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Hey all,

Can anyone tell me when sinaloan milks reach sexual maturity, at the earliest? I've got 1.2 aberrant 04s on the way, and I'm wondering if they'll be breedable by the spring of 2006. According to the person I got them from, they are all about 16-18 inches long, and each eat 1 pinky a week. I plan on giving each of them, 2-3 day old pinkies every 4 days, and then gradually updating it.

Mike
Michael's Place

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>>Hey all,
>>
>>Can anyone tell me when sinaloan milks reach sexual maturity, at the earliest?

I've bred two-year-olds before (as in, a 2000 hatchling in 2002--when they're around 20 mos old). In fact, one such young female double clutched without my wanting that to happen. I think you want to view 30" as a target length, at least.

You'll need to feed vigorously. If a female's going to reach breeding size she'll eat voraciously. Your starting diet is fine, chances for 06 will depend on whether or not the females eat a lot, graduate to larger food items, etc. And of course you need to brumate them for 2-3 mos.

good luck
terry

Terry, do you think it is possible and healthy at the same time to get a 15"-18" Sinalon milk to atleast 30" from now until April next year? My albino cali king male went from 12" in December of 04 to about 20" now, that's 8" in 4 months on a feeding regimen of 2-4 pinky mice every 2-4 days.

Mike

Michael's Place

-----
Michael's Place has updated, better caresheets
KingPin Reptiles Inc.
Helmz777@aol.com
www.freewebs.com/mikesnake

>>Terry, do you think it is possible and healthy at the same time to get a 15"-18" Sinalon milk to atleast 30" from now until April next year? My albino cali king male went from 12" in December of 04 to about 20" now, that's 8" in 4 months on a feeding regimen of 2-4 pinky mice every 2-4 days.
>>Mike

Mike,

Animals have their own metabolic rates. Some eat more than others. And they convert food to growth at varying rates. It's definitely possible for your 15-18" sinaloans to be 30" or longer by november or december--remember THAT is your calendar goal, NOT april of next year, because you'll have to brumate them. There are seven months from now to the first of december; to get your snakes to the desired size they'd need to add a couple inches per month. That's not radical growth, though again, depending on the individuals, they may or may not achieve that. Remember too it's not always a constant process--they can go on eating binges and grow a lot one month, and have two shed periods in a given 35 day or so period and grow much less in a month like that. Also, as i may have noted in the earlier post, "pinky" is a relative term, but i do think a sinaloan at 18" might be eating something larger than true pinky mice--fuzzies, for example. In my experience snakes that accept larger (not too large) food items grow more quickly than those sticking to smaller items..and then as they grow more quickly, they're again more ready to advance to the next food item size. Hope that makes sense. I guess i'm just saying if you're feeding 4 items at a time, you're probably feeding items that are smaller than ideal--get that same body mass into your snake in two items instead...you'll more quickly be feeding food items with fur, and more developed bone, both of which probably advance the growth rate. I'm speculating, I guess, but that's my sense of things.
Terry

Well, I usually give all of my rodent eaters day old pinkies, which are pretty small, but still somewhat big for some of my 04 albino cali kings. I started my male cali off on these, and he ate like a monster. Last month I decided to start giving him "large pinkies", which he took down just as fast as the others and would/could eat 3 a meal. Now I give him 2 large pinkies and a day old each meal. The person I got the sinaloans from said that they eat fuzzies, but in most books, they say kings and milks fed more smaller items alot more will grow more/better than those fed just a few big items.

Mike
Michael's Place

-----
Michael's Place has updated, better caresheets
KingPin Reptiles Inc.
Helmz777@aol.com
www.freewebs.com/mikesnake