Snakes and Sh!t

A small clutch of three eggs from a pastel and a young female hatched this morning. There were two normals and one nice looking pastel male.

The father is a NERD Lemon pastel and this is the first clutch he has produced. I’m pleased so far with the look of the hatchling. I’m anxious to see what he looks like after his first shed.

Apparently I got mixed up when putting the eggs in the incubator. The seven egg clutch I originally thought to be a pastel clutch turned out to be fathered by the spider and the three egg clutch that just hatched was from the pastel. I wasn’t as concerned with these two since they were co-dom morphs and there wouldn’t be any wondering about hets or anything.

Clay :: Jun.25.2008 :: The Collection :: No Comments »

The het albino female I have been waiting on finally laid last night. Better than her last clutch which she didn’t lay until August.

She was bred to an albino male, so I’m hoping for some really good odds on this one. Hopefully two, or dare I hope three, albinos and the rest 100% hets.

I have another het albino female that may still lay, but I’m not sure if she took this season, have to wait and see on her.

Clay :: Jun.17.2008 :: The Collection :: No Comments »

Two clutches hatched last week, the jungle carpets and a ball python spider clutch.
Most of the jungle carpet clutch was infertile. An unproven male was the father, so it may have been due to it being his first season. Four hatchlings were produced.

The spider clutch had somewhat poor odds. Two spiders hatched and five normal siblings. Both spiders are males.

I have posted a new article in the Last Word section about the “wobble head” condition of spider balls and my opinions on the topic. You can read it here http://www.arbreptiles.com/lastword/spider_wobble.shtml

Clay :: Jun.13.2008 :: Reptile Related, Site News and Updates, The Collection :: No Comments »

I’m still waiting on at least two more ball python clutches. One albino clutch and one spider clutch. There may be more, but I’m sure of these two.

The bredli were also seen copulating the last couple of weeks, so it’s quite possible I’ll see a clutch from them as well.

I added another article to the Last Word section of the site, a rant on the current state of shipping charges for reptile breeders.
You can read it here http://www.arbreptiles.com/lastword/shipping_rant.shtml

Clay :: May.19.2008 :: The Collection :: No Comments »

This clutch was laid last night and is the first of the potential spider clutches this year. It was a small clutch of three very large eggs.

I’m still waiting on at least two more clutches, an albino clutch and another spider. The het clown female has been hanging out on the cool side of the cage for a few days, so she may produce yet as well, but she hasn’t colored up yet.

Clay :: Apr.22.2008 :: The Collection :: No Comments »

Another ball clutch was laid last night. This clutch is the product of a 50% het genetic stripe female bred to two 50% het g-stripe males.
While I don’t have huge hopes of hatching a genetic stripe from this clutch, the possibility does exist. We’ll keep our fingers crossed.

Clay :: Apr.16.2008 :: The Collection :: 1 Comment »

Well, the female I mentioned thinking was gravid yesterday was apparently very gravid because I caught her laying a little while later.
She laid 12 good eggs, one slug, and one that might be a slug, it doesn’t look exactly right.

I’m pleased with 12 though, I’ve always had fun with the carpet python babies.

Clay :: Apr.12.2008 :: The Collection :: No Comments »

My first clutch of ball pythons was laid last night. Seven eggs from a lemon pastel breeding.

Still waiting on some other females to drop including an albino clutch and soem spider clutches.

It also looks like I have a gravid Jungle Carpet python. It’s been a couple of years since I produced that species so I’m looking forward to hatching some of them again.

Clay :: Apr.11.2008 :: The Collection :: No Comments »

I know more than a few people are wondering how my het clown pair did this season. They were put together, but I never saw actual copulation. I may get eggs from them and I may not, we’ll have to wait and see at this point.

It’s actually unusual in my collection to have a female produce in two consecutive seasons. More often than not they take a year off in between.
For that reason I’m not overly expectant of getting a clutch from them this season, but I’ve been surprised before.

For those looking to get a clown like the ones I produced in 2007, the female I held back might be purchased for the right money.

Clay :: Apr.10.2008 :: The Collection :: No Comments »

So far it looks like I have a few gravid balls. A het albino female gravid from an albino male, at least one female carrying a spider clutch, and one possible het genetic stripe female I’m trying to prove out.

I’m also suspecting that I have a gravid jungle carpet python. I hadn’t actually seen any copulation and had thought that the male might have been a little young to breed, but the female he was paired with is off feed and has that look to her body like she’s developing eggs.

I started pairing the colubrids today. I had debated on whether to breed them at all this season, but I decided to go ahead since I gave them all last year off anyway. I’ve got the striped albino cal kings, a very neat pair of albino nelsoni, and my locality okeetees together now. I’ll begin pairing the western hognose tonight or tomorrow.

Clay :: Apr.06.2008 :: The Collection :: 1 Comment »

I finally got some pics of the balls I have left from last year and have them posted on the available page here.

I’ll likely be letting a number of my ball pythons go this season, including some proven females.  This will be a little later in the season though as eggs are laid.

Clay :: Mar.12.2008 :: The Collection :: No Comments »

At least a few of the ball python females appear to have taken already. One of the het albino girls, and two or three that were bred by the spider all have the glow and are hugging the water bowls.

The albino male was used with the hets this year and the female that is laying cold is a proven het so I hope to see some good odds there.
The spider is a breeding machine, so I’m sure he’ll produce a few spiders this year.

One of the female womas is laying funny, but not inverted, so I’m hopeful but not positive with her.
The savus ended up showing no interest, I’m thinking they just need a little more age on them.

I have warmed the bredli back up and have introduced them, but no breeding activity has been observed so far.
The jungle carpets were paired, but I never actually saw copulation with that pair. The female is off feed now though, which is unusual for her.

The colubrids are all out of brumation, but I haven’t started putting any of them together yet. I know I’ll at least be pairing the hognose, but I’m not sure which of the other colubrids I’ll breed.

Hopefully in a month or two I’ll start seeing the first eggs of the season.

Clay :: Mar.06.2008 :: The Collection :: No Comments »

Sorry I’ve been a little slack on the updates lately. I normally post my blog entries from work when I have some spare time since time is usually harder to come by at home.
The internet access has been restricted at work though so I am no longer able to do anything from there. I’ll still be trying to update as often as I can, but often I just can’t make time to do much with everything I have to do anyway while I’m at home.

The breeding season for the pythons is winding down. To be honest I don’t have any idea what to expect this season. I’ve paired pretty much everything, but I haven’t actually watched them to see who was breeding and who wasn’t. I figure my watching them isn’t going to help them any anyway, so I just let them do their thing if they wanted to.

I have seen the albino ball breeding both het girls, and the spider has been busy too. I’m not sure about the pastels or the het clowns. They’ve been paired, but I haven’t seen copulation. As I said though, I haven’t been making a specific effort to watch though.
I might luck up and score a bumblebee this year too.

The womas have been breeding, so I might get some of those this season. I’ll start putting the bredli together in a week or two, their season hasn’t started yet.

I’ll also be taking the colubrids out of brumation in the next week or two and get ready for them to start breeding too.

Until then it’ll just be the waiting game on the womas and balls. I’ll keep you posted.

Clay :: Feb.12.2008 :: The Collection :: No Comments »

I have started a product review section on the main site.

The first product I have reviewed is a new design of radiant heat panels manufactured by Reptile Basics.
I have been very impressed with the panels in both features and function.

You can see the entire review including my tests of the heat panels here:
http://www.arbreptiles.com/products/rbi_heatpanels.shtml

I plan to include reviews of other herp related products in the future.

Clay :: Jan.20.2008 :: Product reviews :: No Comments »

I know I’m about three weeks behind schedule, but the new birthing rack for the rats is finally done. The final parts I’ve been waiting on for the watering system came in this week and I finished coding the HTML for the How To page today.

Check out the new plans here:

http://www.arbreptiles.com/cages/rat_rack2/birthing_rack.shtml

Clay :: Jan.13.2008 :: The Collection :: No Comments »

Snakebytes.tv is a new site being launched soon by Brian Barczyk of BHB Reptiles.
It will be a weekly show about the world of a large scale reptile breeder. Word has it this may be the forerunner of an actual television show.
I’m really looking forward to the official launch of the site.

The website for Snakebytes.tv is http://www.snakebytes.tv/

I think a show like this, especially should it make it to television, has enormous potential for our hobby. It would help bring us more into the mainstream and legitimize our hobby if you will.
The great expansion of the reptile hobby over the last decade and a half is a double edged sword to me, but now that we have grown to the point we are, I feel it is important to bring the hobby to the forefront.

Many years ago we were basically ignored by lawmakers and the public in general due to our small numbers and general preference to operate “under the radar” so to speak. We have now reached a point that we are large enough to draw the attention of the public and the lawmakers, and all too often that attention is negative. We will now have to expand further to gain the strength to avoid being legislated out of existence.

Watch for the launch of Snakebytes.TV and support it. Tell your friends about it. Get the number of viewers as high as we can so show the interest is there.
We are at a precarious point in the development of the hobby, and the next few years will determine whether we will be the last generation to enjoy keeping reptiles like we do today.

Clay :: Jan.09.2008 :: Herp News, Reptile Related :: 1 Comment »

Today I discovered that there are some problems with some of the photos on the site. In particular quite a few of the pics on the Alligator Adventure page are damaged.
This occurred during the move to the new server. Apparently due to the large volume of data that was being transferred some of the larger picture files became corrupted. The result is some have odd colors in them, are blocky looking, or are just cut off at the bottom.
That was a few months ago now, but there’s just so many pictures and stuff on the site I haven’t loaded them all myself.

I will be uploading the Alligator Adventure pics again today, and making sure they are all there. However, if anyone should come across a photograph anywhere on the site that is damaged or otherwise doesn’t appear to display properly, I’d appreciate it if you’d let me know so I can fix it.

Clay :: Jan.05.2008 :: Site News and Updates :: No Comments »

Apparently the parts I’ve been waiting on to finish the watering system on the new rat rack have been out of stock.
I got an email today saying that they had finally shipped them.

They should be here in a few days, so hopefully by next weekend the new rack will be in use.
I’ll have the plans posted as soon as I can get the page coded.

Clay :: Jan.05.2008 :: The Collection :: No Comments »

The male spider is a breeding machine. He’s mated with 5 girls so far, so hopefully I’ll get at least a few clutches from him this season.

The male albino has decided he’s ready this year and has been breeding with two het girls.  I struck out with the albino gene this season, so with him as the breeder male hopefully I’ll have better lick this year.

The pastel male has bred a female or two, but he’s not nearly as enthusiastic as the spider male. It’s hard to beat a spider for either feeding or breeding interest though.

The het clowns have copulated a couple of times. I’m crossing my fingers that I’ll get another clutch from them this season.

The womas are of course breeding heavy, but they’ve skunked me in the past, so I’ve learned not to count those eggs until I have babies roaming the incubator.

The bredli are being a little stubborn. I’ve seen some mild interest from the male, but no copulation as of yet. I’m going to tweak their temperatures a little more and see if I can’t get something started with them.

I’m beginning to think the Savus are going to need another year before they’re ready. I thought, judging by their size, that they were ready to breed, but I’ve seen no interest from them at all so far.

I’ll make regular updates here on the blog when anything of interest happens. Until then it’s just the waiting game as usual, keep them breeding and wait on ovulation.

Clay :: Jan.04.2008 :: The Collection :: No Comments »

 Here’s a new pic of the little clown girl I held back this season I thought I’d share.

She’s coming along nicely if I do say so myself. I hope to produce some more like her this year.
Her parents have copulated a couple of times so far, but in the past I’ve found that I have a smaller degree of success getting a given female to reproduce two consecutive seasons, especially when she’s a young female.
We’ll see what happens though.

Click the thumbnail for a larger pic.

I’m proud of this girl, and am very glad I was able to start with good genes and was able to produce her to add to my breeding colony.  Her grandfather was also a very nice reduced patterned male, and that was the main factor in my deciding to start my clown project with his offspring.
Despite the claims of some, you can see the benefit of starting a project with good stock. Clowns are indeed variable, but not to the point some  (mainly the ones producing the lowest quality) would like you to believe.

I’m not saying that to promote my animals. There are many breeders producing high quality clowns. There’s a good number producing low quality animals too that look more like blackback normals than clowns too.
I’d like to see this gene refined and improved on, and to that end I’d like to see people interested in the clowns make the effort to acquire high quality founding stock, regardless of who they buy it from. With careful breeding, aimed at improving the look as opposed to just producing more to sell, I’m anxious to see what will be produced in years to come.

Clay :: Jan.04.2008 :: The Collection :: No Comments »