Archive for April, 2009

Woma eggs cooking

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 »

Expectant Woma

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 »

First Clutch of the Season

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 »

Breeding Season Progress

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 »