Before I get into the exacts of each Morelia hyrbid I want to make sure those who read this know what mixes are out there, what the debate is, and how it is currently affecting the python community. Morelia pythons are you Carpet, Green Tree, Boelens, Scrub, Bredli, Rough Scale, and Oenpelli. This post is just an intro and the next will start the exact details on each mix where a Morelia is the base.
The Morelia mixes being found on the market are as listed: Carpondro (Carpet x Tree python); Carpall (Carpet x Ball Python); Coma (Carpet x Woma Python); Coelens (Carpet x Boelens python); Carpet x Scrub python; Carpet x Blood Python; and carpet x bredli python. Each one will be written about in detail. For my research I am closely watching many of these myself but I have also called on the help of a few others who can get things, and house things I don’t have room for. We just want to learn as much as we can about these pythons and share what we learn with others for free.
Now that you have a list of Morelia Pythons and the hybrids out there lets gets this section started by a very hot topic amongst Carpet Python breeders. Is mixing Morelia Spilota with Morelia Spilota a hyrbid? This is mixing Carpets and Diamonds with other Carpets and Diamonds and is it wrong to mix them.
The Morelia Spilota people see are: Jungle Carpets (Normal & Zebras); Diamond Python; Coastal Carpet Python (Normal, Jaguar, Tiger, Caramel, Axanthic, Hypomelanistic, and super caramel); Inland Carpet Python ( Normal and Silver Peppered); Darwin Carpet Python (Albino, & Hypermelanistic); and Irian Jaya (Axanthic & Granite). I included a few color morphs in the list for fun. Now many people consider Bredli Pythons a Carpet Python but they are not. They have full species classification so they are a hybrid and will be further discussed on another post.
Back on the main topic of Morelia Spilota to Morelia Spilota breeding. Many breeders feel that each of the carpets listed above are very different pythons and that mixing them is bad for the breeders and buyers of carpet pythons, while others mix and match to create some of the most beautiful pythons I have seen. Today is I will write about both sides of this coin, the affects on the market, and what we have recorded so far on these mixes.
The first half of this topic lets start with the purest approach. There are many breeders who fill that mixing the different Carpets has made it hard to tract genetics, and it is causing issues for buyers and sellers. The main argument for the purest is that it is getting harder and harder to find pure subspecies of each M. Spilota. Finding a pure Diamond pythons and Jungle Carpet Pythons is getting very hard for a buyer. There are many breeders who mix the subspecies to create expensive morphs to sell and then take the non-morph (or sibling) as what ever it looks like. Yes, this does happen and way to often. People buy and start breeding these wonderful snakes and think they have something they don’t really have. The purest feel the breeders should just be honest about what they are selling and this is true. No matter what animal you breed you should be 100% honest about the genetics of the animals you are selling. This is a theme you will see pop up in almost every mix this blog will discuss and is the biggest issue in hybrid pythons. Even though the purest are strong in their belief the do think the mixing of Subspecies has yielded some of the most beautiful Carpets they have seen. There really isn’t anything one can do but check out who you are buying from. Familiarize yourself with the reptiles you want to purchase, especially of you plan on trying to breed reptiles as a hobby or for a living. It will be hard to do. I mean a 75% and 88% Diamond looks just like a pure diamond. I have seen Coastal to Jungle carpets look like pure jungles. Yes this is an issue but know that there are honest people out there.
There are many breeders who are 100% honest and will give you exact genetics on what they sell. I have found more and more people are starting to list their Carpets as 50% or 88% of some subspecies mixed with another. I want buyers to beware but I also want everyone to know that there are many honest breeders out there and the honest ones are usually the most successful. There is also an increasing demand for some of the non-morph crosses. Many people want Diamond python mixes. The Diamond Python is a very beautiful python but not for the beginner herper. They require different temperatures and caging then the normal carpet python. By mixing Diamonds people are getting beautiful and hardier snakes. They can take normal temperatures, breed easier and also provides a buyer with a very unique pet they can show off. There are also people looking for Irian Jaya crosses. Irian Jaya carpets are easy to care for, a smaller subspecies, and have great colors and patterns. I have talked to several people at reptile fairs about why they purchased siblings over the pure. They said the price was good for one, and that they like the color, pattern, and the size their mix will get. The popular Irain Jaya mix I have seen purchased was the Irian Jaya to Coastal mix. The assumption is it will be smaller then what Coastals are known to get and they really do yield a great looking snake. This mix has also grown in popularity as Irian Jaya Carpets are being bred to the Jaguar morphs for IJ Jags, which is also a beautiful snake.
The color mutations that have started popping up in the Morelia Spilota pythons have the biggest reason for the mixing of subspecies. Breeders want to create beautiful pythons and by using patterns, color, and the color mutations form the other subspecies to make something new and wonderful. The mixes are indeed leading to new and exciting looking pythons but it is also leading to more non-morphs aka siblings. The Granite Zebra Jag is a good looking snake but what about the python that didn’t get any zebra, granite, or jaguar genes? They either get sold as what they truly are or as what they look like. If you breed anything for a profit be honest with what you produce.
There are way to many mixes to list but the mixing of the subspecies of Carpet Pythons are truly producing awesome looking pythons. This is broadening the choices available for people who want an awesome looking snake. They have tons of colors, mutations, and patterns to choose from. Each one is unique and is something each breeder and owner can be proud to have.
This really is a hard topic to discuss. Each of the carpets is a Morelia Spilota and the question of if this is hybridization is based on your own view. The mixes are great and so are the pures. Breeders should be honest about the genetics of their snakes for the consumer and help those who wish to become breeders in the future. This truly is a double edged sword. It can be good and bad for the carpet python breeders and it is a topic that falls under the hybrid debate. I want to inform anyone who isn’t familiar with the debates going on with hybridization and the Carpet Subspecies mixing is one of the big ones because the lines of if it is hybridization or not is so thin it is really just a matter of opinion on if it is a hybrid or not. Carpet pythons actually mix in the wild. The Coastal Carpet have been known to breed with Diamonds and Jungles naturally in the places where their geographic ranges meet.
Mixing Morelia Spilota can cause issues on what someone is buying but it has also greatly expanded, improved and grown the interest in Carpet Pythons. New morphs, beautiful pythons, and as a consumer you have a great selection of outrageous looking Carpet Pythons to choose from.
On a personal note, I was one of the purest for a while on the Morelia Spilota even though I own Carpet Python mixes. The key word in that sentence is “was”. As more and more breeders are listing the genetics of what they are selling, more people are wanting exact genetics of what they are buying, and the just crazy beautiful pythons I have been seeing I personally just see them as Morelia Spilota. I am also looking forward to seeing some of the morphs that can be created by this breeding. We will one see an albino super zebra carpet python. The though alone of what that will look like makes me smile. This could even be the key to the first leucistic carpet python.
Know that you know the Morelia Spilota and know the debate, I want to continue by going deeper into what is going on by crossing the Morelia Spilota Subspecies, other then what is seen on the scale of the snake. Things such as size, behavior, and more.
While studying Morelia Spilota mixes there wasn’t too much that needed to be looked into as I have had to do with real hybrids. I say real hybrids because to me a hybrid is mixing of animals that do not share a Species and/or Genus. Internally they are the same. Size, color, and geographic range is what truly separates them.
First point I would like to bring up is how these subspecies mixing affect the size of the snake. This has been fun to record. There has been one result that has shown the most but I will discuss everything I have observed. The hypothesis was that since the snakes were so close in relation that the size would meet in the middle of the mixing subspecies. So if you mix an Irian Jaya which is usually 4 to 5 feet to a Coastal Carpet that can get 8 to 9 feet in length that the offspring will max out at 6 to 7 feet. We found that the hypothesis was not hit enough to draw a conclusive result. We started out with 25 Irian Jaya to Coastal mixes. We used these since they are on opposite ends of the spectrum. We had some hit in the middle, some reach below that and some go above it. What we were looking for was to see if that mixing these subspecies would remove the gene that regulates size as many people believe will happen in hybrids. I have gathered information on many other mixes, other then what I have to watch daily and we see this is a common occurrence. What I have come to believe is that because these subspecies is so close genetically that the genetics trait of size will be determined by the genetic traits passed down by the parents. If you get something smaller or larger then normal it is not caused by the mix but by the genetics already present from one of the parents because even in pure breeds you get smaller and larger offspring then normal. Each snake is unique and no matter how pure the snake is you never truly know what you have.
The next thing we wanted to look at was behavior. Carpet pythons have a bad rep across the board when it comes to behavior. I have some that were easy to handle since the day I started handling them and other took me forever to calm down. So, what I did was record behavior of breeding very easy to handle to easy to handle, easy to handle to hard to handle, and hard to handle to hard to handle. This was not just done with mixing subspecies, we also used pure breeding to see where the behavior actually came from. The hypothesis was that it wasn’t 100% genetic, that it was just that each particular snake’s behavior was based on that particular snake. My results were very interesting. In all three behavioral mixing we found that no matter pure or mixed that some were calm and some needed to be worked with. I feel more time is needed for conclusive results on behavior and I plan to continue studying behavior of all snakes.
Before I write about the biggest trait change this must be known. When working with pure Diamond Pythons and Inland Pythons they will need much cooler burmiation temperatures then most other carpet subspecies. Now when you mix Inland and Diamond Pythons to other carpet subspecies it has been observed that the cooler temps are no longer needed. Diamond mixes can take much higher temps and the Inlands were already hardy reptiles but when mixed they need very little temp changes to breed successfully.
I feel the mixing of carpets is not hybridization. Other then some size, the only real big change is the color and pattern of the scales. They are not genetically different enough to be considered a hybrid mix. There is a hybridization of Morelia to Morelia of other Genus and Species. The next post will be Morelia Hybrids Part 2: The Carpondro. This will be the real start of my hybrid research. I wanted to briefly cover the Morelia Spilota mixing debate because many do put this under the hybrid debate. I changed my mind after dissection, looking at all traits, and even looking at a few things under the microscope.
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