Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I just took this. I am posting it because someone below asked about size and breeding. This female is a little less then two feet and last years baby.

She cycled(developed ovum) so I am obligated to support her and allow breeding.

These were both givin to me. The male is dark brown and white(most likely vegas stock) and the female is cal king. I hope to see some nice babies. Cheers

Thanks,Bob.

First behavoir, a change in behavior indicates its time to physially check. Or, physical appearance. Females with fat bodies, are different looking then those with ovum and again different then those with eggs. Both behavior and appearance take some training(i have had a bit of training)

If you have an indication a female has cycled, you can then place her with a male, if you keep them apart. If you keep them together, you will witness copulation when the female changes behavior or appearance. Or, you can palpate for ovum or eggs.

To palpate is a herpers tool like so many other tools. Its used for many reasons. In the field its used to detect food bolus, lack of food bolus, of course eggs/ovum/babies, as well as fat bodies and general conditions of that individual(tumors).

In captivity palpation is used for the same purposes. Palpation is simple and easy to learn. First do not think of it as squeezing and feeling. Simply place two fingers apart, a distance normally 1/3 less then the radius of the snakes body. Let the snake crawl thru on its own, do not slide your hand down or stretch the snake. Pretent your fingers are a crack and the snake is crawling into the crack.

With experience, you can tell lots of good stuff. Then later you can use palpation for evil purposes. Like to expell feces(checking for content) or expell food bolus, or even ovum(Hugh did that once) oh how nasty is the life of a biologist.

You can do this with snakes, lizards, tort, turtles, and house cats. I like doing it to house cats, hahahahahahahaha Cheers

The picture, Palpate this, hahahahahaha

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Hi, Frank. I vaguely remember someone talking about you having some kind of 12 month cycling system rather than just cooling them down during the winter. I can't seem to find any info on this and was hoping maybe you could share your methods for cooling Cal kings. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Hmmmmmmm I have done many things, over the last 42 years of breeding kingsnakes. From keeping them at 84F 24/7 365, and constant lite. i did this for over 10 years, they bred every 11 months, they eventually bred and produced in all calender months. That was a long time ago.

Then we in Tucson coined the hibernation technique. Then I left my little part of the world and started investigating reptiles from all over the world. Then I realized there were colubrids all over and on both sides of the equator.

Then I wondered what hibernation had to do with it. It doesn't.

Colubrids require a range of temps with cool being the base. They reproduce when they are cool and can get to heat, not with constant cool or constant heat. A choice.

If you supply choices, it opens a lot longer period of reproduction. For instance, if you hibernate them, they either breed in early spring or nothing. But if givin choices, the individuals that were too small in spring will breed later in the summer or fall. Or is skinny in the spring or sick, it allows time to achieve recruitment. I believe this is far closer to their actual design that forced inactivity for all.

So what I do now is, allow choices, most feed all winter to a much lesser degree then in the summer, most maintain some activity, just a lot less. This allows for them to be at the strongest come breeding time, not breed after they have been forced to not feed. Cheers

I think a nice trip to some cooler climates might help that heat exhaustion.

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Vichris

Vichris Variables

I mostly work with monitors, heres an outdoor cage. There are tropical monitors in this cage. We do get a bit chilly here. Cheers

Hmmmmmmmm.... I've got a catchy tune stuck in my head.

That forced inactivity in most parts of the world is called WINTER.

I'm a reletive newbie by your standards but I'm not going to start throwing away books by the likes of Appelgate, Merkel, Bartlett, Perlowin, Ernst, Mara etc, etc, etc.

If anything all of us FORCE our animals to endure whatever climate WE live in..........including YOU. Not all of us can live in Tuscon FR nor do we (I) choose to.

Oh and one other thing I don't believe that "we in Tuscon coined the hibernation technique". I think maybe GOD had something to do with that. He was here before you. Hahahahahahahahahah Cheers

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Vichris

Vichris Variables

of the first time I saw something in particular...

You might remember a collector named Brown from Louisiana (I think) who was a friend of Laszlo. This was probably back around 75' or 76'. Anyway this guy was at the SA Zoo and ejaculated a male colubrid by running two fingers down it's ventral surface from about 2/3 of the way down all the way to the vent. I was a young teenager at the time and I was pretty amazed and confused all the same time - hahahahaha

Anyway does that name ring a bell from back then?

Forky

I am not so good with names, better with faces.

But about the same time, maybe a little later some fellas from Texas, gave a paper on artificial insemenation with snakes.

I remember it because Ernie Wagner almost killed me during the Q&A period after the talk.

They went on and on about this and that, including showing the technique your talking about. Ernies question was, did you ever recieve neonates from this procedure? Of course the answer was no. I hit the floor and had to be peeled up and thrown out. A 45 minute talk, with no result. Oh how some things do not change. Cheers

I thought I heard something recently about the first successful artificial insemination in snakes. They did it with eastern indigos if I'm not mistaken.