.
Albino carpets: Easy to maintain beginner snakes. You would be able to sell thses snakes to almost anybody as they are on all the basic licenses in the different states. They also have big clutches but I would expect that there are a lot fewer of these around than GTPs. Now this is where the debate will get a little messy. Because of the variety that you find in the Morelia spilota complex there is a lot of possibilities when it comes to breeding that is good when it comes to breeding Morphs. The different combinations that can be made are endless. And very exciting.
Albino olives: Relatively easy to maintain but only a few keepers have managed to breed these snakes succesfully and consistently. They also dont have the biggest clutches and the eggs are tricky to hatch. They are probably the rarest of the albinos which means that they will keep their value for many years to come. But be warned they are not easy to breed.
So at the end of the day, depends on what you like. But I hope this post will be usefull to someone!!

 

[Magpie]

One of each and produce albino carpondros.

 

[Morelia_Hunter]

You have to be confident in your abilities as a keeper though before you purchase one of those GTPs. I would not even suggest getting one unles you have not raised a few other pythons to maturity.

 

[zobo]

there is still the problem of sexing animals.........I would rather buy a sexed pair of albino darwins, (and if 1 is sexed wrong you can always breed them to another normal darwin, producing severalclutches of hets) rather than risk buying 2 unsexed baby GTP's. I don't know too many people with enough spare cash lying around to buy 3-4 GTP's hoping to snag a pair........just my thoughts

 

[wokka]

If you end up with a pair of same sex gtps they still seem to sell petty well.If you bought two last year at $7000 each its not hard to sell them now sexed at say $10,000. Apretty good return on your investment eh, or swap with someone. On the law of averages there should be equal numbers of both sexes out there.

 

[grimbeny]

Sexing snakes is relatively acurate anyway isnt it? like i know that u can never be 100% sure but u can be relatively confident in there sexes cant u?

 

[krusty]

thanks for that Morelia Hunter,what you said was very good.
and will help me a lot..........

 

[rexs1]

The number of albino olives in Australia, or for that matter the world, can be counted on your fingers and toes and they are spread between 0 to 5 years. There are 2 breeding age females at present.

tell me about it, we missed out on breeding albino to albino this season as the female was still a bit touch and go for size, but at least we will have one , maybe two clutches of 100% hets.

As far as how many albino olives are held by keepers other then gavin, i know of 4 pairs, but i would say there are a fe more then that out there.

nick

 

[GreenWillow]

Are they being bred though, or do some folk simply have them as pets?

 

[krusty]

are there any albino olives around for sale that are not hatchlings.

and another thing is spending that sort of money i would like to know i have a pair where if i bought some GTP i just luck is it not.

 

[itsallfate]

That would be the hardest decision,
Both are amazing looking snakes, I would buy a pair of each.
let us kno what you decide on.

 

[shamous1]

Albino's

I just spoke to the kids and they said they would rather get albino's as they would probably be easier to look after.

Kids think they know everything.:lol:

 

[zobo]

Sexing snakes is relatively acurate anyway isnt it? like i know that u can never be 100% sure but u can be relatively confident in there sexes cant u?

most snakes can be but anyone with gtp's will tell you sexing hatchlings is near impossible and dangerous to the animal with possibility of damaging spine.

 

[wokka]

Nick, My understanding is that snake ranch have the only two breeding age females at the moment but I believe there'll be a few more next year. there seems to be a fair interest. What are you guys charging for hets ??

 

[grimbeny]

Well i recently met John Weigel at the australian reptile park and he said it was a myth that GTP's cant be sexed at a young age. I duno how true this is but i beleive he has had at least some experience in it.

 

[Jason]

i love them all, personally i like the GTP alittle more then the albinos but one day i hope to have them all, what you get now, you will just end up getting the other later, as said these things arent going to be worth these prices for ever. as soon as a newer more unusual morph comes out, that will be up the top of everyones list. personally i have a herp list that i am slowly eating away at, i still have several years to go but by the end of it i will own the herps i want, when i get them i will breed them and start some good lines of my own, from there just perfect them and stick with what you like best cause chances are what you like now will change in the near future.

as said albinos have more potential to work with because of the several darwin morphs and phases that are being produced also you can get a sexed pair and get a clutch at 3 years. the GTP cant be sure about the sexs and cant be pushed and fed as much cause of the chance of prolapse i would think that they would be more likely to breed at 4year, but this depends on the feeding of the snake.

 

[rexs1]

Nick, My understanding is that snake ranch have the only two breeding age females at the moment but I believe there'll be a few more next year. there seems to be a fair interest. What are you guys charging for hets ??

they will be around $4000 each for a sexed hatchy, that is feeding well ect ect ect.

when will you be breeding albino to albino, will you have hets this season?

how many people will have hets available soon, at this stage i only know of true blue and us...... i dare say that the ranch will have a fair few clutches of 100% hets
nick

 

[Basssman]

are there alot of 100% hets out there or are they as few and far between as the albino olives?

cheers Sam