I apologize for not including this in the original post, but I am planning on breeding next year - not this year. The female is eating 1 small rat per 5-7 days, and I am increasing her food intake to 2 small rats per 3-4 days prior to the winter. Her first meal this year was on 3/18, and her first shed was 5/11. I had a minor crisis at the end of April where my house flooded during a storm, and that threw off my feeding schedule quite a bit as I had to move all of the reptiles to a new location during this time.

I will try to get a current weight on the female, but in the mean time, what is a good weight range to shoot for immediately before brumation and breeding? Also, do any of you recommend supplementing the female's diet with calcium following laying or should the calcium provided by the diet be sufficient?

When introducing the male and female kingsnakes, do you prefer to introduce the female into the male's cage or vice versa? Most sources say to introduce the female into male's cage, but I was wondering if this made a difference. I would prefer to introduce the male into the female's cage as her cage is much larger and easily accessible in the event that she tries to eat the male.

As far as incubation goes, do any of you have a preference for hatching substrates? I was planning on using hatchrite instead of vermiculite/perlite simply because I've heard it's much easier to deal with.
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1.1 Lampropeltis getula (Caldera, Zorro)
0.1 Heterodon nasicus (Hinamori Momo)
1.0 African house snake (Kensei)
1.0 Manx cat (Mako)
1.1 Crested gecko (Sundae, Hiyori)
1.1 crazy dogs (Tumnus, Jet)

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• Breeding common kingsnakes - orocosos, Sat Aug 13 19:20:58 2011
• RE: Breeding common kingsnakes - Bluerosy, Sat Aug 13 23:37:06 2011
• RE: Breeding common kingsnakes - rtdunham, Sun Aug 14 09:08:49 2011
• That's his latest signature. His post is - a153fish, Sun Aug 14 09:41:22 2011
• RE: Breeding common kingsnakes - rtdunham, Sun Aug 14 08:58:10 2011
• RE: Breeding common kingsnakes - orocosos, Sun Aug 14 11:19:59 2011
• RE: Breeding common kingsnakes - pyromaniac, Sun Aug 14 09:33:10 2011
• Ha Ha! That's what happens.... - a153fish, Sun Aug 14 09:53:49 2011
• RE: Ha Ha! That's what happens.... - Bluerosy, Sun Aug 14 10:48:57 2011
• Rainer... - a153fish, Sun Aug 14 17:21:51 2011
• RE: Rainer... - pyromaniac, Sun Aug 14 17:42:33 2011
• RE: Rainer... - varanid, Mon Aug 15 00:14:17 2011
• RE: Rainer... - Bluerosy, Mon Aug 15 00:19:24 2011
• RE: Ha Ha! That's what happens.... - DISCERN, Sun Aug 14 13:09:50 2011