Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I checked on my BT eggs this morning and three of them decided to enter the world sometime last night. They also moved a bunch of the other eggs around and made a bit of a mess. A bunch of the eggs in this container and the other one have started to pip as well.

These hatchlings seem to be bigger than last years and they are definitely bigger than my uni hatchlings. I was wondering if anyone who has bred both unicolor and melanurus could tell me if melanurus are usually considerably bigger. Of course, the BT's took longer to hatch so that may be the reason.

Chris

Nice looking babies you have there. Congrats!

.

CONGRATS!!!

Those BT's I got from you a few years back are just awesome (and pretty damn prolific too)!

I see from some of your classified ads that you're rebuilding "the wall" (LOL).
How's the YT collection coming along?
Chris

Glad to hear your breedings are going well! Not bad for a couple of w.c. snakes!
I am rebuilding and might add some Unis to the collection.
Those Geckos you sent are breeding like crazy!!!

Take Care

"Those Geckos you sent are breeding like crazy!!!"

That's good to hear! The YT I got from you a few years ago is doing great as well. He's still kinda evil but he's a much better eater now and he's looking fat and healthy. He went through a phase where he only wanted small mice. It takes a lot of small mice to fill up an adult YT
He's back on rats now and going strong.
Chris

Good job Chris,
Black Tails are great. Those little ones look healthy.

BT’s are under rated and deserve some air time.

Here’s a pic of the Hag! Named by the wife. I plan on breeding her next year to my 6 foot 7 ½ pound male aka Fast Eddie.

Awesome to see new born BT’s. Please take some more pictures…

Dann

Nice fat healthy snake!!!

Wow! That's a great looking BT! Good luck with your breeding efforts.

I agree that they're under rated. It seems like over the last few years that any intergrade cribo with a slightly darker tail is referred to as a black tail. True BT's with jet black tails like yours and mine are pretty damn gorgeous if you ask me.
Chris

BT's are VERY under rated, as they harbor great dispositions, obtain impressive sizes...

Best regards,

Jeff

-----
Jeff Snodgres
University of Arkansas
snodgresjeffreys@uams.edu
501.603.1947

Jeff,

I was about his age when I saw my fist ribbon snake.

The smile on that young mans face holding that impressive BT says it all….

Dann

Those are beautifull. Glad to see you doing so well in the snake breeding and egg hatching department! Thanks for sharing these pics with us.

Sincerely,

Fred Albury

Thanks! The breeding and hatching is the easy part though. Getting them all feeding is where it gets a little tough
Chris

N/P

Is that a woma, perhaps?

and suprisingly enough, a couple of the hatchlings are giving me more feeding headaches than any cribo ever has.
Similar to Drymarchon, once they get started they'll take your hand off when they think it's feeding time.
Chris

I gotta get me a woma. Or two.

I'm more of a colubrid guy but womas are actually more colubrid like than most pythons IMO. My adults have that Drymarchon feeding response but they don't seem nearly as intelligent. They've missed a rat on tongs and bitten themselves several times. I can understand that but they're biting and constricting themselves and they still don't seem to get it. Sometimes I wonder how far they'd swallow themselves if I didn't intervene
They are very cool though...someday I'd like to work with black headed pythons as well.
Chris

Congratulations on a job well done. Was the entire clutch good from the start? It seems that captive blacktails, unicolor, and yellowtails have a much higher percentage of viable eggs in a clutch than Easterns. Anyone know why?

Hey Steve,
Out of 23 eggs there were no slugs. 20 hatched on their own and are perfectly healthy, 2 were fully formed but dead in egg and the last one.....I feel pretty stupid about.

It didn't pip on it's own so I made a slit. Two days later it still hadn't come out and there was no movement when I gently touched the snake inside with a toothpick so I opened the egg. Inside I found a live hatchling that appears healthy but still absorbing a large yolk sack. I have it on damp paper towels and I'm hoping the little guy makes it but I may have screwed up by not being patient enough.

In two years of breeding these guys I've had very high fertility ratios. This may be because I actually leave the male and female together from November through the end of January so I believe they probably copulate several times during that time period. I know this can be risky with Drys but so far it's worked out well for me. I seperate them for feeding and they spend most of that time together under the same hide box. In 2 years of breeding them I've never witnessed copulation. I would never consider keeping them together outside of breeding season during the warmer months when their feeding response seems to be much stronger. My cribos seem to be less hungry and prefer smaller meals during the cooler months so while there's always a risk, I believe it's considerably less during breeding season.

I only did short introductions with the unis and both times I observed copulation were on cool, rainy days when I cracked the window in the herp room.
Chris