Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a female leucistic texas rat that is 6 ft long. I just got 2 more, an unrelated male and female (both 06), also leucistic.

I would like to breed them in the next season. I know brumation is neccessary, but when should that be started, and how do i bring them out of it?

At what length is it ok to breed texas rat snakes? If i breed a leucistic to a leucistic, will I get more leucistics?

Anyone got a good book to reccomend about breeding these guys? I've never bred any reptiles before, and this is going to be my first attempt.

You may be able to breed your 06 male next year, but it may be better to wait until 2009 to breed your 06 female.

As far as cooling your American Rat Snakes goes, this is what I do.:

1) I give them a lot of food for a month before I want to start the cooling process. You want to bulk them up a little.

2) I stop feeding them for two weeks before I cool them to below 75F.

3) I take them down 2F per day until I get them to 58F.

4) I keep them at 58F for 10 weeks.

5) After 10 weeks, I start to warm them back up at a rate of 2F per day.

6) After they reach 75F, I start to feed them again. I make sure that my females get as much food as they are willing to eat. Normally, I feed my animals once a week, but in the spring, I feed the females once every 5 days.

You can introduce the female to the male by placing her in the male's cage after she has had her post-cooling shed.

You can find plenty of info out there on the Web that goes into breeding Rat Snakes in much greater detail.

My female just after laying a dozen eggs.