Because of the current upheavel in my life,I havent been able to participate much on line or on the forums. It is nice to see the good results that Dean and others here are receiving in their quest of the production of Drymarchon. Great job guys!



My feeding programs for Drymarchon are as follows:



I tend to feed what I can best get ahold of. In my case, mice and rats are a staple part of the diet that I feed my Eastern Indigos and Rubidus. For adult Drymarchon,I will feed 4-5 small pre killed rats per feeding, with feedings spaced out 10 days apart, or longer if they go into a shed cycle.(Which happens frequently) I also feed adult Eastern Indigos Mice, often as much as 10-12 mice per animal. Again, feedings are spaced out in ten day increments.

I occasionally feed frozen chicks, which I get from a supplier. These chicks are vacume packed and arrive FROZEN at my door. Indigos *truly* love these things, and I notice a marked diffrence in my Adult couperi when I feed them...call it zeal if you will, but they really go after them. I feed adult Couperi no more than 3 chicks apiece at any given time,mainykl to prevent regurge in case there are temperature spikes in my area. Once you have had a drymarchon cough up a chick in the hot summer, you wont feed them heavily again.



Fish? I feed fish every 3 weeks, mainly because I am a glutten for punishment and a cage cleaning slave That, and I like to see them happy, and fish brings out the best in them. Again,I limit the amount of fish fed and err on the side of light feding with this food source. As Dean mentioned, Indigos fed chicks are messy, and I will say that Indigos fed FISH are down right FILTHY, but then we knew they weren't easily maintained snakes when we got into them, so it goes with the terrirtory.



What I never do is combine food items, i.e. when I feed fish, I JUST feed fish, when I feed chicks,I JUST feed chicks. One TYPE of prey item at a time. Females that have laid eggs get an ENTIRELY diffrent feeding schedule: they get very small meals of sub adult mice every 4 days, until they regain their body weight back. Laying/producing eggs takes an awfull out out of female Drymarchon. Males doing breeding season get a drastically slimmed down version of the adult diet mentioned above.



Juveniles- New born Easterns get anything they will accept...pinkies, lizards, fish, trout, amphibians, etc etc.Whatevedr elicits a feding response first is what they get until they will stubbronyl switch ti pinkies or fuzzy mice. I feed juveniles small meals every 4 days if at all possible.



My results this year have been rather unremarkable. I have had females lay clutches of eggs, and they still look great(Crosses fingers) and I have had other females lay eggs that came out larger than normal and oblong instead of spehrical, but they have yet to display yellow coloration or fungus, and they candle well. I have come to realize that even with all these eggs, I could end up with absolutely 0 Indigos produced this season, such is the reality of life. I just hope for the best. Because of everything that has transpired in my life,I am lucky to have gotten any eggs,let alone the blessings Ive had. Luckily no egg bound females at all, but most of them have had a year off, MAYBE that was a factor,who really knows?



To Dean,Doug,Carl, and Robert, and a host of other people here that work with these snakes, your work with these snakes inspired me to want to grow and expand into the diffrent types of Drymarchon,and I applaud your efforts.Keep up the good work, and best of luck in 2003 with your Drymarchon.





Sincerely,



Fredrick Albury

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