Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i recently aquired two beautiful bull snakes from a friend in utah, and i would like to breed them. i have bred pythons before, but these seem different. can anyone tell me if the methods are the same or give me advice if they are not? Can the females incubate their own eggs, or do you need to use an incubator? what does the temp/humid need to be for the eggs? in is safe to keep the male and female together after the eggs are laid? or will the male try to eat them? does the female need a nest box, or would a small den be ok? what substrate do you reccomend for the nest box or den, or does it matter? they use newspaper right now, and their cage tepm is about 72-75 degrees during the day (with a hot rock that is a constant 100) and about 68-70 degrees at night. does that sound right? and i was told that they don't need to hibernate as long as i keep the cage cooler for the winter months, is that true?
thanks!
Sherry

As far as breeding goes just do a search on google. There is a ton of useful info. Also I'm not an expert or professional breeder but have some experience so I'll address a few things in your post since it hasn't got much feedback. As far as the snake's temperatures I would say keep them around or little above 80 with NO heat rock. While I've never had a bad experience with heat rocks they can malfunctions and severely burn a pet. I've seen some heartbreaking pictures of burned reptiles. I would imgagine that as big and active as bullsnakes are they would be at risk more than other reptiles for burns. I use night time bulbs (black) in shop lights for an extra heat source because they put out decent heat but not too much since my house stays fairly warm. Also they can be left on all night so the snakes can sleep. As far as breeding goes you can leave them together all the time if you just have to (and have a HUGE cage). I've never heard of the eggs being eaten but you will have to provide a next box and get the eggs out as soon as possible. They have to be incubated seperately at 85-90 degrees with 80-99% humidity (definitly get a humidity cage) for 60-80 days. If the eggs start to dimple and/or cave in they are not humid enough. Most breeders keep them in a sealed or barely ventilated container in very most vermeculite and open them once a week to check the eggs and humidity and for fresh air. Sometimes bulls breed on their own without any special conditioning because of natural changes in winter light conditions. Its not that uncommon to find suprise eggs if you keep a pair together, although don't count on it for certain. Also the female needs to be pretty big to breed because they lay huge eggs. I think five feet is the smallest you'll want to go. Someone please correct if I'm off on any of this! Good luck.