Snakes and Sh!t

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 »

I went down Wednesday and picked up the new cages from Reptile Basics. I had Richard build me six 3×2 cages with heat and lights built in.
I’m very pleased with the cages. The 3/8″ thick plastic these are made of is nice, and I like these much better than the boaphile cages I’ve seen in person. The extra thickness also allows the thermostat probe slot to be routed into the underside so that there is no hole in the cage for the probe. Having the probe underneath is also good so the snakes can’t move it around and get it off the heater.

Overall my initial impression with the cages is I really like them. I’m going to use them a bit before I write a review page of them, but unless some aspect of the design I can’t see just yet makes itself known I fully intend to get some more of these cages in the future.

Clay :: Sep.26.2008 :: The Collection :: No Comments »

The first albino clutch hatched over the last couple of days. The final count was 1.2 albinos and 1.1 100% hets.  I was pleased with both the count and the sex ratio.

Only one clutch left in the incubator now, the other albino clutch which won’t be hatching until next month.

Clay :: Aug.15.2008 :: The Collection :: No Comments »

I will be vending at the Raleigh herp show the weekend of August 30th.

This will be the first show I’ve had a table at since I quit doing them in 1999.
I figured I’d give it a  try and see how it goes. Shows are a hassle to do, but with shipping costs rising steadily I think they might start to be worth the time again.

I plan to have quite a few balls there, including spiders, pastels, and albinos, and of course the normal and het siblings. I’ll also have some jungle carpets, some kings and milks, and maybe even some roaches.
If you’re at the show stop and say hi. We won’t have a banner, but my name tag will say Clay, and I’ll probably be the only Clay there. Mention that you saw this post in the blog and I’ll give you 10% off anything you buy.

Clay :: Aug.05.2008 :: Reptile Related, The Collection :: No Comments »

A second clutch of albinos was laid on July 27th. This clutch is from an albino to het albino breeding, and there were 7 eggs.

The albino clutch laid earlier is starting to collapse and I’m expecting them to hatch sometime around August 17th.

Two spider clutches have hatched. I didn’t get the greatest odds, but there were two spiders in each clutch for a total of 2.2 babies.

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

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 :: 1 Comment »

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 »

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 »