Hi folks. I've been pretty absent on the forums, due to lots of life craziness, but I'm still around if you look hard enough! With any luck, the dust will settle this year. Thanks to Billy for hunting me down and dragging me back in!

Anyway, I'm still working with jani, and don't plan on changing that any time soon. I was hoping to be producing 2 (as far as I know) unrelated clutches this season, including the first F2 from "my" line, but a big move will likely delay that until next year. Packing up gravid snakes and/or eggs is best avoided.

My experiences with them echo Billy's. They're tough as nails once they hit about age 2, but can be delicate when young. I do not heat them, and I do not push them with food. I like to have youngsters feeding on adult mice by about age 2, and rats by 3 but it all depends on whether they "turn off" in the winter months or not. If they go off-feed in the winter, I don't stress about it. I find the males are more likely than females to go off-feed in the winter, especially once sexually mature. My females aren't bred until at least 4 years of age, and near 6' length, and I've stopped cooling my adults for breeding. I discovered this by accident one year when I hadn't planned on breeding but stuck a pair in the same cage for a bit while cleaning. It seems photoperiod is more important than cooling for breeding jani (at least in my collection, in the Northeastern US).

My largest adults are just over 7', and I have had both sexes in that size range. If you dig through this forum, you should be able to find photos of my kids. I've been working with these guys since the late 90s. Their natural variability, ease of care, size, and temperament make them my favorite Pits. I would love to get all the Mexican species/subspecies someday, if I ever settle myself somewhere with the space to have them!

Here's a few holdbacks from my 2012 clutch...the most recent photos I have of any of my jani. The bigger they get, the harder they get to photograph decently! They just don't stop moving!

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