Reptile & Amphibian Forums

When breeding a WC snake to a CB specimen what do you do? What i mean is do you treat the snake for parasites and make sure you get a clean fecal before exposing the WC snake to the CB snake? Beyond a clean fecal is there still a danger in exposing the CB snake?
Sorry i know you have all seen this picture before but it's the only pituophis pic i have for now.
Thanks in advance for the knowledge.

In most cases captive bred animals are avalible for introduction of new blood into any line. But occasionally when we do use wild caught animals as breeders we follow the following rountine:

1. Worm the new animal for internal parasites and treat for external parasites also.

2. Quanrantine the animal for a min. of 90 days away from all other animals.

3. If animal refuses to feed and/or is not a robust captive the quarantine time is extended till they have a solid 90 days of good feeding and good fecals.

4. Then and only then we introduce them into our small room as potencial breeders. Where they are normally maintained for a 6 - 9 month before being moved into the breeding population.

You should note that the above cautions will not prevent the introduction of viruses etc. into your snake collection, but will give you a good indication on the health of the animal. The only sure way to prevent any possibility of introduction of problems would be to run a battery of tests which is normally cost prohibitive.

I am sure that is not what you wanted to hear,but is the best advice I can give. Just a couple of months ago a friend of mine that keeps mainly crotalus introduced a lepidus( motled rock rattler) that was collectted last year and has been being maintained in quarantine since its capture in June of 2003 to one of his captive born lepidus. The animal has been feeding and doing well for nearly a year. The female that was captive born has now developed a pathogen that has knocked her off feed and upon doing some blood work the same pathogen was found present in the wild caught male. Thankfully the pair had been introduced together away from his main collection.

Many times an animal can be a carrier and function perfectly with no probelm but still infect other animals. Any type stimulus such as stress can also kick off a bout of certain problems.

Hope this all helps and sorry I rambled as much as I did.

Bottom line be very careful with coveted captive borns being exposed to any wild caught animal. Also be aware that many breeders such as myself do not allow other keepers into the collection becuase of these type fears.

John Cherry
Cherryville Farms

Cherryville Farms - Reptiles

Thanks for the thorough response, and your time. I sometimes think they should develop a little system for where you get paid a little something for giving your professional advice, it would add up over time! The forums are a great free resource. Seems like introducing WC snakes into your collection is hardly worth the risk, i guess you would have to have a pretty good reason to. I'll stick to CB. The first snake i ever owned when i was young was a WC B&W cal king i caught in Rosarito Beach in Baja California, it did perfectly well in captivity but since then it's been nothing but CB for me. Thanks again for your response t my question! Hey John when are you going to have some pits hatch?

Even though I don't consider myself an expert, we have been at this stuff for a few years(about 38). During that time there were many true experts that took the time to answer a lot of (in retrospect) really stupid and repetitive questions from a ignorant kid that loved snakes and wanted to learn. Hopefully when any of us answer questions from others in this hobby there are a few of the old timers that have moved on to a better world that smile and remember when they gave us those bits of knowledge.

As far as this years hatch we have 3 clutches of southerns and 4 clutches of bulls out of the egg so far. This year is going to be okay, but next year is going to be a killer as all the young stuff comes of age.

I can't wait till all the new projects start to come to fruitation. As bad as the accident was it has started my son and I down several roads that we would not have had room for before. The collection is back up to about 200 adults and over 250 two year old and yearlings.

Glad to hear from you and stay in touch. By the way I talked to my friend that had the lepidus today and it seems the animals have a parasite called girardia (ssp) that was causing the problem. Fairly hard to get rid of, but not as bad as some of the viruses etc.

John Cherry
Cherryville Farms

Cherryville Farms - Reptiles