Posted by:
jasons-jungle
at Wed Mar 16 17:57:51 2005 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by jasons-jungle ]
Hmmm, not a story I like to regurge too often (but one I'm not afraid to tell) but last year we took 'the plunge'...partnered up and jointly invested $15K in one of only 3 adult male cinammon pastels that Greg Graziani let go of. Not the prettiest thing but a cinammon nonetheless.
Breeding season came, he was 22 months old, 900 grams, producing sperm plugs left and right...went with NINE girls and had no interest. We tried playing some Barry White and even taped a picture of Nathan Lane to the backside of a few females (okay, I'm making that part up but the rest is entirely true). We tried closed racks, open racks, high humidity, lower humidity, cool temps, warmer temps, big females, smaller females, pre-shed, post-shed, 2-to-1 male/female and 1-to-2 male/female, etc. Gay, just flat out gay (nothing against being gay, just that I'd prefer a $15K investment not be)...or at least no interest in breeding. I know it's not a SURE bet to produce with a baby from the past breeding season but when it's getting to be more common breeding 6-month old 500g males, you'd almost put money on a 22-month old 900g male to go...which is in fact what we did.
This was last year so this was before we were 100% sure of the black/chocolate balls although we all knew deep down that the snake that Brian Sharp had was a super cinammon.
So, although we expected offspring to be $5K, they would have actually been worth $8K and the snake that we invested $15K in would have been worth $20K easily. In the midst of getting over-eager and trying just about anything we could, he got paired up with a girl that started showing signs of RI as she developed follicles a week or so after breeding. A few weeks later the cinammon got it. He immediately went to the vet, got put on Baytril, quarantined, high heat/high humidity, 6 days later he was dead. I've had snakes with RI that lasted over a year and made a full comeback. This guy was sick 6 days.
Valuable lesson. Never put your eggs in one basket and never get too greedy. It's a loss I'm still trying to overcome emotionally and financially.
Jason @ Jason's Jungle
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RE: Like to hear your stories about how many DONT breed for you... - jasons-jungle, Wed Mar 16 17:57:51 2005