Reptile & Amphibian Forums

What are some good books to put in the collection that talk about breeding brb's other than "Keeping and Breeding Snakes by Chris Mattison"? Also are there any other books that would help me with the terms that are associated with it (dominant gene and how to predict the percentages and stuff), and thanks for your input.
Bob

"The Reproductive Husbandry of Pythons and Boas" by Richard A. Ross and Gerald Marzec. It only has a little info specific to rainbows but it's what I've based my whole breeding program on. Really, no herpetocultural library should be without it.

"Captive Breeding of the Brazilian rainbow Boa Epicrates cenchria cenchria" is a 5-page article written by a guy named Raymond Hine. It was published by the British Herpetological Society in 1988. In it, he details his sucess in breeding these snakes.

"Rainbow Boas and Neotropical Tree Boas" is a small book which covers basic natural history, captive care and breeding of Epicrates sp. It was written by R.D. Bartlett in 2004. The info is current and accurate but it's not very detailed. Still, since I love this species, it's got a home in my book collection.

"Designer Morphs" by John Berry is a guide to the genetics involved in breeding ball pythons, blood pythons, carpets and rainbows. Not a whole lot of basic genetics in here. It's really more of a cookbook to help a person understand what to cross with what to get what.

I think this website gives some basic background on snake genetics. It might get you started.

www.vmsherp.com/LCCornVariation.htm
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Mike Lockwood
www.tooscaley.com

Hey Mike..
Where can you get a copy of Hines article?

Also - NERDs website has a lot of information on gentics-
www.newenglandreptile.com/care.html
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photos.xtremecombatsports.com

The British Herpetological Society was kind enough to send me a PDF copy. I'd be happy to pass it on to anyone who would like one. Just shoot me an e-mail. Sorry, I should ahve mentioned this in the first post.
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Mike Lockwood
www.tooscaley.com

Bob,
...In addition to the books and paper which Mike posted the BRB breeding 101 thread by Dave has very good information.
...For information on genetics you could get a book on the subject or find a college level biology test and read the genetics chaper there or even easier you can read about it at this website
web.mit.edu/esgbio/www/mg/mgdir.html
Jeff

>>What are some good books to put in the collection that talk about breeding brb's other than "Keeping and Breeding Snakes by Chris Mattison"? Also are there any other books that would help me with the terms that are associated with it (dominant gene and how to predict the percentages and stuff), and thanks for your input.
>> Bob

I just wrote it to pass on some info, I have to admit I'm very pleased and a bit humbled by it's reception.

BRB breeding 101, not to be used as gospel, only documenting how I did it.

My recipe for BRB breeding. Not sure what is working, this season (2005) from 2.7 adults I had 6 viable litters and one slug/still born. Total of 136 babies. This is what I did.

Cage:

I made this cage to be expandable. It has 8 roughly 2' x 2' x18" sections. There is 4" PVC that connects all the sections together, one vertical run on each side and a pass through between the top two and the bottom two cage sections. All these pipes have threaded ends and can be closed off as required.

Please note these are old pics. Not of the 2005 breeding season. The small boxes on the left were some babies on hold and there were even a pair of Ball Pythons housed on the right.

Typical setups are on the right side, top and third down, now all 8 sections are set up the same.

Normally all sections are blocked off and I house each individual in it's own section.

Substrate/water/hides:
I was using newspaper and just recently (mid breeding season) switched to indented craft paper. Each cage gets a sweater box for hide/moss. The box gets about an inch of peat moss well dampened and another inch of green moss also nice and damp. There is also a two gallon squat water bowl with about 1 to 2 inches of water I place on top of the hide.

Heating:
I heat the cage they bred in this year with 60 Watt light bulbs. I've heard this is not optimal and have heard stories about snakes getting burned but I've never had any problem. Still my new second cage has underneath heat with no light bulbs. My cage thermostat is set to 80 degrees and the whole room ends up this temp ( I know, no temp gradient but it is working ). Also the thermostat is on a timer and shuts off at night for nighttime cooling. The downstairs room they occupy was built as a guest bedroom and has full insulation so it does cool off but does not get cold.

Feeding/Cleaning.
I usually feed on a two week, give or take, schedule. I feed F/K as I raise my own feeders. Also sometimes feast/famine as I raise my own feeders. I usually check the cages daily and clean as necessary. More so during "eating" season. The hide boxes get checked/changed frequently as they like to poop in the moss maybe to wipe their butt?

Breeding cycle:
Around Thanksgiving I started dropping my daytime temps over a week or so from 80 to 75. Still keeping all snakes separate. (BTW, I am in San Jose CA, does not get real cold here so I have to use the middle of the winter as my cooling time) Kept this way still feeding cleaning etc. until Valentines day. On 02/14 I cranked the thermostat back up to 80 and arranged my breeding colonies. For this year, I opened up both of the vertical runs on the sides but kept the pass through blocked. In effect, had two four cage sections. On one Side I put my male M5 along with 4 females and the other got my male Porky along with the remaining 3 adult females. Within days I saw evidence of breeding but did not observe any actual copulation. Left it that way for some time during which all the snakes stopped eating. Not sure when, may have been April, after all breeding activity had stopped I closed off all the pipes, isolated all the females and prepared for the long wait.

Birthing:
As soon as I find/notice babies I remove them from the mothers cage. Their next care depends on the state of the litter. For example this year:

One litter was found all out cruising the cage none still attached to yolk or umbilical. I put these babies directly into shoe boxes.

Three litters were found in the hide, full term with minimal or no yolks. I let the babies work them selves free of the egg sacks and umbilical then place each baby in it's shoe box.

Note: one baby was a "preemie" with large yolk and was not coming out of sack. I transferred this baby sack and all to it's shoe box, kept it VERY damp and let it finish the yolk off over two days.

One litter was laid in the water bowl. I strained the water out and dumped the whole slime pile with babies into a sweater box and kept them in there for a day till I was ready to transfer them into shoe boxes.

In the past I have had litters with some yolk still, those are best to just leave alone and let the babies absorb as much yolk as they can.

Vacation:
Thought I'd mention that when I'm planning on being gone, I stop feeding two weeks prior to leaving and don't feed again until I return. This helps keep the mess to a minimum while I'm not there to clean it up.

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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:
12.24 BRB
11.13 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

I actually just finished a college biology class, and i have to say that the college textbook is a great way to learn the gentetic aspect of breeding. I learned A LOT about the terminology, ratios of offspring, etc. If you get on a website like amazon.com, or something like that, you will be able to find loads of biology textbooks to choose from.
-Dustin
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1.0 Bearded Dragons
1.3 Fat tailed geckos
0.1 Brazilian Rainbow Boa

Great responses from great guys and well appreciated.

If you don't want to shell out $50 for a college biology textbook, try going to a half-price bookstore and buying an older edition. The basics of genetics haven't changed in the last few editions.

I agree with the suggestion. Many websites that "teach" genetics are written by people with only half an understanding.
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Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas

haha...$50 is a low estimate.. My bio book was over $100 college textbooks are ridiculous...trust me.
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1.0 Bearded Dragons
1.3 Fat tailed geckos
0.1 Brazilian Rainbow Boa