Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey everyone!! I hope all your seasons are going well and are off to a solid start!

I cooled my adults from November - January and did my introductions throughout December and January. I like to do multiple removal and reintroductions throughout the breeding season and I think that this helps spur on the action!

This year things have seemed to be shaping up nicely. I have a 2006 female that is glowing with color and being bred for her first year!!! She has been raised up steadily and very healthily and I am hoping my patience will be worthwhile!!!

As of now, I have noticed some swelling and other positive signs from my female. I also noticed my male courting many times, saw sperm plugs throughout his enclosure and hers, and had my male go off feed from November until March. At the same time, my female (whom always eats ALWAYS) has gone off food since February and she also had what I am almost certain is her POS on March 1st.

At this point, my male has had a couple meals and seems to be less and less interested in my female. At the same time, she has not been active but has been seen basking at about 82 degrees everytime I temp gun her!!

Do you all feel that it is time to remove my male for good????? I have had the two separated for the last couple of weeks and have offered small rats, medium rats, and chicks to my normally ravenous female with ZERO interest. I'm looking forward to your opinions!!!! sorry for the long winded qestion
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Ike Lightner

2.3 BRB Breeders(Dugo, Sultan, Roxxy, Brazita, & Lucille)
1.0 BRB striped holdback of my 8/23/10 litter of 25 (Nando)
1.1 100% het hypo BRB (Diego & Rasheena)
__________________________________________________________
0.2 BRBs still on hold. 1 hypo/1 het hypo (Ireena & Liddia)

Simple (yet long winded) answer for you, in my records I show the shortest record time lapse from last observed mating to POS as 12 days with an average of 30. I would suspect the 30 days to be longer then it should be due to not seeing all mating activity but the 12 days is clearly the shortest time between last observed mating and POS. That data is from 33 successful litters.

So, if your male stopped breeding / tail wrapping on or before Mid February, he's done. If he's already been out for two weeks, there's probably no more he could do any ways.

The female is showing all good signs IMO. Going off feed, give or take, at ovulation for a good sized healthy female is fine. I have seen females eat all the way through though so not 100%. Body temp of 82 degrees is normal gestational temp.
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Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC and still very fiesty)
0.2 kids (CBB, a big part of our selective breeding program)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count (02/01/2010):
42.61 BRB
27.40 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

ok, not getting many responses so I figured I better post some eye candy to go along with my questions!!!

2008 Male - Sultan - hopefully the father to this years litter

one of the stand outs from my 2010 litter of 25

And last but not least, 2006 female Lucille who is HOPEFULLY gravid right now!!!


more recent pic of her

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Ike Lightner

2.3 BRB Breeders(Dugo, Sultan, Roxxy, Brazita, & Lucille)
1.0 BRB striped holdback of my 8/23/10 litter of 25 (Nando)
1.1 100% het hypo BRB (Diego & Rasheena)
__________________________________________________________
0.2 BRBs still on hold. 1 hypo/1 het hypo (Ireena & Liddia)

n/p
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Ike Lightner

2.3 BRB Breeders(Dugo, Sultan, Roxxy, Brazita, & Lucille)
1.0 BRB striped holdback of my 8/23/10 litter of 25 (Nando)
1.1 100% het hypo BRB (Diego & Rasheena)
__________________________________________________________
0.2 BRBs still on hold. 1 hypo/1 het hypo (Ireena & Liddia)

He sure has colored up a lot!!!!!

as a baby...

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Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC and still very fiesty)
0.2 kids (CBB, a big part of our selective breeding program)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count (02/01/2010):
42.61 BRB
27.40 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

he sure did Dave!!! I wish I knew how to pick them this nicely every time!!!! I have seen them change to go to both ends of the spectrum, thats for sure!!!!!

I have big plans for Sultan!! I think his DEEP fire red color would go quite nicely with my hypos!!!
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Ike Lightner

2.3 BRB Breeders(Dugo, Sultan, Roxxy, Brazita, & Lucille)
1.0 BRB striped holdback of my 8/23/10 litter of 25 (Nando)
1.1 100% het hypo BRB (Diego & Rasheena)
__________________________________________________________
0.2 BRBs still on hold. 1 hypo/1 het hypo (Ireena & Liddia)

Sultan is a great looking snake. Good luck on your female being gravid.

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Paul D

www.MoonlightBoas.com

Thanks Paul!!! Hopefully he got the job done!!!! That color deserves to be passed on!!!
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Ike Lightner

2.3 BRB Breeders(Dugo, Sultan, Roxxy, Brazita, & Lucille)
1.0 BRB striped holdback of my 8/23/10 litter of 25 (Nando)
1.1 100% het hypo BRB (Diego & Rasheena)
__________________________________________________________
0.2 BRBs still on hold. 1 hypo/1 het hypo (Ireena & Liddia)

Ike,

He looks great!!! While I 100% agree with Dave's more scientific approach. I typically like to leave my rainbows paired for a while after I am curtain they are done. It doesn't make a difference to the animals and it make me feel better being as I am not always around to observe mating dates/times. I rarely observe tails looked up or even sperm plugs around the cage. However, I have had 100% success two years running. The cue I look for is when the female take a swell and the male starts eating again. I always try to feed small meals throughout the process.

It is sometimes very difficult to predict how an animal will or will not color up. I recommend always looking at the adult AS WELL AS past off spring, although this is not always predictive.

One of my most beautiful rainbows, Skittles, was the "ugliest" (for lack of a better term) animal I produced one year. Nobody bought him and 3 years later he is by far one of the most colorful in my collection. (still trying to figure out how to post pics on the forum)

Good luck this year, John

Hey, thanks for the informative response!!! I like your "not so scientific approach" just as well!!!

You definitely NEED to post pics in here!! Its easy, you can either post them to a kingsnake.com photo account and then link them directly through the site when you post comments etc. (though this way only allows you to post 3 pics per message)

Or you can go to a photo hosting website such as photobucket or something similar and store all your pics there and just post each pictures image tag here (which will automatically upload your pics for you)
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Ike Lightner

2.3 BRB Breeders(Dugo, Sultan, Roxxy, Brazita, & Lucille)
1.0 BRB striped holdback of my 8/23/10 litter of 25 (Nando)
1.1 100% het hypo BRB (Diego & Rasheena)
__________________________________________________________
0.2 BRBs still on hold. 1 hypo/1 het hypo (Ireena & Liddia)