Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Just sharing a pic of my female 07 R.B Xmas. Her colors are turning out to be awesome. The gray is almost black now...She might be ready to breed next year with an insane neon orange R.B. male. Thanks for looking. JD

Very nice looking snake.. What is that substrate that your using?

~ Mike Russo

Thanks Mike! The substrate is DG ( decomposed granite) I just like the way it looks and it seems to absorb just like fine sand. There are mountains of this stuff up in Idyllwild,CA. It is only used in my display tank. I use Aspen in all my pullouts.

Jerry

How are you doin Mike? How's the breeding season treating you?

Tony
-----
You can never have only one snake!

Hey Tony, Things are going well so far this season. I tried somthing new.. No incubator, just room temp and it seems to be working out fine.

Hope all is well.

~ Mike Russo

I hope all is well for you also. Crossin my fingers on the room temp your trying as I believe you always use incubators! By the way...the 277 male I got from you last year is becoming a screamer! His orange is gettin brighter every shed almost like bright pumpkin orange. Never had a problem feeding him and I must say for an 08 snake he is humongous! He is movin up to hoppers soon since fuzzies are getting to look real small for him now.

I will post an updated picture of him as soon as I get a decent camera!

Tony
Old picture you took...

-----
You can never have only one snake!

But it is not 85 degrees underground... I think many people use incubators out of habit and as a result they cook out a faster hatchling, but it seems to me that slowing it down a bit gets you fewer mal-formed and maybe even larger hatchlings.

I know this has been debated again and again, and many things are important..

temps
moisture
oxygen

And I also would say that people have been hatching eggs long before incubators were widely used with great success.
-----
___________________________
Herp Conservation Unlimited

If people really learn from their mistakes, I should be like the smartest guy in the world

I agree 100% Lance..

For many years i incubated my eggs at 82 degrees, but i have been lowering the temps a couple of degrees each season and have been seeing better and better results. Last season i incubated at 77 degrees and had the best hatch I ever saw here.. This year i have my egg boxes in my incubotor (mainly to keep them away from my kids) but i never plugged it, but so far i am getting nice big hatchlings, only a couple dead in the egg, and not one kink yet..

~ Mike Russo
.

You're right. I've noticed the same thing over the years. Conditions change in nature so why not captivity.
-----
Steve W.

Beautiful. Love Christmas Mountains animals. How about a pic of the male?

Thanks man! I'll post a pic of the male later tonight. JD

Thanks for the compliment!! Here is a pic of the male.
JD

You have a gorgeous pair of alterna there. Congrats!! I hope their pure Xmas. BA

Thanks!! They should be pure Xmas as I bought them directly from Ric Blair. The mother of my dark Xmas looked very similar-Boyden stock. JD

No Xmas in July this week. More testaceus than I could count, and a few atrox here and there. But for the most part it was dull and slow.

Wow, is that red I see on her or is it orange? Amazing looking xmas! I just got one this year! Her bands look similar to mine.

Tony
-----
You can never have only one snake!

Yes, the color looks closer to tomato red than orange. I lucked out getting this one from Ric. Post a pic of your Xmas...it's always fun to see other nice animals. JD

I hope mine goes tomato red too then, but here ya go!

-----
You can never have only one snake!

I like the pattern and the colors are very nice. Should turn out to be real screamer. Thanks for posting the pic. JD

Thanks and I hope he becomes a screamer too! His father has that tomato red look like your 07 female, but the mother has very bright neon orange color but both parents are super black. He took unscented pinks the second I got him and feeds very well just like my Loma male. Forgot to mention that the xmas male came from Don Shores!

Tony

-----
You can never have only one snake!

...nice shades and pattern and colors blend well...
she turned out real nice....
congrats...!!!

.
.
.
-----
JY
Scales-N-Tails
reptiles ltd.