Reptile & Amphibian Forums

top is my high white cal kings and the bottom is my albino stripers. they are a chocolate/banana blood line. that is how they get that intense yellow. the male is going to be used in a number of projects this year. i have some of his 05 babies that i am bringing up. the yellow that these guys produce is off the hook. i hope to buy a true banana female this year to hook up with his offspring. thanks for looking and wish me luck. this is my first time. the pics a fuzzy cause i was shaking the whole time.they got me on the hook!!!!
jason

WoW gorgeous !! absolutely lovely to look at!

cindy

thanks i have been putting them together for two days now. i have 6.11 snakes breeding this year. 5.10 are cal kings and 1.1 pueblan milks. i am having a great time watching the males dance around and crawling all over the place. the pueblans are the funniest acting snakes so far. the female takes off like an arrow and the male is racing around on top of her.
thanks jason

that means shes not ready.

You could just leave them together, eventually when she is ready they will mate. I find this pretty stressful for a female who spends 24/7 trying not to get humped.

I usually try a pair for 24 hours (sometimes she just needs a bit to calm down) If nothing happens I separate, feed, and reintroduce after 48 hours.

nice cals

I wish you well with them. You have some great animals. I hope that you're able to produce a nice batch of little ones. Of course, if you produce them, I hope you can find homes for them.

Bill
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It's not how many snakes you have. It's how happy and healthy you can keep them.

thanks Bill,
i put alot of thought into what i wanted to do and how i would sell the babies. i have it set up to were i'm going to sell 65% of the hatchlings off as wholesale lots of 25-100. then i will hold back the best of the young to sell off over the next year. then i will be holding back the best spotteds and albino stripers for me and other breeders who want the blood line that i have. the biggest problem i face is this- i am not in it for the money- say i sell my spotted cal kings for $20.00 each. would i upset the other breeders? there are people out there who make a living from selling snakes. i have a construction company what if some guy in my market just starts doing the same thing as me but just for the fun of it? sure i got a good name in my market but with todays economy how much would i loose to the crazy hobbiest with a hammer and a pick up truck? i do not want to drill the man out there making a living at this. so i will have to price mine at the going market value. i would love to have all of my snakes go out to people like the ones here on this site.i may open an account on kingsnake if i get over 200 hatchlings. or my wife will!!!hahaha

i think i willl open a tread above to get more feed back on this issue.
thanks jason

You have an interesting ethical dilema there. Personally, if I had a bunch of baby snakes, I'd do whatever was needed to get them out of my house and into good homes. I wouldn't care that much what my actions did to "the market." As long as I'm acting within the law and with consideration of the best interest of the snakes, I'm not that concerned about the people who are trying to turn this hobby into a living.

To some extent, I think you are competing with people who have a hammer and a pickup truck and just want to make a few extra dollars in the evening. While some of those people are idiots, others do great work for a reasonable price. The big difference is scale. If I just need something simple done, I'll hire a trustworthy person with a hammer and pickup truck. I'm sure you're losing some business to those people already. On the other hand, if I need something bigger done, I hire someone who can handle that scale of project.

In any case, I admire that you have scruples and that you follow what you believe is right. If I wanted to get into breeding California Kingsnakes, I'd ask about any females that you produce. There are days when I wouldn't mind letting my guy have some fun.

Bill

PS. If I ever started breeding, I'd plan on sending some extras your way for free.
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It's not how many snakes you have. It's how happy and healthy you can keep them.