Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Just looking for responses from people that have had experience with these. Anyone tried breeding females that arent eating even if they are fat already? These are very healthy animals, all have eaten in the last three weeks I know that for sure. They just havent eaten for me yet. They have only been in the country a couple weeks.

Anyone?

Good luck.

Jason

Im not sayin it wouldnt work because it probably would if you say they are the right wieghts.. I wouldnt suggest it until the Imports have been treated for any internal or external parasites and diseases.. If your plannin to breed a pastel or such to them if they are sick you could end up loosing your pastel... Id wait til they were even bigger and all established then breed them next year the right way.. Just my 2 cents..

we had an adult imported female that finally bred for us after 3 years in our care-she came in very fat and fed after about 3 months--still took 2 years plus to get her breeding--you could raise babies up and breed them in less time--we do not normally keep imported adults, but this girl was special and produced us 2 ivories this year!-Ben Siegel

sorry;you have bought trouble,20 times.

If they haven't eaten for you or if you have not personally seen them eat - consider them not eating - you'd be surprised at how many imports are "eating" but when they reach their new owners all of a sudden develop problems. Hopefully you lucked out but I find it hard to beleive that they've only been her a couple of weeks and are feeding great.

Get them thouroughly vet checked - run the gambit of tests - you do not want to risk exposing your collection to anything they might be carrying. Get them settled in and feeding - out of the 20 you may actually get a couple that may breed this season - but don't count on it - it may take a few years.

Good luck with them!
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Tosha

"One of these days i am going to wake up..look around...and realize my place looks more like "Ace Venturas"s than my own." Coldthumb

7.33.0 Ball Python (Harry and Fluffy and gang)
1.0.0 Angolan Python (Skywalker)
0.0.1 Green Tree Python
0.2.0 Feline (Pippen and Pandora)
0.0.1 Dessert Tortoise (Pope John Paul "JP"
2.2.1 Fish (1,2,3,4)
0.0.2 frogs rescued from pool skimmer
0.0.1 lizard rescued from vicious feline

I woud never buy an import unless it was a special mutation. The older they are, the more trouble they usually are. Sorry.

I have been doing some an going study on this topic. Over the past few months, I have posted a few findings and relayed some comments from other breeders.
First off, from what I have found, it takes "on average" a WC female five years to cycle in captivity. Like some posters have said, one could purchase a '05 hatchling, raise it up, breed it and have offspring before you could get an adult WC female to produce one clutch.
If one could purchase a WC female that was cycled in the wild, before being shipped over, there is a chance that it could be bred and get a clutch of eggs from it. That has been done, numerous times. But the question is, can you tell which WC female has been successfully cycled in the wild? Do you want to work with her for the next few years, trying to get her to breed again?
Now, if the WC female is worth keeping, i.e. a morph, a reduced pattern, pretty colors, the answer no doubt is yes. But if she is just a plain every day normal female. Then the answer is more then likely no. Why waste time and resources on a female that is not going to produce for you for years? Better choice is to aquire some nice CB females and raise them up.

I learned my lesson with WC's the hard way this past year.
I bought 12 large WC females last fall. Two of the 12 had clutches of eggs a couple months after I bought them. Only 2 of the twelve have eaten (only once each) in the 10 months I have had them. I have tried everything short of tube feeding them. I feel terrible as unless something 'miraculously" turns around these girls won't make it through another winter. I for one will NEVER buy a WC snake again. There may be those that can get them to feed, but I obviously am not one of them. At this point I would just like to find someone more experienced with WC's to give them a chance and see if they can get them eating.
Grant

Grant, Don't feel too bad. Consider it a lesson learned and we can advise others against it. I still have a WC that has not eaten in over 2.5 years and she actually looks heavy enough to breed. Keep trying and eventually they should come around.

Well my experience is limited Gran but try this it worked for me with a big sury fem. I got her a hidding box I place it in the back of the cage. After letting her acclimate for a few weeks about two. She almost never came out of the hidding box during the day. I place a Med to large rat in the only hole of the hidding box, and left it over night, to my surprice I came back to check the next morning and it was gone, I opened the box and it was gone. She kept eatting that way for a long time, but now I just place the F/T rat in the cage and she eats really well.
Hope this helps, please let me know, I really would like to know if it worked for you too!!
Best of luck,
Joe

E-mail me thanks David
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1.0 Pied(04)(RDR)...Man that was a nice one...gone
1.0 Cinnamon Pastel(Bryan Kollwitz)(05)
2.0 Mojave Ball pythons(05)
0.1 Spider Ball(04)(RDR)
1.0 Butterscotch Ghost(04)
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25 Normal adult females
60 04 females
15 normal mixed 03's
20 Assorted weird ball pythons 04's
13 baby 2005 PASTELS just HATCHED...4-8-05 and 5-10-05 (O left)