house snakes info needed

Originally Posted by John Cherry

from a couple of years ago, where the Pet Industry council ran a survey and there were more dollars worth of sales for reptiles and reptile related items than for birds or cats in the US. I find that really hard to believe, but any where close would indicate a flourishing hobby to say the least. It seems reptiles are becoming more mainstream every day.

John Cherry
Cherryville Farms

I'm not sure what I think of this hobby becoming mainstream or even popular.

My initial reaction is of course, "good."

We'll see how it goes. Should be interresting.

Originally Posted by Dennis Hultman

I will be contacting Mr. Soderburg shortly to see what might be available.

Nothing available yet. I would like to pick a group of them up at N.A.R.B.C. (Anaheim) if anyone has availability.

I've picked up a dozen pairs since this thread. I also received a couple as gifts this morning. Here is some quick shots as I was checking out one of my presents from my nine year old. She said, if I liked her gift, I would post it. Here you go Heather!

Beauties, Dennis! I really do consider house snakes one of the all-time most attractive snakes out there.

Thanks, Brenda! I enjoy having them in my collection.

FYI,
I went to check your artwork in your sig. It was a dead link.

I wrote a nice thread on house snakes here

http://www.saltwaterreptiles.com/ind...iewtopic&t=334

its just bits of information from the book i am writing on african colubrids.

its a nice read and some nice pics of the different species of house snakes, some pics are snake thats are mine personally other are jusst pics I got form other people but I identify which snakes are not mine and which ones are mine.

I am pretty sure I have the largest collection of house snake species in north america!

Mike

I really enjoyed the link and found it informative.

I'm curious how much success you have had with some of the hard starters as pointed out on your thread and here by John.

Mainly, the Aurora. Has it been your experience that it's the size issue of the hatchling that contributes to them not readily feeding on pinks? I might have got the wrong impression as I read other forums.
I was under the impression that it was more of "picky eater" situation. If it's just the size of the hatchling, and they will take parts readily until they gain some size, I have learned something new.

Also, the information you posted about the female size in relation to hatchling size was informative. Have you had many clutches that most took pinks without hesitation by following this rule?

Thank you, for sharing this information.

The size of the different house snakes are basically about the same from our experience. So it is not a size thing, but rather a genetic predisposition to feed on certain prey animals. A number of years ago we were alerted to this genetic pre-disposition by Dave Barker of VPI on children's pythons. Since that time we have worked on selective breeding of females that produced only rodent feeders (90+%) on thayeri and alterna.

In both cases after a number of years of using the rule if a female did not produce the desired results she was removed from the breeding group. We are consistently producing clutches with the propencity to feed on rodents as a first meal in our breeding colony of both species.

Don Soderburg of South Mountain has a group of my thayeri and had quit breeding thayeri because of the feeding problems. But after producing over 40 hatchlings last year out of my group and having 38 of them taking unscented pinks as a first meal, he is now a believer. LOL

I suspect that the same could be done with house snakes, within our group we have several females that consistently produce rodent feeders and several that are a pain. I just have not taken the time to sort them out yet, but plan on doing so in the next year or so when things slow down a bit. I am specifically interested in doing it with Aurora and Big Eyes's they seem to be two of the worst in the bunch.

John

okay the biggest thing with all hosue snake species no matter which one it is, is the size of the female you are breeding, the biggest problem people have is, they breed to soon. Sure all house snake species are sexually mature at 6 months of age, but it doesnt mean you should breed them that age. No way.

here it is in a nutt shell, "the larger the female you use to breed the larger the eggs she will lay hence the larger the babies will be"

that is the biggest key to breeding species such as aurora, spotted, swazi, yellow belly, etc. although the only real two you will see in captvity (for now) is the aurora and spotted. I have had 3 succesfull clutches and never once had a problem with babies refusing to eat pinkies.

NEVER BREED A FEMALE AURORA UNDER 60 CM / 2 FEET!

A good size female aurora for breeding is 2 and half feet, a healthy female at 3 years of age should be around 70cm so always wait till they are at least 3 years of age before breeding and you will never have a problem with babies to small to eat pinkies.

just because she is able to breed doesnt mean she should breed.

its the same with all house snakes.

the larger species I will let the female grow over 3 feet before I introduce a male to them.

remember the key secret of successful house snake breeding

"the larger the female you use to breed the larger the eggs she will lay hence the larger the babies will be"

anybody who breeds house snakes under a year or even under 2 years of age is breeding for the wrong reasons.