Reptile & Amphibian Forums

here's why i like pyros. Here are three of the morphs available. there's also the "applegate special" with black missing or nearly so, except on the head; the standard amelanistic--bright red instead of the paler orange-red in the bottom pic here; the Barczyk line of hypos--more chocolate brown where the black would normally be, compared to the lighter coffee-and-cream brown in the sentz hypo at top in this collage; and a weird pale hypo i produced several of last year, that are somewhat like the anery or hypoerythristic in the middle photo, but that are clearly hypomelanistic too, with brown replacing the black rings. I'll post a separate pic or two of them.

The pyros gave me a good season, with hets and/or possible hets of all three of these types, an albino, an anerythristic (hypoerythristic), etc. But no double hets--last year we produced a small number of double het for applegate and anery (hypoerythristic) and double het for sentz hypo and anery (hypoerythristic). It's going to be fun to see what those produce, though i don't think it'll be til 07.

peace
terry

Terry

That was the best description and comparison I have seen. More interest would be created with comparisons pictures like this.

>>Terry
>>
>>That was the best description and comparison I have seen. More interest would be created with comparisons pictures like this.

thanks, rainer,

nice of you to say so. it just takes so long to take the pix, edit them, etc., etc. (end of boring excuses!) BTW, those are UNedited pix as far as color is concerned, they're edited just for cropping & inserting text).

thanks again,
terry

WOW.That is very different.

I really like these animals and would like to get into them.

I have bred WC Calif zonata since the 70's but I don't recall raising any up to maturity to see how c/b raised adults do. I am concerned with how long it takes them to reach breeding size. Should this be a concern or are they the same as any other colubrid?

sorry

takes more than that to confuse me!

in my limited experience pyros are more challenging than, say, hondurans or getula. They can be pickier eaters--a few require lizrds to keep them going or get them started. And sometimes they'll stop eating for the season in august, whereas i can keep the others feeding into nov or beyond. so while there are exceptions, they're animals i generally expect to breed for the first time at 3 yrs instead of 2. they're less likely than hondos to double clutch, though some do. and they have smaller clutches--my biggest this year was 6 or 7 eggs, compared to a dozen for the hondos. Summary: they require a little more work, but tdhey sure are neat.

peace
terry

Terry

Thanks for the info and honest post.

Rainer

this is one of the weird pale hypos hatched last year. the red probe holder is included just to show how far removed the color is from a typical pyro's bright red.

These hypo pyros are not like either of the other two types. So what are they? Don't know yet. There're one or two other specimens that went to friends, plus the parents: the weird thing about these is they came out of two different pairs of animals that weren't believed to be related (the two diff pairs). Maybe in a year or two we'll get batter insight into what's going on with them, the pattern of inheritance, etc.

terry
albino tricolors

np

The bottom pic of your pyro looks just like mine . Lol kidding I wish. What temp do you keep yours at come winter?
I didnt use any extra heat for my new pyro during summer infact used fans or put his tank in my room with ac when temps in his tank hit 88. It was a killer heat wave. He eats well and doing great.
The average day temp in room I keep him in now averages 80-82 during the day and mid 70s at night so still not using the UTH.
When do you suggest I turn it on when temp averages what?
The UTH is on one side of his 10 gallon tank .
He is still a baby so thats why only 10 gallon tank. He seemed not to like it to hot thats why still havent turned the heat pad on which is set to 90 with a temp control gadget.
Its a cobra heat pad and under one of his hide areas.
thanks

there are people here who are more expert with pyros than i am, but here're my opinions on your questions...
i keep my pyros in the low 50s during brumation, i think i hit around 51 this past winter, but 55 has sufficed in other winters.
yeah, 88 is way to hot for a pyro, i keep mine at about 79 (i'm in florida, cooling is the prob, so i keep the room at 79 and no heat tapes). Your range of 80-82 day and mid 70s night is probably fine, since i guess you can't get any lower than that day range anyway. if he eats well and is doing great that's the best sign your conditions are ok. as frank retes often says on the forum, the animals can best tell us how they're doing.
i'd turn the uth on when your room temps start dipping below maybe 78 during the day, try to keep a warm end of the tank at 79 and the cool end can go cooler. then observe day and night to see which side he's favoring, warm or cool, and adjust accordingly.
some pyros elect to stop feeding around this time of year and there's not much the owner can do to change their minds. if that happens then i'd brumate your animal even though breeding next year is not your objective, you just want to avoid significant weight loss that would occur during a winter without feeding at regular warmer temps. maybe yours will keep feeding.
if it doesn't, remember brumation is 3 things--lack of food, lower temps, and darkness . In addition to withholding food and loweirng my temps, i keep anight light on in the snake room but have the regular lights on a timer and they come on only for 1 hr / day. some people keep them in entire darkness. I think i could skip my 1 hour a day on (it's to let them find the water bowl) and just go with the dim night light.
good luck! pyros are great.
terry

>>The bottom pic of your pyro looks just like mine . Lol kidding I wish. What temp do you keep yours at come winter?
>> I didnt use any extra heat for my new pyro during summer infact used fans or put his tank in my room with ac when temps in his tank hit 88. It was a killer heat wave. He eats well and doing great.
>> The average day temp in room I keep him in now averages 80-82 during the day and mid 70s at night so still not using the UTH.
>> When do you suggest I turn it on when temp averages what?
>>The UTH is on one side of his 10 gallon tank .
>> He is still a baby so thats why only 10 gallon tank. He seemed not to like it to hot thats why still havent turned the heat pad on which is set to 90 with a temp control gadget.
>> Its a cobra heat pad and under one of his hide areas.
>> thanks

Terry,

Do you still keep normal colored Pyros too?

Bob.

Thanks for the great info. I imagine you brumate them in a refrig as getting those temps isnt easy in Florida .
My grandma lives in Florida and temp wise its HOT.
I couldnt find an answer to ideal temp so this helped a lot. Next summer I will keep him in basement during summer. I like to handle him day before I feed him and 3 days after he eats for a while and find this type of snake very calm,easy going.
I hope mine doesnt want to brumate as coolest temp in winter is in my basement at 65 degrees so far eating fine infact ate yesterday.
This is my first king and glad I got this type king.

Thanks