He's an Eagles football fan. Dan gave me advice on how to set a cage or enlcosure up. I followed his directions and when I was done I sent him a pic of the cage Del and I built and where it would be placed. I sent him the pic and he sent me a male spilotes. He also keeps cribos and indigos. Del has 2 cribos reserved from the clutch Dan has cooking right now. Dan probably has anything else that's ornery and has the capability to put 3 or 4 quick slashing bites into you before you realize it. I call him Dangerous Dan (Double D) or just DD. When Dan was going to send me the male, he sent me an email saying he had always just gone with it being male by looking at the tail. He said he would sex it to make sure and if I didn't hear from him after the weekend, I could go to PA and have his snakes. LOL.Well, Dan ships the spilotes on Monday and sends me an email saying he didn't probe it and I would need to do it. Now, I need to know the sex because I have someone on the other line wanting to know if I want a male or female from him. Keep in mind that Dan had never held or handled this snake(except for cleaning the cage) since he had it as a hatchling I think. The spilotes is now a 7 + footer who is taking a plane ride from PA to California. The first thing I have to do is probe him. What do I do? I call my friend Del Alspaw to come over and lie through my teeth to him. I tell Del Dan's sending me the male spilotes and its a captive bred nice calm docile snake. I call Del when the snake gets here and he comes over after work. He knows something is up because I have opened the package and checked the snake, but haven't taken him out yet. Probing was alot of fun if you happen to think the Texas Chain Saw Massascre was a comedy. A spilotes isn't really a constrictor as far as killing its prey before eating. A spilotes though can put a wrap on a limb or something with any part of its body because they live in trees. This spilotes is putting a wrap here on me and a wrap here on Del not to constrict us, but to hold onto us while slashing at us whenever it wants. Now, we make a great decision at this point. Instead of just getting him into the cage we built, we decide he's going to be probed. Well, Del probes him and he is a male so I get to let the other person know I need a female. I know a couple breeders Gregg who have clutches cooking that might have a pair or something avaiable. I have a pair coming from a clutch due to pip any day.
>>sure if you kept Spilotes or not. I would like to find a breeder in PA working with them, I didnt' see anyone at the Hamburg show with the the other weekend. Great looking snake, good luck with breeding them.
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>>Gregg F.
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>>I know you're a North American ratsnake guy, but here's something south of the border for you. This is my female. Now, I just wish I could get her gravid. She about 6 1/2 feet and should be a good 7 footer next year. The male wasn't cooperating. Sorry.
>>Gregg's RB