Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi all,

Winslow Murdoch here.
I am a family doc in S. Eastern PA

I have bred several taxa of colubrids, boids and pythons, focusing on Chondros over the decades.

I got a neonate pair of western hogs twenty two or so years ago from Steve Binnig whom I have known for thirty years. He worked at the Norristown zoo and more recently at the Philadelphia zoo as a reptile keeper specializing in hots and crocs. My female died as a juvie and the old male developed heart failure and died this spring.

Missing my hoggies, I found a trio of two and a half year old western hoggies at the august Hamburg show in PA. The male was a lighter yellow morph, het red and amel, the bigger female was het amel and the other female was a yellow morph. At least so advertised by the seller but at a price of $325 for the trio I figured a reasonable price regardless and i love hoggies for their personalities anyway.

The trio was in a container together actively courting, and i quaranteened them in a big tub together until Oct. The big het female has been a pig eating fr th rat hopers to smalls lately (my adult chondro food) and are definite motion stimulated feeders- thanks Tom for your videos, they explained a lot of feeding behaviour that is very different than tease feeding chondros.. otherwise the others only eat fr thawed mice.

I have been feeding well until end of Oct and started cooling the male and smaller yellow female. I was unsure if the bigger female, who never went off feed could possibly be gravid. She got heavy thick and went into a shed about a week ago. I kept her with a bask and sure enough today after work, 18 scattered eggs about half or more slugs or likely slugs.

Thank goodness i paid attention to my instinct on when to cool.

anyone else at this lattitude have eggs this late in the season?

I plan on cooling the big girl soon as she still has weight on.

comments welcome

lets see if she and he realy are hets amel though the ratios wont prove out with this few good eggs.

The posted pic is my dwarf Kayuadi retic who is gravid again for the fifth consecutive year

winslow

Both of my female hets have been with males for about a month and a half. I've seen a lot of courting and breeding behavior and the females are eating like there is no tomorrow. The males seem to have lost interest and one female shed a few days ago so I'm hoping they are gravid. I didnt brumate any of my hogs and some of the smaller ones are off feed or barely eating at all. I live in west virginia and the temps should be about the same as yours.

mike bell