King of the carpets

I was browsing through some old photos and found some of Darwin and Sheila, my ancient Coastal carpets.....Darwin is 12 years old and Sheila 11 years old this year

Darwin
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Sheila
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The happy couple
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The couple shot is great Karl & I love their names. How long can they live?

Good solid looking big morelia there...great pics

Lovely shots Karl...
How long have you had these guys?

Very impressive Karl, both snakes and set up.( snakes are bloody gorgeous in fact)

WAMA wrote:Very impressive Karl, both snakes and set up.( snakes are bloody gorgeous in fact)

hes said it all

Great photos Karl of 2 super Coastals .................. love that night shot

Very nice Karl, i especially like the second picture, great close up.

Karl, a superb pair of great looking and mature animals....didn't they pose well for you in the third photo!!!

Thanks guys, they are the two snakes I'll never part with. Sheila was bought in City Reptiles in 2003 and Darwin also originated from there - I had my eye on him but he was snapped up by one of the guys working there at the time. Almost a year later, in 2004, they decided to let him go and he's been here ever since.

Tan, Coastals can live into their thirties so although it feels like I've had these guys for ages they are quite young - and hopefully they see their thirties - that would be awesome!

The photo of them resting together was taken in 2007 whenever I had them paired for breeding - and they took to each other instantly. I came in late one night and shone a torch in to check on them, and the photo op was there......I also got some night shots of my Scrub too.

My goodness, they can reach a good age. It would be very cool if they did see their thirties and I hope they do.

One more question, can they breed up to 'old age' or is there a recommended cut off age for breeding? Actually does fertility drop with age? I just see so many mixed opinions when it comes to soooooo many animals it crossed my mind are these guys any different or are they also part of the debate? Sorry Karl for all the questions

Your getting me thinking now Tan I'd imagine there is a trade off between longevity and reproductive output, as each breeding cycle uses up energy that would otherwise be used for growth and body maintenance.

In the wild Coastals breed every 2nd or 3rd year and so this is what I aim to follow in captivity as its obviously their natural cycle, one that ensures a good balance between lifetime reproductive output and longevity.

I gave Sheila a year off this year and she has noticeably increased her body mass, length and head size - I'd imagine producing around 35 eggs per clutch takes a lot of energy and probably causes some thinning of the skeleton, so a year off allows her to build this up again and get into tip-top condition again.

I know of one breeder in the U.S. who has an old Coastal who still throws out clutches.....so I'd say as long as breeding events are interspersed with years off then they can breed into their twenties....the key is giving the females a year or two off so they can recuperate lost body mass and get back into condition.

the key is giving the females a year or two off so they can recuperate lost body mass and get back into condition.

It applies to us too Karl (Only I think we try to loose some weight, exhausting process lol)

As always an excellent thread and thank you for the info.

Cracking adults karl. How long does it take to reach breeding age in carpets?

It depends on the species / subspecies - for Coastals the best recommendation is for females to be at least 4 years old and 1500 grams in weight; males can be bred anywhere after 2 years of age and 800 grams in weight although typically it will take a male 3 years to reach this size.

Breeding females sooner than this places unnecessary stress on them and they'll have a small clutch, which has a high probability of being full of infertile eggs or else if fertile, the eggs will produce small hatchlings that will have pants feeding responses - although this will be the same for almost any female reptile that is bred too early.

Typically sound advice Karl...

Cool topic Karl. You would have loved Daytona this year. A few people had albino jaguars, granites, etc. But the coolest thing was the Morelia symposium on the Friday night. Breeding, behaviour, morphs, etc. That was awesome.

Warren

Sounds cool Warren - I'd love to know who in the States has albino Jags for sale in the US though? The main European breeders are offering them for sale this year for the first time ever and any albinos in the States I thought were a few years away yet, plus the very few people with hets or visuals will be breeding pure Darwin albinos before any morph cmobos appear.