Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My 08 trio this evening; the one exiting the feeding jar is Dotz, who just ate. The other two will probably eat soon. (Lids are off just for taking photo.)

Of my other younger trio both 09 girls ate today. The 08 boy is still wanting to sleep in the cool moss hide. He is like that, not a heavy eater, which is why he is the size of the 09s.

All the baby pyros are all eating on a regular basis again, except for Blaze, who has yet to break his winter fast.

Most of my pits are eating now, too. It may sound weird but one of the main things I love about keeping snakes is feeding them! LOL!
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Bob/Chris
Pyromaniac AKA Greatballzofire

Stunning snakes!
Woke my pyros, Z, and annulata up a week ago. Baby Santa Rita pyro and Kern county Z eating well, other pyro and milk not having it at the time.
Love having my snakes out of the garage!

Thanks!
Having them wake up is like getting all new snakes without having to go out and buy any! LOL!
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Bob/Chris
Pyromaniac AKA Greatballzofire

It's like renewing an acquaintance with an old friend. I'll be bringing mine out the end of the month.

--Dennis

They seem bigger, too. That can't be possible because they never ate anything during brumation! LOL!
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Bob/Chris
Pyromaniac AKA Greatballzofire

"It may sound weird but one of the main things I love about keeping snakes is feeding them! LOL!"

Yeah, sometimes it can be a hassle with all the maintenance and feedings, but I'm sure a lot of us also feel good knowing all the snakes have nice full bellies and are thriving and growing.

As we all know, each good meal is just one more step for the snake reaching "full glory" adulthood!

Nice stuff there BTW!....they look great!

~Doug
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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

my website -Serpentine Specialties

Yeah, I know exactly what you mean. I routinely feed my hatchlings about every 3-4 days and keep to this schedule. Sometimes if I'm bored though, I'll go in to the "room" and start checking to see if there are any hungry critters in their tubs, following my movements. If there are, I'll feed for the fun of it. Some of my hatchlings will eat a small meal every other day or two if offerred.

heh yeah. It'd been...almost 10 years (8,9?) since I kept a baby colubrid when I got the kings I have now. I must have forgot how much they eat as babies! It's not just the kings either, I have a baby texas rat snake that's the same way.
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We wouldn't have 6 and a half billion people if you had to be beautiful to get laid.
6.6 African House snakes
3.2 reticulated pythons
.1 corn snake
4.2 Florida Kings
1.2 speckled kings
1.2 ball pythons
0.0.1 Argentine boa

What I love is when that "one" slow starting baby, finally learns what to do, and takes off. There's no better feeling, and one of relief, when that little guy gets to the point of shooting out of the tub, grabbing the pinkie and wrapping it up as fast as a streak of lightning, and chomping it down.

Haha! I love it.

"What I love is when that "one" slow starting baby, finally learns what to do, and takes off. There's no better feeling, and one of relief, when that little guy gets to the point of shooting out of the tub, grabbing the pinkie and wrapping it up as fast as a streak of lightning, and chomping it down.

Haha! I love it"

Man, you ain't kiddin'!!!......LOVE it when that happens!!!

~Doug
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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

my website -Serpentine Specialties

Thanks! One more year and the 08 trio will be full size! Already they are much bigger than they seemed last fall when I put them to bed. Maybe its just that I have the 8 little ones, that the older ones seem so huge in comparison.
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Bob/Chris
Pyromaniac AKA Greatballzofire

Lovely snakes. So nice with pyros - you can leave the lids off, and the snakes are in no hurry to leave. Try that with Pueblans..

I like that about my rosies as well. Takes them 15 minutes to move 10 feet.
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Mark

Speaking of Rosies...when do you begin cooling them, and then warming them up again? I have a 2.2 alb WW that should breed this year. I've never personally bred Rosies so I'm not too sure. I began cooling them Nov 15, and was able to keep them in the high 40's-low 50's most of the time. I brought them in from the garage last night, and put them in a spare bedroom where the temp should stay around 60-65. I planned to keep them in there for about another 2 weeks before moving them to my Rep room where it's consistently 82-85ish.

Long ago I followed the formula of 55 deg for 2 months. That worked.

After that, I moved to a warmer area, and we had a warm year where my cooled rosies did not get below 60 deg very much at all, and often were at 65 deg during Winter. They produced.

And then another breeding by a very young male rosy that was not cooled other than he had access to ambient temps in the cage in the 60s and 70s (still had heat all year), with resulting babies.

So I may be the wrong guy to ask. I do not think low temps are necessary at all with rosies. Nightime drops suffice, and a reduced light cycle is important. Also, the male needs time to breed. I kept the male with the female for weeks on end or until I saw him coiled tightly on the coolest part of the cage, which signaled that he was done breeding.

Provide plenty of heat for the gestating females. I did basking spots in the 90-95 deg range. Not huge basking spots necessarily, but enough so she can warm up those developing babies higher than standard maintenance temps if she needs to. That is very important. If a female cannot get to the needed temps, she will not produce or even have a worse outcome. 82 deg might work with kingsnakes, but pregnant rosies do best with some heat available.
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Mark

Thanks for the reply and the info. I'm gonna do exactly what you said, as it relates to the heat for the gravid females.

I would target the coldest Winter temps to be in mid to low 50s with rosies. No need to go lower than that - it will not improve fecundity at all and potentially could make it easier for a rosy to have a "cold" when warmed up. Very short term temp drops below that are likely harmless, but I see no purposeful reason to push the lower limit with rosies since there is no gain from it.
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Mark

Good to know. Realistically, the times the temp may have dipped down into the high 40's, was just that - a "dip". I brumate in a large, enclosed, storage cabinet in my garage. The thermometer stayed in the low 50's for the past 10 weeks or so, but I know there were some nights that HAD to of been a little lower. Additionally, I paid extra attention to making sure the humidity for my beloved Rosies was as low as possible.

Anyway, thanks for the follow up bro! Hopefully they go this year. They were old enough, and heavy enough last year to have bred, but I was in no hurry and figured I'd give the females an extra year.

See ya!

To take this photo I first unscrewed the lids so as to be able to lift them off and quickly take the shot once the camera was primed. With the flash the camera always has to take a shot to warm up, or whatever it's tiny computer mind is thinking, then it will take subsequent shots quickly. The pyros and pits do seem to be thoughtful and mellow. I have only ever had a rattlesnake and a ringneck snake for other species and they also seemed to be rather mellow, not zippy like garter snakes or coachwhips.
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Bob/Chris
Pyromaniac AKA Greatballzofire