Reptile & Amphibian Forums

ok...
When you pair your males and females...

*How long do you leave them together...

*Who's cage/tub do you leave put them in? His... or hers...? (does it matter?)

*How long do you leave them seperated?-- I know this depends on shed cycles and such-- but in a span where there is no shed-- how long?

Incubating:

Its been asked a thousand times before... but verm. or perlite? (the search function is beyond my brain capacity-- i'm getting things from everywhere EXCEPT what I'm looking for...)

Thanks-- you'll have to bear with me-- as I'm not a snake-newbie-- just new (very new) to ATTEMPTING to make some of my own little babies to play with....

thanks

Beth
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The rescue site: www.freewebs.com/okreptilerescue

I put the male in the females cage and I leave them together for two days and if no lockup is witnessed then I move him back to his cage and let him rest for at least three days. If they do lock up then I remove him when he's finished. I cycle the male through no more than five females so by the time he has been with each female with plenty of rest time in between it is time to start the rotation again. Once a female has been bred at least four times then I limit the breeding to once every shed cycle until the female start refusing to lockup.

As far as the incubation substrate there are a million things you can use and what you use can depend on your incubator setup. I use a Coca-Cola refrigerator with heat tape on the bottom. When the heat comes on, the built in fan also turns on to circulate the air. On the bottom shelf I place two open bins of water which keeps the humidity in the entire incubator about 94%. The water also acts as a heat sink and helps to stabilize the temps. Some people will use bottles of water for the same thing only they don't do anything for the humidity. I place the eggs in a separate shoe box container (I drill two small holes on each side) filled about 1/3 of the way with Perlite. I add equal parts water and then set a piece of egg crate (from the fluorescent lighting fixture grids) on top. With the eggs resting on the egg crate you don't have to worry if your substrate is too wet or too dry because the eggs aren't resting in it. The main function of the Perlite is to provide something for the egg crate to rest on.

Again, this is just what I do and I'm sure if you ask 100 people you will get 100 varied responses. Hope this helps and good luck!
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Ryan Sherman
Scottsdale, Arizona
www.ThePaintedPython.com

*How long do you leave them together--24-48 hrs. depending on when I see a lock.

*Who's cage/tub do you leave put them in? His... or hers...? (does it matter?) --hers...seems to be more important for the female to be in familiar surroundings (opposite for colubrids)

*How long do you leave them seperated?-- females get bred every 3-4 weeks until I see ovulation or early May whichever comes first. I stop pairing in early May so I can get the males that have stopped feeding to breed to begin feeding again.

Incubating: Vermiculite
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Dale....dgoins222@yahoo.com
www.LibertyReptiles.com

*How long do you leave them together...

Usually 3 days in 3 days out - if I see them copulate and separate I'll separate sooner - if they feed I'll give them a couple more digestions days.

*Who's cage/tub do you leave put them in? His... or hers...? (does it matter?)

I've found my males breed better in their own cages - so I move the females to their cage. Some people move males through the females cage. IMO for most of them it doesn't really matter - but for some if you are having trouble getting them going change it up - see if that works.

*How long do you leave them seperated?-- I know this depends on shed cycles and such-- but in a span where there is no shed-- how long?

See Question #1

Its been asked a thousand times before... but verm. or perlite? (the search function is beyond my brain capacity-- i'm getting things from everywhere EXCEPT what I'm looking for...)

I use a mixture of both - if I were going to use one exclusively it'd be course vermiculite.
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Tosha
JET Pythons