Breeding Newbie asking some questions (we all have to start somewhere!)

Originally Posted by redtailboa12

What are the genetics of a sunglow?

A Sunglow is basically an Albino Salmon. To make one you'd need either...

Albino and Salmon Het Albino (aka DH Sunglow) or
Salmon DH and Salmon DH, or
Salmon DH and Normal Het Albino.

The Normal could also be a Pastel Het Albino if you wanted, and possibly add some more color in addition to what the Salmon would bring in. Or Arabesque Het, Motley Het, etc. People have also used the orange tail line of Hypo DH to make Sunglows. A Sunglow bred to anything with an albino gene can make a Sunglow also. AND, if both parents are Salmon or both Orange tail, all Hypo offspring have an equal chance of being a Super. (homozygous...2 Salmon genes paired up)

So much to know, it's like, where do you start. LOL

On the question of housing them together or separately, I'm also just a pet keeper, but in my ignorance (blissful!) used to keep a Boa, 2 Ball Pythons and a Corn snake in the same tank and never had an issue. Now I keep 3 Fiji boas together (littermates of similar size) and also haven't had problems.

I can see it would be a problem if you were constantly introducing new snakes, as many breeders may do, but for a small number of pets I'm not sure I see the problem. Maybe I've just been lucky so far.

Haha! I would not recommend keeping different species of snake in the same tank. But yeah, I'm just thinking for space saving and the hassle of buying a new cage for him. Thanks for your reply, and I wish I would live in the Fiji Islands!

Originally Posted by Helenthereef

On the question of housing them together or separately, I'm also just a pet keeper, but in my ignorance (blissful!) used to keep a Boa, 2 Ball Pythons and a Corn snake in the same tank and never had an issue. Now I keep 3 Fiji boas together (littermates of similar size) and also haven't had problems.

I can see it would be a problem if you were constantly introducing new snakes, as many breeders may do, but for a small number of pets I'm not sure I see the problem. Maybe I've just been lucky so far.

The main concern with housing snakes/reptiles together would be their health. If one is sick, but not showing signs yet, then by the time you see these signs, the others in the enclosure will likely be sick as well, showing signs yet or not.

Then you also have that off chance of ophiophagous activity happening. Boa are not cannibalistic, but there have been more then one report, and I've seen pics of it, where a Boa ate a ball python, and regurgitated it later, then became pretty ill itself, and later died.

Competition for hiding places, warmth or cool spots can cause stress in non social species. Feeding time can be a problem sometimes too. You feed each their own item, but after they kill it and start looking where to start eating it, they find the one their cage mate has already started on. You can imagine the problems trying to convince them to let go and get the other one instead, or what if you couldn't supervise and didn't catch it?

These are just a couple of the potential problems that can arise when housing different species, or even the same species together. Common occurrences? Probably not. But the fact that it HAS happened to others is enough for me to go ahead and house them separately.

A very good point! Well I mean, I always take my boa out to feed her, and it would just make sense to feed them separately. And the idea of housing them together came from some people that seem to house two burms together. I guess some people are just lucky and never encounter any problems with it. But you do have a point - the fact that it HAS happened in the first place would steer me away from it.

Oh, and another random question - I bought a 4' boaphile with a Ranco double thermostat and probe and radiant heat panel from Jeff (VERY nice cage btw). I was told to set one temperature to 85 and the other to something like 90 so I would know if the first thermostat failed. However, the thermostat keeps reading different numbers on BOTH displays. Its just plain weird. I set it back to 85/90 and it still displays different numbers. Is it broken?

And the thermostat came with a power strip - this may be a stupid question, but for future cages that I get, can I just plug the heat sources into that one thermostat? Or do I need a thermostat and probe for each cage? Or is it just like the racks - one for the top and one for the bottom cage?

Ranco thermostats are non-proportional. Meaning, when the circuit is closed, it has full power to the flex watt. So likely, if the difference you are seeing is a couple degrees higher, it's probably due to the flex watt still being on it's warm up when the Ranco shuts it down. The probe is on the inside of the cage, or should be, and the flex watt should be outside. Don't forget the cage material it'self, it's still on the warm up too, and likely to get a couple degrees higher then your settings, then it cools off and the circuit closes again to reheat. A proportional thermostat, like HerpStat and Helix, adjusts the power to the flex watt, dimming or brightening if you will, to maintain your settings a little closer and more constant as well, rather then the fluctuation you'll see with the Ranco.

If you are going to run more then one cage off the strip, you have to use all the same heating materials (ex. 2 ft Flexwatt each, or what ever) same lengths of cord to each 9so they all draw the same amount of current) to keep them all within the same temp ranges, since you only hae one probe. In addition, you need to turn it all off until it's all room temp, then start them all at the same time. But don't be surprised if you get a stubborn unit that gets warmer or cooler using this route.

The above is my personal experience, opinions may vary, or someone may know something I don't. Keep that in mind.

What are you checking the thermostat readout with? If you don't have a temp gun, I highly suggest one. I found out a couple of my Rancos were a few degrees off what the read out said. Never would have known had I not checked them. I also use an addition thermometer to independently check everything.

Hope that helps.

I get the point about disease and isolating snakes, and the idea of a boa eating a python is very nasty..... I do feed them outside the cage so I don't have the issue of them snatching the same food animal.

The advantage of housing multiple snakes in one enclosure is being able to give them more space than would be possible of housing them separately (my semi arboreal snakes like to roam the tank quite a lot), and they do have lots of hides.... one to ponder.

I have a related question: I am considering trying to breed from my males and a friend's (much larger) female). Is there a maximum period of time that breeding groups/ pairs should be housed together? When breeding some mammals it's better for males and female to be housed apart and then only put together for short periods. Does this apply to snakes also?

Also if breeding using multiple males (recommended by many breeders of the Candoia species I have) is there ever any competition amongst the males? Are they likely to hurt each other in a breeding frenzy or anything????

The thermostat reading is just different between the two, it is a linked double thermostat. I always thought they should read the same things, I just wondered if there was something wrong with mine 0.o

I use a radiant heat panel for my boa, does that mean I cannot used flexwatt for any of them? I cant use heat lights, cuz it opens and closes the circuit, right?

I do have a temp gun, which read out slight differences in temperature throughout the cage.

If the sensor probes are next to each other, they should read the same, or at least pretty close. Check them with the temp gun and see if it agrees with one of your thermostat readings, and make your adjustments from there for the unit that disagrees.

Ranco's are designed for HVAC, but adapted to our use, I think they are like +/- 2° F. If so, two units could potentially read 4° different. Make sense? Adjust the thermostats to fit the temp gun, until you have it where you want it.