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BRB breeding 101, not to be used as gospel, only documenting how I did it.

rainbowsrus Aug 26, 2005 11:29 AM

My recipe for BRB breeding. Not sure what is working but so far this year 5 litters with 110 babies so I thought I'd post what I did.

Cage:

I made this cage to be expandable. It has 8 roughly 2' x 2' x18" sections. There is 4" PVC that connects all the sections together, one vertical run on each side and a pass through between the top two and the bottom two cage sections. All these pipes have threaded ends and can be closed off as required.



Normally all sections are blocked off and I house each individual in it's own section.

Substrate/water/hides:
I was using newspaper and just recently (mid breeding season) switched to indented craft paper. Each cage gets a sweater box for hide/moss. The box gets about an inch of peat moss well dampened and another inch of green moss also nice and damp. There is also a two gallon squat water bowl with about 1 to 2 inches of water I place on top of the hide.

Heating:
I heat the cage they bred in this year with 60 Watt light bulbs. I've heard this is not optimal and have heard stories about snakes getting burned but I've never had any problem. Still my new second cage has underneath heat with no light bulbs. My cage thermostat is set to 80 degrees and the whole room ends up this temp ( I know, no temp gradient but it is working ). Also the thermostat is on a timer and shuts off at night for nighttime cooling. The downstairs room they occupy was built as a guest bedroom and has full insulation so it does cool off but does not get cold.

Feeding/Cleaning.
I usually feed on a two week, give or take, schedule. I feed F/K as I raise my own feeders. Also sometimes feast/famine as I raise my own feeders. I usually check the cages daily and clean as necessary. More so during "eating" season. The hide boxes get checked/changed frequently as they like to poop in the moss maybe to wipe their butt?

Breeding cycle:
Around Thanksgiving I started dropping my daytime temps over a week or so from 80 to 75. Still keeping all snakes separate. Kept this way still feeding cleaning etc. until Valentines day. On 02/14 I cranked the thermostat back up to 80 and arranged my breeding colonies. For this year, I opened up both of the vertical runs on the sides but kept the pass through blocked. In effect, had two four cage sections. On one Side I put my male M5 along with 4 females and the other got my male Porky along with the remaining 3 adult females. Within days I saw evidence of breeding but did not observe any actual copulation. Left it that way for some time during which all the snakes stopped eating. Not sure when, may have been April, after all breeding activity had stopped I closed off all the pipes, isolated all the females and prepared for the long wait.

Birthing:
As soon as I find/notice babies I remove them from the mothers cage. Their next care depends on the state of the litter. For example this year:

One litter was found all out cruising the cage none still attached to yolk or umbilical. I put these babies directly into shoe boxes.

Three litters were found in the hide, full term with minimal or no yolks. I let the babies work them selves free of the egg sacks and umbilical then place each baby in it's shoe box.

Note: one baby was a "preemie" with large yolk and was not coming out of sack. I transferred this baby sack and all to it's shoe box, kept it VERY damp and let it finish the yolk off over two days.

One litter was laid in the water bowl. I strained the water out and dumped the whole slime pile with babies into a sweater box and kept them in there for a day till I was ready to transfer them into shoe boxes.

In the past I have had litters with some yolk still, those are best to just leave alone and let the babies absorb as much yolk as they can.

Vacation:
Thought I'd mention that when I'm planning on being gone, I stop feeding two weeks prior to leaving and don't feed again until I return. This helps keep the mess to a minimum while I'm not there to clean it up.
-----
Thanks,

Dave "Rainbows-R-Us"

0.1 Wife
0.2 kids
4.12 Brazilian Rainbow Boa
1.1 Ball python
0.1 BCI "Elvira" normal from 1989
1.0 BCI albino / het-anery
0.1 BCI Hypo / het-albino
0.1 BCI Anery / het-albino
0.1 BCI Hypo (possible super)

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

Replies (6)

Jeff Clark Aug 26, 2005 12:26 PM

>>My recipe for BRB breeding. Not sure what is working but so far this year 5 litters with 110 babies so I thought I'd post what I did.
>>
>>
>>Cage:
>>
>>I made this cage to be expandable. It has 8 roughly 2' x 2' x18" sections. There is 4" PVC that connects all the sections together, one vertical run on each side and a pass through between the top two and the bottom two cage sections. All these pipes have threaded ends and can be closed off as required.
>>
>>
>>
>>Normally all sections are blocked off and I house each individual in it's own section.
>>
>>Substrate/water/hides:
>>I was using newspaper and just recently (mid breeding season) switched to indented craft paper. Each cage gets a sweater box for hide/moss. The box gets about an inch of peat moss well dampened and another inch of green moss also nice and damp. There is also a two gallon squat water bowl with about 1 to 2 inches of water I place on top of the hide.
>>
>>Heating:
>>I heat the cage they bred in this year with 60 Watt light bulbs. I've heard this is not optimal and have heard stories about snakes getting burned but I've never had any problem. Still my new second cage has underneath heat with no light bulbs. My cage thermostat is set to 80 degrees and the whole room ends up this temp ( I know, no temp gradient but it is working ). Also the thermostat is on a timer and shuts off at night for nighttime cooling. The downstairs room they occupy was built as a guest bedroom and has full insulation so it does cool off but does not get cold.
>>
>>Feeding/Cleaning.
>>I usually feed on a two week, give or take, schedule. I feed F/K as I raise my own feeders. Also sometimes feast/famine as I raise my own feeders. I usually check the cages daily and clean as necessary. More so during "eating" season. The hide boxes get checked/changed frequently as they like to poop in the moss maybe to wipe their butt?
>>
>>Breeding cycle:
>>Around Thanksgiving I started dropping my daytime temps over a week or so from 80 to 75. Still keeping all snakes separate. Kept this way still feeding cleaning etc. until Valentines day. On 02/14 I cranked the thermostat back up to 80 and arranged my breeding colonies. For this year, I opened up both of the vertical runs on the sides but kept the pass through blocked. In effect, had two four cage sections. On one Side I put my male M5 along with 4 females and the other got my male Porky along with the remaining 3 adult females. Within days I saw evidence of breeding but did not observe any actual copulation. Left it that way for some time during which all the snakes stopped eating. Not sure when, may have been April, after all breeding activity had stopped I closed off all the pipes, isolated all the females and prepared for the long wait.
>>
>>Birthing:
>>As soon as I find/notice babies I remove them from the mothers cage. Their next care depends on the state of the litter. For example this year:
>>
>>One litter was found all out cruising the cage none still attached to yolk or umbilical. I put these babies directly into shoe boxes.
>>
>>Three litters were found in the hide, full term with minimal or no yolks. I let the babies work them selves free of the egg sacks and umbilical then place each baby in it's shoe box.
>>
>>Note: one baby was a "preemie" with large yolk and was not coming out of sack. I transferred this baby sack and all to it's shoe box, kept it VERY damp and let it finish the yolk off over two days.
>>
>>One litter was laid in the water bowl. I strained the water out and dumped the whole slime pile with babies into a sweater box and kept them in there for a day till I was ready to transfer them into shoe boxes.
>>
>>In the past I have had litters with some yolk still, those are best to just leave alone and let the babies absorb as much yolk as they can.
>>
>>
>>Vacation:
>>Thought I'd mention that when I'm planning on being gone, I stop feeding two weeks prior to leaving and don't feed again until I return. This helps keep the mess to a minimum while I'm not there to clean it up.
>>-----
>>Thanks,
>>
>>Dave "Rainbows-R-Us"
>>
>>
>>0.1 Wife
>>0.2 kids
>>4.12 Brazilian Rainbow Boa
>>1.1 Ball python
>>0.1 BCI "Elvira" normal from 1989
>>1.0 BCI albino / het-anery
>>0.1 BCI Hypo / het-albino
>>0.1 BCI Anery / het-albino
>>0.1 BCI Hypo (possible super)
>>
>>lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

pweaver Aug 26, 2005 02:49 PM

question....what are the multiple containers in the 3rd cage down on the left side?

nice carpentry work...do you have any kind of writeup on how you built it?
-----
Paul Weaver
Carolina Herps

rainbowsrus Aug 26, 2005 03:52 PM

Good eye, that is an older picture from the 04 breeding season, those were shoebox cages with babies that were on hold for customers.

Don't have a write up on the cage itself, maybe I can put together something later on the newer one. I changed some design points for the better in the second build. I built the first back around 95 and the second about a year ago.
-----
Thanks,

Dave "Rainbows-R-Us"

0.1 Wife
0.2 kids
4.12 Brazilian Rainbow Boa
1.1 Ball python
0.1 BCI "Elvira" normal from 1989
1.0 BCI albino / het-anery
0.1 BCI Hypo / het-albino
0.1 BCI Anery / het-albino
0.1 BCI Hypo (possible super)

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

Jeff Clark Aug 26, 2005 06:43 PM

Paul,
....Nice looking Milksnakes on your website.
Jeff

>>question....what are the multiple containers in the 3rd cage down on the left side?
>>
>>nice carpentry work...do you have any kind of writeup on how you built it?
>>-----
>>Paul Weaver
>>Carolina Herps

pweaver Aug 27, 2005 09:53 AM

that means a lot coming from you.

Paul
-----
Paul Weaver
Carolina Herps

Sunshine Aug 26, 2005 06:24 PM

....that's what I want to know. You have a great idea with your set-up. It reminds me of a cage style I saw somewhere with a "drawer" on the lower level as a hide. I love the water bowls. I appreciate the post and think one of the differences of good breeders and lucky folks (me) is the passing along of the "secrets".
-----
When the student is ready, the teacher appears. When the student is ready, the teacher appears. When the student is ready, the teacher appears. When the student is ready, the teachers appears.

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