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She just looks better and better. Anytime I walk by the cage, she is looking fat and inverting. The wait is KILLING us, as this will be a first for us, breeding Olive Pythons. We are REALLY hoping for a good, healthy, LARGE clutch. Thanks for looking. Anyone else breeding them right now or have any females ready to go?

Patrick Powers
Manager of Prehistoric Pets

Ohhhh man- VERY nice!

I just have a lone male, but he is my favorite in my collection!

Olives are the COOLEST!

//Todd

WOW! That is a good looking Olive. I can see why you like him so much. They are really an awesome looking snake, the way they are so slim and have that great iridescense. If we do get some good eggs and hatch some out, I might have to consider adding one to my personal collection!

Patrick Powers
Manager of Prehistoric Pets

Patrick
If this might help , my son and I had 2 clutches in 2005 . The time from shed to lay was 36 days on first and 38 days on the second both in May of that year . The eggs are large the temp we set the eggs at using a helix was 89 with an avg . Cabinet temp of 88.5 to 88.7 the avg. time to hatch was an average of 76 days. We maintain a fairly large group total of 16 L, Olivaceus only 10 of those being adults. Last year we thought we had 3 that would go, all the right signals but nothing. This year we hope 2 at this time, but who knows. There is more to learn no doubt and I believe this is with the females. They are all cycled an reach low temps to 60 degrees. Any one female as an average of 6-8 copulation’s witnessed. There is some key missing at lease for me, but will keep looking for it . And to add to above aggravation we have an adult group of Papuans 3.5 one girl has to be over13 ft. We can breed these almost on command by humidly and temp drops. Females won’t feed use heat and invert look right then back to feed. Something else to figure out.

Butch T. an old FL. boy

I had tons of copulation last year, and what appeared to be eggs via xray. Nope...ovulation. No eggs. This year I saw no copulation (which of course doesn't mean anything...like people, it's mostly done at night), but the female is definitely lumpy again. I kept both males in with her (7', 9'), but there was some skin at the anterior part of the body above the cloaca that seemed to not want to come off after shedding...like something had dried on it. That musky odor, too. Maybe some slight combat at night.
My Apadora pair seemed to have developed a platonic friendship
Both are 12', but she's 38lb.

All my carpets are mating, and my IJCarpet seems to be gravid.
-----
1.1 Blackheaded pythons
1.0 Woma
2.1 Aussie Olives
1.1 Timors
1.1 Savu
1.1 Juvie Bloods
1.1 Juvie Balls
1.1 IJ Carpets
1.1 Coastal Carpets
1.2 Macklotts
1.1 Papuan Olives
1.0 Jungle Carpet
2.2 Scrubs (on breeding loan)
0.1 Jungle/Diamond cross
0.1 child, CB
0.1 wife, WC

So now I am a bit confused because when I asked Tracy at VPI, she said the incubation on Aussie olives was closer to 2 months and the Papuans was closer to 3 months. If the 36 day to lay is pretty accurate, then she will probably lay in about 10-14 days. She looks big at the back and keeps inverting, but with what I have read here and heard from other threads, I am REALLY nervous now. I guess it's just a matter of waiting, now. I'll let you guys know how things turn out and keep you guys updated. Thanks for the tips, and any others, please feel free to post.

Patrick Powers
Manager of Prehistoric Pets