The
Irian Jaya (aka West Papuan) carpet python is one of my favorites of all the snakes I
have kept. In my opinion, they are probably one of the best beginner
pythons and as close to perfect as a pet snake can get. They are
docile, very manageable in size (4-6 feet on average) and are extremely
undemanding as captives. Babies are red and tan in color, but like all capets, they will go through a gradual color change up until they reach
3-4 years of age. As adults, they can be predominantly black, dark
brown and tan, with a bit of orange, or they can be very orange and gold
with minimal black patterning, as evidenced by some of my animals.
Relatively new on the herpetoculture scene,
Irian Jaya carpets were first imported in the mid 1990's. Because of
that and the fact that there are still some spectacular animals being
imported, I believe they have the most potential of all carpet pythons in
terms of selective breeding. I suspect that the popularity of the Irian
Jaya carpet is now equal to that of the jungle carpet python, which has
long been thought of as the most popular carpet.
What is this GQ bloodline I keep hearing about?
GQ stands for Gary Quirk a good friend of mine who produced my
original pair in 2001. Not long after I got them, I started
referring to them as my "GQ pair" on the forums and the name eventually
stuck with them . :-)
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History
- Documented 100% Pure Irian Jaya
The parents of my original GQ pair were collected from the wild and
imported by Bob Clark in the mid 1990's, who then sold them to Gary Quirk.
Interestingly enough, it has recently come to my attention that Gary was
asked to send shed skins from those animals to Australian taxonomist
Raymond Hoser in the late 1990's. Hoser was in the process of
describing the this population of carpet pythons as a new species,
Morelia harrisoni. The shed skins sent to Hoser were used for
DNA testing. While I don't believe that this race of Carpets should
be given full species status, it's great to know that these animals are
pure Irian Jaya carpets.
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Great Temperament
The original pair are very well mannered and docile and have been that
way since they were hatchlings. Most, if not all of the 2005 and
2006 GQxGQ offspring seem to be equally docile. They are all also
very good eaters, which is something you don't usually see with docile
baby snakes. In fact, most of these animals begin feeding voluntarily on
thawed rat pinkies.
-
Appearance
These animals have reduced black throughout their pattern, which
leaves the pattern with a nice orange color filling in where the black
would typically be. The mother of the "GQ" pair also showed a
similar reduced amount of black, while their father appeared to be a
fairly typical adult Irian Jaya. Many of them also have a slightly
reduced head pattern, which becomes "smudged" with age.
Irian Jaya Collection
The majority of my Irian Jayas
come from my own GQ
bloodline, but I also have a few unrelated animals descended from
Spitfire, VPI and Bell bloodlines, as well as a few from unknown
origins. I also have one breeder female who is a wild caught import,
estimated to be around 15 years old. Below is a small
sampling of the animals that I'm working with.
Hold your mouse cursor over the thumbnail photos to view a brief
description.
Click on the thumbnails to view larger version.
Motley Irian Jayas
This is a new morph that I'm working with.
Click HERE to read more.
