Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Yippy..

Here are some new pics of my yearling females..

and here are some of my 2 year old girls.. hopefully they will be big enough to breed next year.. they are between 1100 and 1300 grams each now.. fingers are crossed..



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photos.xtremecombatsports.com

Great shots Tim, good luck with those 2 year olds!!
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Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC)
0.2 kids (CBB, selectively bred from good stock)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count:
11.24 BRB
10.16 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

Thanks Dave..
I actually have a question about breeding that you (or anyone else on here that has an opinion/answer, please chime in).

The girls are getting close to breeding, the one in blue in the pics was just a shade under 3lbs last time I weighed her (about 5 or 6 rats ago.. ) So I am guessing she will be heavy enough come time. My question is 2 part though.. I know with some snakes, cooling the male is much more important than cooling the female. Does anyone have any experience with a shortened cooling cycle for the females? I was thinking of keeping her warm and feeding for another month or so.. then starting to cool her after the first of the year.

The second part of the question pertains to the time of year for breeding. I know alot of herps from brazil (and much of SA for that matter) depend on the rainy season to signify start of the breeding season. Is this the case w/ the BRB's? I know it helps to keep em heavily misted during the breeding.. but does the barometric pressure changes play a role in the breeding? I know sometimes the low pressure fronts (alot of time associated with a storm) will get some herps in the mood.. I just don't have enough rainbow experience to be able to know how it affects them.. any thoughts?

Just curious.. Come November.. if they are close, I would like to know if I have options.. that said I would certainly rather skip this year than risk the health of those girls..
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photos.xtremecombatsports.com

wellllll, I hope others can give a better answer. I live in Ca and have limited cooling time, I have to tie it to winter and seem to always have late litters. Still have not had any for this season, they seem to be running a bit later than usual. I've always cooled both the same so I can't really say which needs it more. They do seem to do better with a cooling period. I do know one male can service multiple females, last year one of my males sired 90 babies with four females.

At 3 lbs already, she should be well along the way to proper size. This last year, all of my females continued to eat through the "cooling cycle" and only stopped eating when things started to warm up. I believe while cooling is essential in sperm production, it's the warm up that triggers actual breeding. Point is you may have more feeding time than you think.
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Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC)
0.2 kids (CBB, selectively bred from good stock)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count:
11.24 BRB
10.16 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

Thanks Dave.. one of them is a great eater.. the others are a bit moody sometimes.. so I will look at them individually when the time comes.
If temps are the only "natural" stimulate I need to worry about.. it won't be a problem. My basement stays between 60 and 70 year around.. So cooling is no problem anytime..
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photos.xtremecombatsports.com

The cool basement sounds like such a GREAT herp room!!

>>Thanks Dave.. one of them is a great eater.. the others are a bit moody sometimes.. so I will look at them individually when the time comes.
>>If temps are the only "natural" stimulate I need to worry about.. it won't be a problem. My basement stays between 60 and 70 year around.. So cooling is no problem anytime..
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>>photos.xtremecombatsports.com
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Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC)
0.2 kids (CBB, selectively bred from good stock)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count:
11.24 BRB
10.16 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

It is nice.. I am sitting on a big bed of limestone.. so not only it is cool it stays nice and damp down there too! Usually around 60% humidity.. Makes it rough on storage and laundry.. but the snakes and frogs and lizards love it!
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photos.xtremecombatsports.com

The last two years I noticed that storms really got the breeding activity going. I will probably always cool my males but last year I didn't cool one in particular thinking I would n't be breeding him. Late in the spring I had a female who was showing signe of being receptive so I through him in. They went at it for two days. He went off feed on his own a few weeks prior. She is still showing signs of being gravid but I will have to wait until November to see what happens.

I've noticed females who are getting ready spend a lot of time in the cool end of the cage or the water dish. They go back and forth between cool and hot. They may go off feed at this time. As copulatons begin taking place the female is still spending time in the cooler end. Once the female is gravid, the male backs off and she spends 100% of her time in the warm end of the cage. Sometimes, she won't move for months.

This year, I might keep a daily log of female body temps throughout the cooling, mating, gestation period.
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Mike Lockwood
www.tooscaley.com

Thanks Mike.. I am going to log them with alot more detail this year as well, it might uncover something intersting.. (of course it may be a lot of work that proves nothing and just creates more questions too.. )
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photos.xtremecombatsports.com

Tim,
..We really do not know whether it is important to cool either the male or the female or both of them. I think that photoperiod does have something to do with breeding season. There are not many people breeding them in the summer and producing babies and there would be some economic advantage to producing babies at a time other than when all the other breeders have new babies and are trying to sell them. In 1995 I apparently did not get mine cooled enough and some of them were not breeding in january when I expected them to so I seperated them and recooled the ones that had not bred. They were mating in april and may and had babies in october. So, yes you do have options but probably should not wait until later than february first to start cooling them.
....Frontal passages and rainy weather have a tremendous effect on these snakes. Mine get very active during weather changes associatyed with frontal passages.
Good luck,
Jeff

>>Thanks Dave..
>> I actually have a question about breeding that you (or anyone else on here that has an opinion/answer, please chime in).
>>
>>The girls are getting close to breeding, the one in blue in the pics was just a shade under 3lbs last time I weighed her (about 5 or 6 rats ago.. ) So I am guessing she will be heavy enough come time. My question is 2 part though.. I know with some snakes, cooling the male is much more important than cooling the female. Does anyone have any experience with a shortened cooling cycle for the females? I was thinking of keeping her warm and feeding for another month or so.. then starting to cool her after the first of the year.
>>
>>The second part of the question pertains to the time of year for breeding. I know alot of herps from brazil (and much of SA for that matter) depend on the rainy season to signify start of the breeding season. Is this the case w/ the BRB's? I know it helps to keep em heavily misted during the breeding.. but does the barometric pressure changes play a role in the breeding? I know sometimes the low pressure fronts (alot of time associated with a storm) will get some herps in the mood.. I just don't have enough rainbow experience to be able to know how it affects them.. any thoughts?
>>
>>Just curious.. Come November.. if they are close, I would like to know if I have options.. that said I would certainly rather skip this year than risk the health of those girls..
>>-----
>>photos.xtremecombatsports.com

Thanks Jeff!

I know pressure changes often makes a huge difference in breeding.. just not sure how crucial it is with Rainbows.. Next year, we can all keep track of breeding activities and weather and see if we can put another piece of the puzzle together.

Anyway, it is nice to know that it is possible to make it happen at a later time, and if not in '07, they will certainly be ready for '08!
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photos.xtremecombatsports.com

Tim,

All your shots are nice, but that first one belongs on a book cover somewhere. One of the nicest rainbow shots I have seen.

Chris
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Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas

Thanks Chris!
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photos.xtremecombatsports.com