Home >> Reptiles >> Snakes >> Diamond Pythons
General Information About the Diamond Pythons (Morelia spilota )
Diamonds are cold weather pythons, as evidenced by their dark coloration - an adaptation of animals in colder climates, enabling them to absorb heat from the sun quickly and efficiently. That doesn’t mean you have to freeze their tails off, though. Found exclusively in Southeast Australia, the weather gets downright cold during the winter months (our Northern hemisphere summer months) and these snakes are accustomed to hibernating. The colder the winter, the more complete their hibernation. During periods of mild winter weather, diamonds are frequently seen basking on rock ledges, apparently attempting to gain whatever solar radiation they can.
Diamonds are medium-sized when compared to carpet pythons. While exceptions do exist, adult females generally attain an adult length of 6 1/2 to 7 feet, while most males average about a foot shorter.Their color and pattern are somewhat variable, ranging from black and white to black and gold. The latter variation is highly sought by collectors for its obvious beauty. A diamond’s pattern is it’s true mark of excellence. The spots, or rosettes, ideally should be small, measured in scales, and not interconnected. Ideally, rosettes should be between three to seven scales across. The perfect diamond has evenly spaced, small rosettes. Those with connected rosettes, or large blotches instead of small rosettes, are considered to be less attractive by diamond python aficionados. Those with significant variations from this theme are oftentimes referred to as intergrades - which occur naturally where the diamond python range extends North and West into the carpet python’s range. Commercially offered diamonds are sometimes suspect because of the common practice of cross breeding the very beautiful, but mongrel diamondxcarpet morph
This care sheet is Copyright of Stan Chiras and can be found at http://sthcoastherpsociety.bizland.com/diamondpaper.chtml