why are they doing this??

Yup, the runny stuff stunk too!

After my last attempt at buying females at a show, I had my friend teach me how to probe. It won't happen to me again. Two different sellers at that show assured me 100% that the ones I bought were females. I told them I though the tails looked way to long to be females but who knows, I've only looked at about 30 of them so I'm really not an expert to say the least. (At least I knew how to handle them, the sellers wouldn't lay a finger on them, wooses) I got home and had my friend probe them and both were males.

I'm starting to like the egg layers just as much as the live bearers. At least you know they were pregnant. Tonight I have greyband babies poking their little heads out of their eggs. I can't wait until they hatch completely. It's my first attempt at hatching colubrid eggs and I'm having fun.

yeah-I think I dropped the ball with my greybands this year. introduced the male to a couple of females after they shed, didn't see any interest, and got distracted by everything else going on in my world. I suppose there is still hope-I know that people sometimes double clutch their colubrids, so there is no reason I shouldn't be able to start over/late. I've got 4 clutches incubating now: 2 of Cape York spotted python eggs, and 2 of jungle carpet/diamond x's. my other CY spotted never laid - that was kinda weird...witness copulation multiple times, she definitely looked gravid, was laying practically on her side, went off feed, then nothing. she should have been the first to drop. I have given up on the rest of my pythons for this year (well not really, I still hope). got some late additions to the collection - some had been cycled, some hadn't. witnessed a little courting, but nothing else. will really be scrambling if anybody else drops eggs, as my incubator is full. guess I could throw another one together quickly, or consolidate my eggs to make room, but I won't worry about it until I have reason. Next year, I will definitely a bigger, or another, incubator. And of course, the waiting game for the boas (1-2 dums, a yellow anaconda, an ATB (last of the 3 probably gravids :<(), and a few ETBs. plenty to keep me busy, if all goes well.

I acquired a pair of jungle carpets and both should be good to go next year. I got them for my utmost favorite price . . free. A friend of mine gave away all his boas & pythons. He got married and the new wife didn't like his big burmese pythons (even though she knew he had them when they were dating) so he gave away EVERYTHING! I knew he was looking to sell them so I had asked him just the week before what he wanted for the carpets. He bought them as babies two years ago and I know he paid a lot for them. He never got back to me and then boom. Do ya want them? Then come and get them. Wohoo happy day.

I've got greybands hatching right now, another wohoo. The parents are some snakes I've been babysitting while another friend's house is being built. He's already paid me very well for keeping them and I get half of the babies to boot. Can't beat that. I double clutched them. First clutch (hatching now) 11 eggs, second clutch 8 eggs.

Wow.. I think I'll have to ask Dr. Richard Funk about this one.. We were getting worried when our GTP was hanging out on the ground.. but she's back to normal now.. very wierd..

~Laine and John | www.scalesnthings.com

I'm pretty well convinced it was related to the misting - I've got a few that regularly stop drinking from the water bowl. If I don't mist them lightly enough/long enough, they start drinking off their coils and any low spots in the substrate. Hopefully once I get my lazy butt in gear and get them in their new cages and get them all prettied up (plants, vines, etc) this will cease to be an issue.