Snakes and Sh!t

This morning I found the next ball clutch out of the egg. This was from breeding an albino male to a spider female. Out of 5 eggs I got 1.1 Het albino spiders and 1.2 100% het albinos.

This is my first effort at making a combo morph. I almost didn’t do this breeding as I personally am not a big fan of albino spiders. But since the female was ready, I decided to go ahead and take the first step. I haven’t decided what I’ll do next. I’ll probably keep one or both of the spiders and finish it out just to say I’ve made them.

Next season though the female spider will be with a pastel, the bumblebees were what got me started with all this ball python stuff years ago and I have still yet to make one. I’ve been working my way out of the balls for a couple of seasons, but I will have to make a bee first just to achieve my original goal.

Two more clutches are still incubating, another albino clutch and a straight spider x normal clutch. They still have another month or so to go.

Clay :: Aug.29.2009 :: The Collection :: No Comments »

The first albino clutch is out of the egg. This clutch was 4 eggs from an albino x het albino pairing. The final count was 2.1 albinos and 1.0 het albino.

I was pleased with the odds, but would have liked an extra female. I still have another albino clutch incubating though.

On the bredli from the previous post, the final count was 16 nice healthy babies. The clutch was 18 eggs total and the final two were either infertile or went bad early on. I’m pleased with the results and look forward to starting to work with these guys after their first sheds.

Clay :: Aug.27.2009 :: The Collection :: No Comments »

I came home yesterday morning to find several of the bredli had pipped. I was relieved to find them starting to hatch a few days early.
I’ll be leaving for Daytona on Thursday and they were actually due to hatch while I was to be gone. I really didn’t like the idea of them hatching and potentially being left in the incubator on the vermiculite for several days unattended.

They seem to be doing very well though, no yolk sacs or kinks, or any other observable problems.

This was my first year successfully reproducing the bredli after failing for the last two seasons, so this clutch was my most anticipated this season. Few things are better than reproducing a species for the first time regardless of what it is.

Here are some pictures of the clutch and the ones that have left the egg so far. Click the thumbnails for a larger picture.

Clay :: Aug.18.2009 :: The Collection :: No Comments »

Another clutch from an albino male to a het female was laid last night.

I wasn’t actually expecting one from her. She didn’t develop the characteristic glow she usually does and she has produced the last two consecutive years so I wasn’t going to be surprised if she took this year off.

She laid 5 good looking large eggs last night though and they’re incubating now. Unless there’s another surprise coming, I’m only expecting one more clutch this season, from a spider male.

Clay :: Jul.13.2009 :: The Collection :: No Comments »

I had two ball python clutches laid last night. One clutch of four eggs from an Albino male and a het albino female, and a clutch of five eggs from an albino male and a spider female. All eggs appear to be fertile.

I’m still waiting on one or two more ball clutches, but I admittedly didn’t try really hard with the balls this year, I placed my focus more on the Australian pythons.

Clay :: Jun.25.2009 :: The Collection :: No Comments »

I haven’t posted an update in quite a while, I’ve had certain issues occupying my attention as of late.

I did have a clutch of Bredli laid today. This was my most anticipated breeding of the season. I’ve been working at getting the conditions right for a couple of seasons and have finally succeeded and have a cluthc of 18 nice looking eggs.

I’ll keep my fingers crossed that all goes well during incubation so I can finally add this species to my list of successful breedings.

Unfortunately however, the entire Jungle carpet clutch went bad soon after laying, as has newrly all of the woma clutch. This time though I didn’t lose the woma eggs due to my mistake in incubation, I’m suspecting infertility to be the culprit since they started going bad very early in the incubation.

Clay :: Jun.21.2009 :: The Collection :: No Comments »

The gravid woma laid at last. She had a clutch of 8 eggs. One she had pushed out of the pile, so it may not be viable, but I have good hopes for the others at this point.
I just hope I work the incubation conditions properly this time and can successfully hatch them all. Last time I had trouble during incubation and out of a beautiful clutch of 11 eggs, I hatched two babies. I’m attempting to correct mistakes I made that time and hope for much better success this season.

On a less cheerful note, the jungle carpet clutch looks like crap. I don’t know how many, if any, of them are going to go full term. The female that produced the clutch has in the past always laid good eggs with over 90% hatch rate.
Last year and this year I used a new male, and both clutches have had low viability. My initial thoughts were the male is probably at fault, but the female is getting older, she’s about 11 years old now. I’m still leaning toward the male being the issue.
I’m going to work with the clutch as best I can, but I’m afraid it is out of my control completely. We’ll just have to wait and see what develops.

Clay :: Apr.26.2009 :: The Collection :: No Comments »

I’ve been going in the snake room every morning for a week anxiously checking one of the womas. I’m expecting a clutch from her any day.
I tried not to get my hopes up much earlier, since I’ve failed to reproduce this species many more times than I’ve succeeded.
First she went off feed, which was a good sign, but nothing I was going to bank on. Then she started swelling a bit, another good sign, but something else I’d seen several times before only to be followed by a rather large dump.
Finally she started basking inverted with her belly toward the top of the cage. This is the best sign to see and I started letting my hopes get a little higher and actually mentioned the possibility to a couple of friends.
As the days passed she got to looking heavier in the stomach while her spine began to raise a bit so she’s definitely going to go this year.

The womas and the bredli were the two species I was most excited to be working with this year. Getting a woma clutch will be half of it, now if I can just get some eggs from the bredli whatever else produces will just be a bonus for the year.

Clay :: Apr.19.2009 :: The Collection :: No Comments »

The first clutch of the year was laid today, a clutch of Jungle Carpets. It looks to be 16 eggs total.

JCP babies can be a pain to work with at first, literally. They are easy to feed and get started but are quick to bite me any time I get within range.
I have always loved keeping them though and even as cranky babies I enjoy them immensely.

Last season I lost a great portion of my Jungle eggs, but I’m hoping to do better this season. The male I used was breeding for his first time last year so I’m hoping that might have had something to do with the fertility.
I’ll be waiting to see those little pissed off heads popping out sometime in mid June.

Clay :: Apr.18.2009 :: Reptile Related, The Collection :: No Comments »

The breeding season is pretty much winding down. Ordinarily my colubrid season would be just beginning, but this year I sent all my colubrid breeders to a friend of mine so he could breed them.
I wasn’t interested in the extra work and he needed some more things to breed so it worked well for both of us.

I’ve more or less finished pairing most of the pythons. The bredli are the exception, they have a slightly different breeding regimen than most other pythons and the main breeding season doesn’t begin until after the warm up.
They are now back in the snake room and are still being paired.

The womas bred well all winter, and one does look like she’s working on some eggs, but I’m not making any promises just yet. I’ve been fooled by them more than once.

I hate to say it but I’m not sure what I might produce with the balls. I put a lot of them together this season, but I didn’t watch them very closely. I’m just much more interested in some of my other projects.
I suppose I’ll just wait and see which ones lay eggs if any and go from there.

I’m actually considering selling the entire ball project so I can better focus on some of the other species. Feel free to contact me for details if you’re interested in acquiring my breeding stock.

Clay :: Apr.02.2009 :: Reptile Related, The Collection :: No Comments »

I’m still working the details out of my methods for breeding the bredli. This season I decided to cool them awhile and begin introductions before the warm up period to see what happens.

I came home the other morning to find them copulating at 60 degrees. I’ll continue introductions for the duration of the cool period and after they warm up as well to try to take advantage of the widest window I can this year.
Hopefully I’ll manage to get some eggs from them this season. This is one of the projects I’m most excited about because I haven’t as of yet successfully reproduced this species.

I’ll post updates on their progress here in the blog as anything develops.

Clay :: Mar.05.2009 :: Reptile Related, The Collection :: No Comments »

Representatives Jim Moran (D- VA) and Elton Gallegy (R- CA) have formed a new Congressional Animal Protection Caucus.
The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and their legislative arm, the Humane Society Legislative Fund (HSLF), will be working closely with the new Caucus.
Here is a quote from the HSUS blog:

U.S. Reps. Jim Moran (D-Va.) and Elton Gallegly (R-Calif.), announced today that they will co-chair the newly formed Congressional Animal Protection Caucus, working with The HSUS and HSLF to take lawmaking for animals to the next level.

The HSUS talks alot about being all about “animal protection” and fighting against “animal cruelty” but these are just different terms being used in place of “animal rights”.

Be warned fellow herpers, legislation will be proposed by this committee that will threaten your ability to keep the reptiles you so enjoy. If you think the HSUS shares your opinion of the proper treatment of animals then you have been fooled by the propaganda.
The HSUS is sworn to oppose us just as PETA is, and having the ear of a group of congressmen dedicated to their cause can in no way benefit us or our hobby.

Clay :: Feb.19.2009 :: Herp News :: No Comments »

The United States Association of Reptile Keepers (USARK) is leading the fight against the new proposed legislation against the keeping of pythons among others.
If you are not yet a member of USARK I strongly encourage you to join today. As their motto states there’s strength in numbers and numbers is what we need at this crucial time in our hobby. If we do not band together and fight this legislation as one body, then our ability to enjoy the keeping of any python species, as well as boas and potentially many others, is doomed.

Click the banner below to go to the USARK website where you can become a member and join the fight against this oppressive legislation.

Clay :: Feb.14.2009 :: Herp News, Reptile Related :: No Comments »

We are officially under attack fellow herpers. An attack the magnitude of which we have never faced before.
Two bills have been introduced into congress within the last two weeks. If passed they will virtually destroy the reptile keeping hobby overnight. All boas and pythons will instantly become illegal to possess, let alone breed, sell, or transport across state lines.
The threat resulting from the situation in the Everglades that we have been afraid of is upon us.
H.R. 669 and S.373 are the two bills that are aiming to be the death of the reptile hobby.
I’m not going to go into detail about it here on the blog, this situation is important enough that I wrote page dedicated to it. You can read it here http://www.arbreptiles.com/lastword/legislation.shtml

Everyone needs to contact their congressmen about these bills and encourage them to vote no. These bills if passed will make nearly all of us criminals overnight. even if you only keep colubrids of you’re strictly a frog keeper, you are still potentially affected by this legislation. H.R. 669 is open ended and can potentially have any species added to the list at any time.

Clay :: Feb.07.2009 :: Herp News, Reptile Related :: No Comments »

Larry and BT, the guys that bring us Reptile Radio have a new forum now for all the Bush League Breeders.
If you don’t know what a Bush League Breeder is then you probably haven’t listened to Reptile Radio on Saturday nights at midnight. A Bush League Breeder is small time breeder like myself and most likely like anyone reading this blog. Someone who does it because they love watching snakes hatch and tends to get pissed off occasionally by all the BS on the business side of the hobby.

There’s a good group of people who are very active over there, so if you get the chance drop in and check it out.
You can click their logo below to go straight to the forums.

Clay :: Jan.15.2009 :: Herp News, Reptile Related :: No Comments »

I’ve written a new article in the “Last Word” section of the site called Adventures in Rodent Breeding
I’ve had a couple of incidents concerning the rats over the last month that resulted in the article.
Sometimes they’re almost more aggravating than their worth haha.

Also as a result of an incident that occurred after the article was written, I have retrofitted my older rat breeding racks so that the tubs are supported from underneath. There’s a supplement page linked from the how to page on building those racks, and I would encourage any who are planning on building them to go with the underneath support option.

Clay :: Jan.07.2009 :: Random Thoughts, Reptile Related :: No Comments »

I have to admit, I just haven’t been able to get in to it this season. I usually start putting snakes together in October, but I just haven’t been able to get excited about it this year.

Early in December I finally started pairing some snakes. The spider has been breeding, with a pastel female most notably. The albino has been with a couple of het girls, and the het clowns have been together.
I’ve been pairing the womas and jungle carpets too, both of which have much more interest for me than the ball pythons.

I’ll keep you updated as the season progresses.

Clay :: Dec.26.2008 :: The Collection :: 2 Comments »

Due to my continued procrastination, I hadn’t updated the available page this season. Most of what I produced was sold before I even got pics taken.
I’ve got the ball python page updated with most of what I have left.
There are 2.1 albinos, 1.0 pastel, and soem I haven’t taken pics of, 0.2 100% het albino girls, and 3 normal females.

You can see the pics here http://www.arbreptiles.com/list/available.shtml

Clay :: Nov.02.2008 :: Reptile Related, The Collection :: No Comments »

I finally got the pics from the Daytona Expo resized and uploaded. Not the absolute best quality pics, since most of the animals were in some sort of container, but I think you’ll enjoy them.

If you haven’t made it to Daytona you really should go. It’s like the mecca for herpers and everyone with an interest in the hobby should go at least once.

Have a look at the pics here http://www.arbreptiles.com/daytona_2008.shtml

Clay :: Oct.17.2008 :: The Collection :: 1 Comment »

Well the wait is over, the last albino clutch has hatched. This was an anticipated clutch this season. I bought the het female as a near breedable adult in 2006. She didn’t breed that season, but I bred her to a het male in 2007. Five eggs were produced with no albinos. This of course brings up the dreaded question of whether the female was indeed het because the male I used was proven to be het by me.

I trusted the fellow I bought her from and the person who originally produced her both by reputation so I really didn’t think either would have intentionally sold a misrepresented snake. I know though that mistakes do happen and sometimes in a rack of 50 babies a mix up can occur so the possibility loomed over me for a year.

This season I bred her to a visual albino male and got a clutch of seven eggs. After the long wait of incubation they finally hatched this week. The count is four albinos and three 100% hets.
Whew! That was a big worry off me. I really didn’t want to go back to the fellow I bought her from and try to convince him he’d made a mistake.

I haven’t sexed the clutch yet so I don’t know what the ratios will be but I’m fairly sure that there will be both sexes of albinos.

That was the last clutch of the season but the next breeding season is fast approaching.

Clay :: Sep.27.2008 :: Reptile Related, The Collection :: No Comments »