Arboreals for Dummies ...er, Beginners

Do you guyq keep your JCP'q more like arbopeals or more liie terrestrial pythons? I was sopt of treating them like my rain`ow boa, who stays on the ground a lot, but they seem to climb a lot and I didn'p know if you hape more success qith the wet subqtrate method or the misting diractly with a watar bottle method9 Also, I haven'p gotten bitten `y them yet and I'm glad to hear it's not bad.
I'm going to have a GTP someday but I'm waiting until I can afford a CB blue stripe or two. Until then I'm paying very close attention to conversations like this!
Also, I think you're lucky that your spouses aren't way into snakes. When you both like them... well, it can get out of hand !

Erin Benner

I've been dealing with my JCP's humidity by combining the two methods. There are climbing areas and the snake seems to pretty much split its time between ground and branches. I started out with just hand spraying, but the dry winter air just sucked up all the water too quickly. So I now have him on coconut bark bedding (Bed-A-Beast) which holds quite a bit of water and then hand spray a small amount once a day.

I would also be curious if people keep their JCPs in vertically or horizontally oriented cages. I commonly see recommended dimensions for a single adult at 3-4'W x 2'D x 2'H, but have also seem cages built as 3'W x 2'D x 3-4'H. I would be more inclined to go with higher rather than wider just because I never see mine trying to get further than the sides of the cages, but I've often seen it try to get past the top of the cage. Anyone with experiences?

For the carpets and their arboreal vs. terrestrial tendencies...

One thing to keep in mind is that most care sheets/casual books/magazine articles have a tendency to lump carpets and diamonds into one huge group (Which isn't out of line, they are the same species), so there can be a few problems there...

Australia may not be a huge continent but it's certainly good sized and the area along the eastern coastline is very different from the interior we tend to see pictured... The species Morelia spilota does cover a good sized chunk of the continent and does occur in different areas with vastly different habitats... Normally using the subspecific designation would be an easy way of locating the specific microhabitat that's ideal for your animal but... there are a lot of captive intergrades and a lot of naturally occuring intergrades that may have been present in the originally imported stock...

Jungle Carpets Morelia spilota cheynei do come from a fairly small area that could essentially be described as a Rain Forest corridor... this means a few things when it comes to their captive care... The humidity should be kept slightly higher than for certain other carpet subspecies and... they encounter trees, trees containing edible prey... far more often than some of the others. Since they do have a tendency to climb in captivity, a behavior that has been observed in the wild, suitable facilities should be in place to allow for this behavior... But I have never personally seen any carpet that was as highly arboreal as a GTP and I wouldn't catagorize them as an "arboreal species", merely one with arboreal tendencies. They are found in their natural range, in trees, bushes and inside the rooves of houses, but they are also found sitting in leaf litter or wedged underneath rocks and logs, so they don't need the arboreal cage fixtures GTPs do, but it doesn't hurt to give them a few, they will use them.

As to why they move up the sides of the enclosure towards the top but not straight into the wall... snakes tend to move along things... sounds silly, but the more sides of their body are in contact with a surface, the better they move (Which most of you already knew), there's an air exchange at the top of the enclosure that isn't present along the sides, so when looking to move someplace, those that are capable of climbing tend to go right up the sides... But they sleep and remain at rest jamed into corners or around water dishes... and the ability to see glass or no, they can feel it, so when moving slowly, instinct tells them they can't shove their face through something hard and unyeilding.

With regards to the humidity and the means of accomplishing it... it'd be okay to pour water into the substrate for the rainbows, always of course, provided it's the proper amount, there's still a point of "too wet" but it's fine for them to get a good soaking once in awhile... the JCPs would be a bit better adapted to heavy misting or dripping, a slower process that spreads the moisture around more so they don't end up with pockets of mud in the enclosure (Murphy's law applies to herp keeping, if there's a seven inch circular patch where it's a bit too wet, guess where your snake will decide to sit constantly...).

Ever written a lengthy post only to hit the wrong button and lose it all? Grr. Second try...

I should be getting my first GTP on Friday. I would like to especially thank Rob and Seamus for their help and advice

The snake is an almost-two-year-old originally produced by Tom Morello. I had a picture of this snake as my computer wallpaper for the last few months and so when it was posted for sale I asked the appropriate questions (references for the seller, feeding, health, temperament, guarantee) and then made an offer. The seller was then nice enough to hold the snake for me for a couple of weeks while I built and set up a cage. The cage will be completely set up tomorrow (Tuesday) evening, which should give me a couple of days to make adjustments if need be.

I can't say I put a whole lot of thought into the adult/yearling/neonate decision - this snake was gorgeous to me when I first saw it and still gorgeous to me when it was posted for sale, so I went for it. Though the more I looked at GTPs, the more I learned my preferences (mostly Aru-types and Sorong-types, especially ones with clean lines and higher contrast animals) and the more I figured that if I was going to get a "pet" that was living art I should get one that already had its adult colors.

If you're interested in seeing the soon-to-be-mine GTP, I posted a picture in the photo gallery at http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/foru...threadid=19849

AHHH, do not talk to me about humidity for my jcp, ohhh how long till i got it right, i have a terestrial tank that i put on its side for my jcp, 6 month old, it stood 4 feet of the ground and humidity was around fifty so i changed it the next day, i have a very large water bowl right under the lamp and its at 70 right away, i also have a nice live plant in there, how many mice should i be feeding her, she is 5 and a hald months old and i have been told one appropreatly sized but then saw a thing saying 2/3, i fed her two today and she enjoyed them very much, what do you think
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thanks
Dan

ohh and btw that chrondro is my walpaper , i really like it, i just wish it was mine, i hope you don't mind me using that as a wall paper, bye
Dan