Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi everyone!

I'm hoping to take the plunge sometime this year, and attempt to breed, and hatch my first clutch of neonates. Eventually, I would like to get into breeding chondros, but that's a very long ways off (although I currently own one, whom I adore).

So in the meantime, I would like to try my hand at breeding a few types of less expensive species. Ones that mature relatively quickly or are easy to find are great, but I'd be willing to try almost anything. My interests mainly lie in small/medium pythons and ratsnakes (both New and Old World, with a preference for the Asian species).

Can anyone give any recommendations for a first-time breeder to tackle? Marketability is not as much of a concern as my probability for success as a first-timer. I'm a very attentive keeper and a careful record-keeper, so I'd be interested in suggestions ranging from "rank beginner/foolproof" to "advanced beginner" categories.

Thanks a bunch!!!! (Oh, and just for kicks, here is a photo of my lovely chondro boy, "Haku", CBB 2004.)

For pythons, spotted and childrens pythons are great candidates. Getting eggs from these will be quite easy, and incubating those eggs will be the same for these as for any python, meaning you'll need an incubator that will hold 89 deg or whatever the magic number is for python eggs.

American ratsnakes are easy to both get eggs and hatch those eggs. Black, yellow, great plains, Texas, etc. All good candidates.

If you can successfully maintain a green tree python, you can hatch colubrid eggs. Colubrid eggs can withstand temperature fluctuations easily and are less sensitive to humidity mistakes compared to python eggs. That is why I think you should just shoot for the pythons off the bat. If you can do pythons, you can do most colubrids easier.
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Mark

I agree with Mark; go for pythons. On the other hand, you eventually want to breed chondros. So if a pair of whatever you consider costs more than half what a chondro costs, you might just as well get another chondro immediately. I wouldn't call chondros more difficult to breed than the average python.

Paul Hollander