Breeding Season!!!
 

Well, barring any further catastrophes (black holes, abduction by aliens, ice ages) I think this weekend I finally get to take my snakes out of brumation. It's way past warm enough, and they're all hungry, being naturally warmed up by the arizona climate, but finally I get to spend some time and get them going.

I'm very excited about finally having the chance to warm them up and get them going.

Some of the male snakes I have that I might breed to my cal king girls:

High White Cal King
Aberrant Banded Desert Phase
Splendida (only I think he's a she?)
Striped Corn (maybe?)
Rootbeer corn (maybe?)

The girls I have to work with...

Normal Desert Phase Banded (double clutched last year, first clutch was 15 eggs, she escaped to lay the second clutch)
Newport Phase Cal King (proven two years in a row, 8 eggs first year, 12 eggs second year)
Hypomelanistic (ish?) banded Cal King, she had one clutch last year.
Aberrant Albino Cal King (first year breeding)
"Banana" aka banana colored aberrant banded (two of these girls)

I plan on crossing my high white definately with my desert phase cal king female, they are my two "whitest" cal kings.

My newport phase female is definately going with the aberrant male cal king.

I might see if the hypomel(ish) girl would be interested in the striped corn... I was thinking that they would make some interesting F2's down the line

The aberrant albino female I might try with the rootbeer who is het amel. I could maybe get some interesting jungle corns from the F1 clutch. (I know, I know, pure mutts)

I had thought to cross the aberrant "bananas" with the splendida, but I might end up crossing both of them, and the splendida to whichever male will have them.

It's going to be so MUCH fun!

Good luck and keep us posted as to what lays, etc. This is my first time ever with colubrids and the greyband pair aren't even mine! However because of all the work I've done, the owner has given me not only money but I get half of any babies that hatch. Cool. She has already laid one clutch and is on her way to double clutching. I like this. Now I gotta get a few corns & kings. This is waaay too addicting.

Karen, you have no idea JUST how addicting it is... especially once they hatch.. it's the COOLEST thing!

I love to think what pairings I will make... reality often doesn't match up, of course, but I make all kinds of plans!

A lot of things have to do with what the snakes want.... Is the high white tired out when one of his potential mates is ready to breed? Go with the other male... etc. etc.

But the upshot of it all is that I should have 6 to 8 kingsnake clutches this year. possibly one more. Along with my 4 corn clutches, I'm going to have a LOT of snakeys!

And YES I'll keep everyone posted... hopefully this year I'll have better luck than last year.

The greyband male I have is a studmuffin. He is in his cage and continuously is trying to get out. He turned over his water dish,a large, heavy croc, so I velcroed it to the bottom. He bred and bred the female. Finally when the female had enough, she would maneuver herself to where his tail was around her midsection or near her head. It was really funny how she kept him away from her back end. He never gave up, even to the point that he bit me when I removed him from her cage. LOL

The eggs are due to hatch around April 16 or so. I do have a question about the eggs. A couple of them aren't puffed up any more. They are dented in a little bit. Is this normal?

Eggs
 

Karen,
How are you incubating the eggs?
I use Vermiculite and water as an incubation substrate. Perlite works as well.
Make sure the substrate you use is not too wet but good and damp. I put them in a closed container with air vent holes in the lid. I incubate them at 82 degrees and over 60% humidity. They usually hatch in 60 days at that temperature and humidity.
If some are denting already it could be one of two things:
1st--some are infertile. There are many reasons this could happen.
2nd--they are too dry or the substrate is not damp enough.
I am in AWE that you have eggs already. Most eggs are laid (especially by alterna) in June or July. March is unheard of. How long did you hibernate them and at what temps? 3 months at 55 is my hibernation regimen.
Thanks and congratulations,
John Lassiter

I'm using vermiculite & water for the eggs. I also have a small dish of water in the container w/the eggs. I'm using a hovabater incubator that has been modified with a fish styro to make it a lot deeper than the chicken egg hovabator. They're in a closed Sterilite container with two tiny holes drilled in the lid. Humidity is around 80% and has been up to 90% a couple of times. I have a digital thermometer that saves the high and low temps of the day. Temperature fluctuates from 82° to 86°.

Last friday I came home from work and checked my high/low temps and it had gotten down to 68° at some point during the day. I'm guessing the electric had been off for most of the day. All clocks flashing, etc. Of course it was around 10° outside all day! Then today I noticed a couple of the eggs weren't as plump as they had been. Also I could only separate 3 eggs, the rest are in a mass. It's the top two eggs in the mass that are dented. I was thinking maybe not enough humidity.

As for brumation, here's what happened:
I have a friend who is having a house built. He had his mobile home up for sale. He never in a million years thought he'd sell that mobile home the same week he listed it. So he had to move ASAP and his house won't be done until at least April or May 2005. He moves in w/a friend, a nonsnake loving friend I may add. So he asks me if I will babysit his snakes. This was in September 2004. He brings all his snakes over, 3 EDBs, 1 WDB, a dusky pigmy, 1.1 greybands, 1 Texas ratsnake, 1 prairie king and 3 red milks. I do nothing with the venomous, I don't even open their cages for any reasion. He maintains them. All these animals are in a back room which is barely heated.

Until it got cold, he was coming weekly to check on and feed/clean everything. When it got cold, around the end of October, he stopped coming over. On a 50° day the room will get around 70°. However it normally stays from 50-60°. It's never gotten below 50°. I pulled all the nonvenomous snakes out of the room in early December. I felt sorry for them because they hadn't eaten in several months. He keeps his M&F greybands together so I did that too. I feed them separately. The day after Christmas is the first time I noticed them breeding. Then they bred off and on for about two weeks and then I removed the male. The female ate like a pig and got fatter & fatter and she laid her eggs on February 15. A total of 11.

I think she is going to double clutch. After she laid her eggs, she didn't really lose that much weight, just looked like she did before she was gravid. So I decided to see if she would double clutch. I believe she is going to. They bred and bred over the weekend and Monday bred for 3 hours straight. I removed him yesterday.

Photo period and temps are all you need to get them to breed anytime of year.

One year I put all my colubrids down in early oct and brought them out in the middle of dec. I had eggs by the beginning of march, corns, kings, hognoses, milks, all sorts of stuff that year. It's the only time I've done it on a large scale.