# Papuan carpet pythons



## Okewood Morelia (Jan 19, 2020)

Hi all, 

I was a member here over ten years ago but I have no idea what my log in details were. I used to keep a large collection of morelia, but I now only work with morelia spilota harrisoni .. Papuan carpet pythons ( formerly known as IJ’s ) They were always seen as the”cheaper” very dull morelia. Ten years or so ago I decided to stop working with morphs and other various morelia that I had, and decided I was going to focus solely on IJ’s. With a great determination to make them more desirable and improve on what was being bred and kept in the hobby here in the UK. I love everything about them and must admit I struggle to understand why more people do not find them as interesting as I do, especially given the fact that they are so relatively untapped their potential is amazing and being the only morelia found outside of Australia, we can still import new and fresh blood. So the diminishing gene pool seen in much of the pure Australian stuff is not yet a problem with these. They have a remarkable ability to change colouration throughout a 24 hour period, and will very often look like a completely different snake late at night and early hours of the mornings. ( very much the chameleon of the morelia world ) … I could go on and on about them but will leave it there. Anyway I just thought I would say hello and share a few pictures of some that I have bred over the years, and show just how much progress can be made with them.


----------



## Swindinian (May 4, 2020)

Yeah, they are ok, I suppose….. 🤣😂🤣😂🤣 Hey Craig, thank you for sharing 🥰

Given how renowned and admired your Paps are, you are in danger of increasing the internet traffic on this forum 🤯
I didn’t know they change coloration through the day!

Best regards,

Andy F


----------



## Okewood Morelia (Jan 19, 2020)

Swindinian said:


> Yeah, they are ok, I suppose….. 🤣😂🤣😂🤣 Hey Craig, thank you for sharing 🥰
> 
> Given how renowned and admired your Paps are, you are in danger of increasing the internet traffic on this forum 🤯
> I didn’t know they change coloration through the day!
> ...


Good morning Andy, 

there used to be tons of traffic here, before everyone moved to the dreaded Facebook platforms. I’m not sure even my Papuans can bring them back 🤣

these change colour so regularly and can often easily catch you out and have you thinking you have the wrong snake ! It can be a little frustrating at first but once you get used to it, just adds to the fun of keeping them.That along with the drastic change from the red hatchling colours to adult colours and everything in between can make picking holdbacks very challenging.

I also keep mine a little different to any Australian morelia, due to the fact that the regions they are found in Papua New Guinea are much more stable.


----------



## Okewood Morelia (Jan 19, 2020)

This is the same snake as a hatchling and then showing her development. Although it doesn’t illustrate my point about them changing colour throughout the day ( I will try to dig out some pictures for that ) It does show just how much they change within just the first 12 months or so.


----------



## NickN (11 mo ago)

Beautiful specimens, I particularly like the last photo in your opening post.


----------



## LiasisUK (Sep 30, 2019)

Some nice Morelia there, have to admit I have always quite liked the Papuan Carpets. We moved away from carpets due to all the morph and hybrid nonsense with them, the animals are from such a varied array of habitats I think crossing them isn't wise as it's hard to pin down the correct husbandry for them. 

Personally my favourite Morelia are still bredli, I was talking to a friend last night about how we remember when a bredli was £400 snake, and now you can't even give them away!! Such a shame as they are great animals. I may have to get some again, maybe some Hypos or something.


----------



## Okewood Morelia (Jan 19, 2020)

LiasisUK said:


> Some nice Morelia there, have to admit I have always quite liked the Papuan Carpets. We moved away from carpets due to all the morph and hybrid nonsense with them, the animals are from such a varied array of habitats I think crossing them isn't wise as it's hard to pin down the correct husbandry for them.
> 
> Personally my favourite Morelia are still bredli, I was talking to a friend last night about how we remember when a bredli was £400 snake, and now you can't even give them away!! Such a shame as they are great animals. I may have to get some again, maybe some Hypos or something.


I have owned various morelia for as long as I can remember. I have had no issues keeping different localities, morphs and hybrids in a similar way before. ( the obvious exceptions are Bredli and diamond pythons ) I actually imported the first reduced patterned diamonds into the UK. Although I do understand your point, and that is the exact reason I keep the papuans slightly different. They are all I now keep so dialling in entire rooms is easy, especially when everything is kept the same way.

Bredli are very nice and again should be more popular, the relatively new morphs available here will help, but it will not take long for them to be hybridised to make multiple gene combos, which will obviously affect purity and price of the normal wild type stuff being offered. Paul has some incredible Bredli available, and would be my go to source for them and pretty much everything morelia.


----------



## sm1rf (May 13, 2014)

Love this thread, love your snakes, love the passion. Makes me want to increase my Morelia collection!


----------



## ian14 (Jan 2, 2008)

You used to see IJ carpets literally everywhere. They were a big thing for a while due to being, essentially, a dwarf carpet python. Then they just seemed to vanish from the hobby. A real shame. I had one many years ago, although looking at the hatchling photos on this thread I'm not convinced she was a pure IJ.
Beautiful snakes.


----------



## Okewood Morelia (Jan 19, 2020)

Hi Ian, 

yes they were everywhere because they were so cheap and as you rightly say, they had and still to this day do, have a reputation for being the smallest morelia. While that is somewhat true, there are the odd exceptions and IJ the size of coastals is not unknown. Why they disappeared and became of little interest in the hobby I believe was due to the fact that nobody really spent any time breeding them with any real intentions, or specific goals. Due to the fact that they are so diverse a clutch can and often will produce a wide variety. That added with the fact that so much progress was being made with Cheynei, and the black and yellow being so attractive, I believe is what caused IJ to go somewhat un noticed. I keep quite a large collection of them and have hatched well over 100, the variety has been amazing. However the quality continues to improve with each generation.

I have hatched some dark ones, some very strange ones but on the whole they all hatch red. Varying degrees of red but none the less red. They usually hold a degree of this colouration for around the first year ( depending on rate of feeding and amount of sheds ) They then start to develop adult colours, but change a lot again within the second year. Around year 3 you have a finished animal although even then they will still continue to surprise you from time to time. Regardless of age, they all show varying degrees of colour change at various times of the day. Making them very different to any other morelia I have owned, where it’s pretty much a case of what you see is what you get.

These are just a few hatchlings, showing very typical red colouration.


----------



## NickN (11 mo ago)

I really haven't got space (or electricity budget) to increase my numbers, even more so following a rescue addition recently, but if I did... these would sorely tempt.


----------



## Okewood Morelia (Jan 19, 2020)

Every once in a while something different, like this little female pops up. Although still red, she stood out from day one, and hasn’t disappointed with her progress. This female can be traced back to wild caught animals, so no other blood nor morph is involved.


----------



## ian14 (Jan 2, 2008)

That beats a cheynei any day


----------



## Swindinian (May 4, 2020)

Riley Jimison was referring to dark phase Papuan neos with some of his darker animals. Can’t recall if they were dark, or dark red, but I do love the red neonate look, like a boeleni, at a stretch 😂😂🤣


----------



## Okewood Morelia (Jan 19, 2020)

Swindinian said:


> Riley Jimison was referring to dark phase Papuan neos with some of his darker animals. Can’t recall if they were dark, or dark red, but I do love the red neonate look, like a boeleni, at a stretch 😂😂🤣


I know Riley, and am familiar with his stuff. The dark IJ’s that he refers to, are still red. They are just a darker red almost brown. What you are aiming for and your goals will determine which degree of the red you want or like. Being able to differentiate between the variation of red and having some idea of how they develop comes with time and experience. Although what I find appealing may not be to everyone’s taste and visa versa.

*they are certainly cheaper than boeleni ! 😂*


----------



## Okewood Morelia (Jan 19, 2020)

Freshly shed and a bit of sunshine, so thought it would be a good opportunity to grab a quick picture of this holdback female I bred a couple of years ago. She continues to improve and shows just how much potential there is with time. I hope over the next few generations some of the visions I have for these can come to fruition.

They are so much more than just the brown mud snakes that they got a reputation for being !


----------



## Swindinian (May 4, 2020)

Stumbled across this post from Craig; gorgeous animals; worth a bump 🥰


----------



## MontePython (Feb 14, 2020)

These are such gorgeous snakes - not going to lie, when I finally come back to Morelia, these guys are likely to be at top of my list.


----------

