Posted by:
Bluerosy
at Thu Mar 20 19:31:00 2014 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by Bluerosy ]
vermiculite or perlite are great for incubating eggs.. But not for nesting females.
If you read Franks Retes post (FR) he said that vermiculite peels off and gets flakey. Which is true, and that does not make a suitable medium for nesting because it is irritable for the snake . Also my experience of over 40 years that snakes do not like to use that as a medium for laying. They kinda get frantic from borrowing around in plain vermiculaite like yours did and they can't seem to settle down to make a nest.. which says they can't find anything better and are desperate.
Best a soil (spaghmum) sand mix or sand/coco fiber mix, sand/spaghmum, or strait coco. Then lay a heavy tile over that and the female will borrow under it and make a nest.
Just so you know, FR has many more years than me breeding snakes than I do. He is one of the only true pioneers of herpetoculture to post on an open public forum to answer questions. You won't find any other herpetoculturists with his backround bothering to subject themselves to any know-nothing who compares their "pet shop logic" (I am not referring to you Jennblank) to their experiences on the internet. My hats off to him for putting up with us dummies.
You just lucked into a good place to learn. Most people who post on the internet either have very little experience or they are one of those that never thought much about the snakes and do things when they first read about it and have not evolved much past the pet shop book mentality because they do not have the ability to learn from the snakes.
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"I guess newbies cannot understand, those who build the foundation, are not the ones with great opportunity. Those who buy the latest generations, have the greatest opportunity to create new morphs. "
Frank Retes
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RE: Kingsnake Nesting Substrate - Bluerosy, Thu Mar 20 19:31:00 2014