if you breed her and then you only need it in the years you breed. You can legally possess 4 gopher snakes (any combination of subspecies) without needing a permit, but you need a valid California Fishing license for any that you personally collected. If you collect a gravid female, you have 45 days after they hatch to donate the offspring or technically you will need to euphonise them. Of course, if you thought you relatched the top on the enslosure when you fed them and you didn't and they escaped, I don't think I've seen any violations cited for that. Kind of scary when you consider it covers non-native nonvenomous reptiles also. Schools and kids are good sources to donate. Remember, you cannot release into the wild any captive bred or w/c reptiles. If you pick up a snake in California (you must have a California fishing license if 16 or older) you cannot technically put it back down and release it, even if its the exact location. That's a hard interpretation of the regulation, but it is technically correct. Email me if you have any questions at parks38@juno.com. My partner Del Alspaw and I have gone through and obtained the California Native Reptile Propagation Permit and renewal. If you fill out the application I recommend to mark both commercial and non commercial on it. There's no difference in cost. The advantage I see in marking both is that if you have it marked commercial, than you can keep more of a species which includes parental stock and progeny.

I recommend hibernating all snakes especially wild caught unless they are sick. Hibernating a snake is part of their physical cycle. It allows them to recharge so to speak. You don't have to put them completely down, but I give all my snakes at least a cool down period. The w/c female you have is probably going to slow her eating if not completely shutting down during the winter. When snakes slow down eating, you should slow down their activity or they will loose weight and that's not healthy. I'll put the address to our website on here and Del Alspaw has written and published a nice article on Breeding pituophis and has written one on Care for them. It has some great info on it. Of course, I'm biased. LOL.

BTW - If you have the locality of where your female was collected, I would like to inquire on a pair or 2 pairs of the offspring. They can easily be added to our permit in the year when they become breedable. Del's permit covers both commercial and noncommercial so he can have more parental strock. I have a copy of the California regulations published by the Fish and Game and I'll gladly send you a copy. If you've applied for a permit or requested an application, then the Fish and Game will send one. Several important regulations are left out (for some reason) on the Fish and Game Pamphlet that you can get at stores.



Good luck,

Terry Parks

Kern Reptile Research Center

Bakersfield, CA

www.kernreptile.com





>>I don't have a one yet but have applied. I have no intentions of being a breeder just a pet owner. She was unexpectedly gravid. This will be her only clutch! *LOL* She is beautiful, a rescue from the golf course, men with clubs are deadly.

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