Dave,

The first year I had this setup I just had the one male and female and they were subadults. The next year (2002)I felt the female was large enough and did the whole gradual cooling thing and she had 15 babies in June, two of these (male and female) took up residence in the big cage after a year. I gave her the next year off (no cooling) then tried again with the cooling thing in 2004 and she passed slugs May of 2005. After that I stopped purposely cooling the cage and she's had litters in 2006 and 2007 (14 and 19). The cage is completely heated by overhead ceramic heat lamps of varying wattages (I used to use night lights but they don't last as long). In my setup large temperature fluctuations near the bottom of the cage get them frisky but there is always temps in the 80's available which I think is important to their overall health. So far the male and female from the first litter have not bred though the young male tried to assert himself a couple of years ago and got pushed around by the big male and that was that. The female from that first litter has never been a big eater and is smallish compared to her litter mate but this year she is looking like she could breed. Right now the cage is full of activity with the big male trying to mate his girl and the other two moving about actively. I wonder if housing them altogether is keeping the younger snakes from breeding. It is interesting.

Thanks for giving me the opportunity to ramble...

Paul

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