Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I love this clutch. Four different snakes. 8 eggs yielded 1 ghost, 4 tangerine hypo het anery, 1 tri-color hypo het anery and 2 anery het hypo.

Mother is tri-color het anery (Dunham line) and father is anery het hypo (Doherty line.

Awesome Rob! Did'nt you get lucky no Double Hets. Mother is a "HYPO" tri-color het anery correct? I hope to hatch a similar clutch next year.
Keep Em Hatchen
Dave Stevens

Yes. mom is a hypo tri-color het for anery. She's also ready to lay her second clutch of the year. She defintely gives me a different clutch everytime.

For example, last year her two clutches were as follows:

Clutch #1: 4 ghosts, 2 anery het hypo, 2 tri-color double hets

Clutch #2: 1 tangerine hypo het anery; 3 anery het hypo; 2 tri-color double hets.

These hatchlings are also always very big, which is alittle bit of a surprise becasue she is one of my smaller breeders - a little over four feet and weighin in at around 750 grams. The size migth come form the dad who is every bit of five feet and weighs around 1,200 grams.

Rob

Wow, nice track record! What do you do to get them to double clutch Rob? I will hopefully have an 03 female dh breed with a 03 vanishing hypo het anery, and an 03 female anery het hypo with the 03 vanishing hypo het anery. Unless I can get my fat 04 male ghost up to size and I can really prove things out. How's your vanishing ghost project coming along?
Dave Stevens

Thanks.

There's no real secret to double clutching other than making sure your snakes are big enough and healthy enough. Most of my breeders are over 800 grams - though I do have one het-albino runtling that's only 425 but even she double clutched this year with 5 and 6 eggs. Some breed in their second year but most do better if you wait until their third year to breed 'em, IMHO.

I think my winter cool down time might be a little bit longer and later than some breeders. I stop feeding at the beginning of November, complete cool-down by third week of November and don't wake em' up until March. What this means is I'm usually two to four weeks behind everyone else. Oh well. It works for me.

The vanishing ghost project is going along. My 04 female vanishing ghost is close to 300 grams rigth now but I'm leaning towards not breeding her next year unless she'll really puts on a big growth spurt. She's geting some very faint tipping but is also starting to get an overall very light pink caste to her. I'll opt on the cautious side with breeding her. I know most will say that 350 grams is big enough to breed but I also don't want to stunt her growth. She will be a big snake, easily a five footer and around 1,000 grams if I give her time to do it. I'm still debating breeding her though. I might hold back a few of my best vanishing pattern hypos and breed them to my anery het hypo male (that produced vanishing ghosts) and then take the best from those pairings and breed with my ghost project. Lots of choices.

Rob

Thanks for the info. A couple more if you have the time? Do you keep your hatchlings warm and feeding threw winter? And, what temp. do your hondos shut-down or go to sleep at? I've heard of using small refrigerator on its warmest setting?
Thanks
Dave Stevens

Dave:

I feed hatchlings through winter and keep them warm in racks.

I'm not sure what temp my adults "shut down" but i overwinter them at about 62 degrees. Those in racks closest to the floor are closer to 59 degrees while those up high might be as warm as 64 or 65 degrees.

I wouldn't use the refrigerator method because I would worry about air circulation.

Rob

Thanks Rob,
Dave