By Billy Hunt
When I first entered the world of carpet pythons in 2006, there were only a handful of resources about them one could find on the internet. Australian Addiction Reptiles site, Anthony Caponetto’s site, and Will Bird’s site. Will Bird had an article on his website called “Propagating Carpet Pythons”. I printed this article out numerous times and at one point could probably recite it. It was the “book” before the Complete Carpet Python came out. It is still full of valuable information to this day. I bring up Will’s article because at the end of it, there is a picture of an incredible adult carpondro that he casually inserted into the piece. This was the first carpondro I had ever seen a picture of. Now at the time, it wasn’t something that I thought was even close to being a possibility for me.
I was fortunate enough to produce a clutch of jagpondros and carpondros in 2018. I bred a male coastal carpet (Max) to a female green tree python (Medusa). Historically, these crosses have been done with female carpets and male green trees. I had no issues with my pairing but it is also a sample size of one clutch so take that into consideration. Incubation was no different from carpet python eggs and I hatched out 13 live babies out of 14 eggs. Nine jagpondros and 4 carpondros. This was a very exciting time for me, personally, because as I looked at this clutch of babies, I thought back to that picture I saw in Will’s article. It was surreal to say the least.
First generation jagpondros and carpondros will be 50% gtp and 50% carpet python. I refer to mine as 50/50s. I have noticed that there is a mix of animals that act like carpets and some that act like gtps in this clutch of mine. They do seem to enjoy lower temps like gtps and can handle bigger meals like carpets. They also seem to have the carpet temperament as neos as opposed to the snappier demeanor of gtp neos.
There is speculation that male hybrid carpondros and jagpondros are sterile. There are many opinions on the subject, but there honestly hasn’t been enough breeding trials to know for sure. I have heard of 50/50 males siring clutches. I have also heard that there could maybe be an issue with their hemipene structure in relation to the females that are breeding. I’ve even heard it could be more of a compatibility issue between the two animals paired. More needs to be done before any concrete evidence is put out there on the subject. It is an exciting time in Herpetoculture. As we start to understand the husbandry and breeding habits of more species, the more successful projects like carpondros have the potential to be.
