first success at breeding snakes.

[Guest]

This might not be everyones cup of tea but as i may have mentioned (or not) one of my other passions (and has been for the last 40 odd years) is herpetology (the study of reptiles and amphibians, i took my degree in Zoology).

When Elaine (my partner) first visited me when i lived in England over three years ago my youngest son gave her a Royal Python to hold (she'd never held a snake before) and this caught her interest so much that when we started living together she said she'd like a pet snake, i was up for it obviously.... things progressed and we now have a fair selection of Royal Python colour morphs and others like a Burmese Python and an Australian Spotted Python.

The reason for this thread is that she has successfully got all the environmental conditions correct as to help one of her females produce eggs (this being mated with my sons male Python)

I've bred snakes before several times over the years but this is Elaines first time (maintaining everything herself) and she's so chuffed it's beyond belief !!!

I'm really chuffed for her ... here's some pictures (incubator, eggs and mum)

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Hopefully this isn't the end of it for the year as she has two other females mated, it's just a waiting game for these now.

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[yak face]

Congrats to your missus colin, im sure thats no mean feat. What will you do with the little uns , sell them or keep them? cheers tony

[Ian M]

Well done that's pretty cool. Remember to keep us updated with how it goes.

Ian M

[Guest]

When I first saw the title of this post I thought it must have been some sort of strange modeling terminology! Lol. Congratulations on the little snakelets!

My dad, Chris Mattison, is a herpetologist too, he's written a few books on keeping and breeding snakes so I've been around them my whole life.

[Guest]

Wow very nice! I never managed to breed any of my snakes when I was a kid, as my weekly allowance wouldn't go far enough for all the gear involved, I did breed a lot of their food though.

I do still have a dream, that I one day could travel to Canada when the thaw breaks in the springtime, and sit in the middle of one of those pits where the garter-snakes come pouring out for the mating frenzy.

/Daniel

[Guest]

Elaine passes on thanks for the kind words

@Tony ... More than likely sell them off in this instance as these are normal colour morphs, Elaine has two other females mated - a "fire" female (mated with a "pastel, yellow belly" male) and a pair of "het clowns" (male and female normal colour but carrying the "clown" gene) she is hoping for a "clown" baby as this is her favorite morph and will keep one or two of these i suspect

@Ian ... i'll keep updating as and when anything else happens.

@ James ... well i know your dads name more from his superb photography than his books but saying this i did have his A-Z and his encyclopedia at some time you never know we could have crossed paths at a IHS meeting or something

@ Daniel ... when i read that out to Elaine she grinned and said "hell yeah that would be awesome" ... i think i'd be inclined to go to Manitoba and catch the red-sided garters ... there's up to 35,000 in one cave/pit .... truely mind blowing

[Guest]

nice royals i keep reptiles to my main hobby got over 140 plus do trade in them lol got loads babys at moment some rare cb lol

[Guest]

Elaine says she recognises the username from a reptile forum, (RFUK, Captive bred) is that you?

Anyway nice to have another breeder around, what are you getting at the mo, royals, corns, kings???

[Guest]

We have worms in our garden Colin does that count ?

Not sure my wife would be happy living with a snake. Although she has lived with me for 50 odd years.

Laurie

[Guest]

hi yeah its me lol same name , mainly geckos at moment , had load beardies, few royals corn eggs due soon but still few hoping for had frog eyes hatch which great as not many cb lol

[Guest]

... i think i'd be inclined to go to Manitoba and catch the red-sided garters ... there's up to 35,000 in one cave/pit .... truely mind blowing

Imagine what could happen if the rumour of the inside temperature of our clothing would cascade down the garter ranks !!!! I've tried having one or two of them sneak up into my shirt sleeve, but a good portion of 35.000 would be something to tell our grandchildren.

/Daniel

[Guest]

Update time ....

the first batch of eggs are doing ok, we've "candled" them (this means shining a bright light through the egg to see the insides), all have strong veins and there's a nice mass of solid matter that is the embryo growing) We're more than half way through the incubation period.

This morning Elaine found our second batch of eggs from a colour morph female, she was mated with another colour morph male.

She's a "Fire" and the male is a "Pastel, yellow belly". There are three genes available in the combination (fire, pastel, and yellow belly) so we could actually get a triple gene baby from this clutch.

Picture of the eggs and one of mum (whos not best impressed i took her eggs from her)

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[Guest]

be nice morphs

i had hell with lot my eggs this year for some reason lost most???? thu got 15 aura house snakes eggs more on way plus leos and hoping some knob tails

[Guest]

Knob tails ..... hmmmmmmm nice, we both like them.

shame about your losses matey,

are the house snakes normal colouration or have they managed albino or other morphs yet?

[Guest]

Thats fantastic. Glad i cought up on this one. Well done Mrs Colin

Andy