Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Both of my Tarahumara Mtn king (Lampropeltis pyromelana knoblochi) couples have been mating and two of my 2005 agalma females have been mated aswell. The male is an American import, the female shown here together with the male is from Thomas Steffen in Germany. The second mated female is a 1999 import from the U.S.

Very nice photo. Good luck with getting babies. Have you produced them before?

Thanks Aaron. No I have not produced any of these before. I have been breeding different kinds of Lampropeltis since the early 80ies, but never any mountain kings.

As said before, my agalma stock consists of six 2005 born and one small female from 1999. I also have a very large 2004 female from Eric Stoops, but she got ill last august and the older male I had died from an intestinal disease a year ago. This larger female have been in brumation since september and I'm starting to warm her up now. She has been kept in total isolation since I don't know what kind of disease she's got. Vet's want to perform a liver biopsy on her to be able to determine the cause of the disease, but I'm very hesitant. I'm afraid such a thing might kill her.

some LIZARDS. First off, nice Juarez agalma with head dressings to boot. Give us a shout if any lizards are needed. Second, if the eggs are good remember to keep 'em a bit cooler Pete in the incubator. Lotsa fun but the buggers can be obnoxious, much more so than any pyromelana out there. Have fun....

Jerry Kruse

Thanks for the advice. I have been communicating some with both Eric Stoops in the US and with Thomas Steffen in Germany, so I know these critters can be a handful to get started and running.
Actually it's not a bad idea to set the incubator at a lower setting even for other Lampropeltis eggs. The extra weeks time needed to hatch them out developes larger and sturdier young.

I'll keep you posted on the developement in my herp room
/Peter

Hey guys, I have a question for all of you that have been breeding agalmas earlier. Today I found a two eggs in one of my agalma eggboxes, but they don't look anything like any snake eggs that I have seen before. Extremely long compared to the thickness, about 2 - 2.5 inches long and about a quarter of an inch thick. Almost like my 5 y o kids fingers. Are these real eggs or are they slugs? Color seem rather good compared to what I have seen from other colubrids thru the years. My camera is broken, I'll try to post pics later.

I have never seen eggs like that. If they are mushy(like plastic bags filled with liquid), or of they yellow and turn hard in a few days, they are most likely slugs. If they are white and leathery they might be good.

Well, I have been breeding other Lampropeltis since the early 80ies, so to my eye these eggs look fine in all aspects except for the shape. I once saw pics of agalma eggs, I think it was in this forum, and I remember thinking what strange shaped eggs they were. However, these two eggs I got are even stranger looking.

I have put them in the incubator set at 80.6F. Only to wait and see. My plan is to incubate all Lampropeltis eggs at that temp this year in order to get bigger/sturdier young, even if it will take 70 days instead of 55-57.

Cool. I have produced agalma before and their eggs were no different than those of some other Lampros I've bred, alterna, pyro and mexicana. In general it seems smaller clutches have longer eggs and larger clutches have rounder ones.

Usually slugs have some outward sign like I said but occasionally I have had perfectly good looking eggs with normal shells not hatch. I suspect they were not fertile to begin with but I don't know for sure.

Anyways good luck and thanks for sharing your experience.

I've noticed a lot in first year breeding females-(smaller females usually in the 90-110 gram range) that lay 2 eggs, very elongated..and have them hatch fine...I even had an egg that was L shaped, and hatched a healthy baby, although these were all pyro eggs. Most all the Z eggs I've hatched had a normal colubrid looking egg...just a bit smaller. Good luck and very nice looking agalma you got there in the above post.
jeff

I think that I have been able to determine wich one of my females laid the two strange eggs. It seems to be the smaller female of the two I have from Thomas Steffen. She shedded about 10 days prior to the time I found the eggs in the box. The other larger female kept in the same tank at this time is going into shed now. She is really plump compared to the other one.

My other three females don't seem gravid. I guess i have to put them into a semibrumation period and try again.

I still haven't been able to find my the cord to connect the camera to the PC, so pics can't be shown just yet.