Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi guys,
I've decided I want to breed my okeetee to my Amel next year and I have a few questions. Im sorry if it's a lot.

First, my amel is 3 ft long, but does she look of breeding weight? I've been feeding her 2 weanling rodentpro mice a week, is this a good diet?

Secondly, I've decided that I'm going to put the male in the females cage. Is this ok?

Also, does the female shed twice after they've bred or once. I know if she sheds twice, to put a larger humid hide in to assist her in shedding, and she will also lay her eggs in this 3 to 10 days later. Correct?

And lastly, what is the best incubation substrate and how do I know if it's too wet or too dry?

Im sorry for all of the questions.
Thank you for any help!

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As I turned around I smelled a
horrible "dirty body" smell, and there standing behind me were two poor homeless men. As I looked down at the short gentleman, close to me, he was "smiling". His beautiful sky blue eyes were full of God's Light as he searched for acceptance. He said, "Good day" as he counted the few coins he had been clutching. The young lady at the counter asked him what they wanted. He said, "Coffee is all Miss" because that was all they could afford. (If they wanted to sit in the restaurant and warm up, they had to buy something. He just wanted to be warm).

~Ty

At 3 feet she should be eating adult mice (at least the size beyond hopper) - 2 a week sounds fine. Might try a third every now and then and see how she reacts.

She looks breedable to me - I don't go by weight but a lot of BP and Corn people do, I think they recommend 300g

Most colubrids shed once before laying - they can lay anywhere from within 24 hours to 15 days later. There is speculation that in the wild, they lay fairly soon after shed but in captivity, their instinct often causes them to hold back up to two weeks as the nesting boxes we give them don't meet what instinct tells them is a good place to lay.

The incubate substrate I use is vermiculite (Asbestos Free - you can buy huge bag from home depot) and I mix it about 1:1 by weight with water. As far as what the best is, I don't think a scientific study has been done, so opinions are all you will get.

Vermiculite, perlite, salt free sand, there's lots of ways to do it with good success. I use vermiculite because they had a huge bag of it cheap when I needed to buy some.

Oh - do not put the male in with the female until you are ready for them to copulate. Corns have a habit of sometimes breeding when you don't want them to. I would suggest brumating them and waiting until spring to attempt the breeding.
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11.14 L. getula californiae (Cal. King)
2.3 L. getula nigrita (MBK)
1.0 L. getula floridana (Brooksi)
1.1 Pantherophis guttatus guttatus (Corn)
0.1 Pituophis catenifer catenifer (Pacific gopher)
0.1 Heterodon nasicus nasicus (W Hognose)
4.2.14 Elgaria multicarinata multicarinata - (Cal. Alligator Lizard)

Ok thank you! Haha! I knew the last part. I just meant would it be ok to introduce him to her cage in the spring! Thank you very much! You were a great help!
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As I turned around I smelled a
horrible "dirty body" smell, and there standing behind me were two poor homeless men. As I looked down at the short gentleman, close to me, he was "smiling". His beautiful sky blue eyes were full of God's Light as he searched for acceptance. He said, "Good day" as he counted the few coins he had been clutching. The young lady at the counter asked him what they wanted. He said, "Coffee is all Miss" because that was all they could afford. (If they wanted to sit in the restaurant and warm up, they had to buy something. He just wanted to be warm).

~Ty

My two cents:
Fatten her up. When she comes out of brumation, feed her a couple of adult mice per week. That will plump her up to a hefty weight in a month or six weeks. The snakes don't need to be fat, but they need to have a little weight to throw around.
If possible, dust the back end of the mice with a little extra calcium.
Exaercise is important as well. Take her out and hadle her every few days to get some muscle tone going.
She will lose a ton of weight when the eggs are laid, and you'll have to feed her a bunch for her to catch back up again.
-Jack
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V.P.
Austin Herp. Soc.

>>Ok thank you! Haha! I knew the last part. I just meant would it be ok to introduce him to her cage in the spring! Thank you very much! You were a great help!
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I prefer putting them in a neutral container.
I will put them in a sterilite container with only a paper towel in it.
This way it is easier to see signs of breeding.
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Corn snakes and rat snakes..No one can have just one.
"Resistance is futile"
Jimmy Johnson
(Draybar)
Draybars Snakes

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Ok, thank you all very much!
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As I turned around I smelled a
horrible "dirty body" smell, and there standing behind me were two poor homeless men. As I looked down at the short gentleman, close to me, he was "smiling". His beautiful sky blue eyes were full of God's Light as he searched for acceptance. He said, "Good day" as he counted the few coins he had been clutching. The young lady at the counter asked him what they wanted. He said, "Coffee is all Miss" because that was all they could afford. (If they wanted to sit in the restaurant and warm up, they had to buy something. He just wanted to be warm).

~Ty

Hi! For what it's worth, I've been told by several of the big breeders that it's better (more productive) to put the female in the male's box, as he's more 'at home' there. May sound chauvanistic, but sounds logical to me!
In feeding, I feed my 3 ft corns a small rat every 2.5 -3 weeks & they're all in good weight for breeding (though I skipped this year). Corns bigger than this, I feed a medium rat once a month-& they're actually a little more overweight than I'd like. I've been told (again by the more experienced/bigger herpers) that in feeding a mouse or rat of the same size, the rat has 4x the nutrition (lb for lb as it were), so I never bothered with mice - they bit more than rats anyway, believe it or not. It's also better to feed frozen/thawed than live, as it not only saved the snake from potential injury (sometimes horrendous), it also makes the snake less aggressive - always better if you want handlable snakes. Just my 2 cents goyotle
1/0 snow corn
1/0 Emory's rat
1/0 Albino San Diego Gopher
0/1 ghost corn
0/1 aneury corn