All unpacked and got a surprise

Well every one is happy, healthy, and in racks. I went out to get a few last min things for the house and came home and hour ago to find a eggie surprise.... so far the count is up to 3 very large eggs. WOOOHOO!

Here is the female 2 days ago. you can see the eggs some what.
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...icki/eggs1.jpg

Here she is...
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...licki/fem1.jpg
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...licki/fem2.jpg

Here is the male who bred to her. (sorry it is a crappy photo. I didn't have my cam when I bred them so all I could get was a shot of him after I released him.)
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...licki/male.jpg

the eggs!!:gj:
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...icki/eggs3.jpg
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...icki/eggs2.jpg


By the time it took me to post this thread the egg count is at 5 eggs. I don't think there are any more.

you say you released the male?
into the wild?
was it a wild snake?
im confused...

Jessica is known for her awesome finds in the wild!!!! :D

Yes the male was wild. There was another male lined up but he was drab in color, and I didn't like his markings. The male pictured showed up on my door step one morning, sunning himself. I picked him up, called the breeder and she came over to look at him. I asked her to sex him and see if he looked over all healthy. she gave the ok and gave me the idea to put him with my female. Seeing that she too was from the wild at one point in time and was not able to be returned I figured it wouldn't hurt for them to breed.

She had been hit by a bike and her head was crushed. Her jaw doesn't open the way it should to deliver the proper bite. small grubs are now her main meal items. She had to be fed with tweezers so she can properly bite the meal item.

Ground snakes have a mildly toxic venom that they use to bite larger prey items and then they track the prey and eat the dead or dieing insect.

Also Ground snakes come in 3 color phases; Over all tan with a black head or black dot on the head, tan base color with full red dorsal stripe and black across the head, and tan lower body with black and orange saddles.

( I really should have added all of that in the first post but I was trying not to jump out of my skin about the eggs.)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jessie_k_pythons

She had been hit by a bike and her head was crushed. Her jaw doesn't open the way it should to deliver the proper bite. small grubs are now her main meal items. She had to be fed with tweezers so she can properly bite the meal item.

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She is lucky to be alive. Good job rescuing her!

Congrats on the eggs! Can't wait to see what the babies look like. These look like interesting snakes. Are they hard to keep?

Very cool!!!

Quote:

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Are they hard to keep?

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So far no. she is a real trooper. she took to her feeding like a champ. I find Ground snakes to be much more easy to keep than BPs.

They prefer dry arid conditions they will eat anything that is small enough to fit in there mouth and don't require an uth. just a simple 60 to 100 w bulb turned on to one side of the tank for 8- 10 hours. a real treat for them is scorpions, black widows, centipedes, and small spiders. they seem to prefer the more toxic prey items. they take very well to crickets, baby roaches, large black ants, small grubs, and grasshoppers. They are also known to eat there own kind so they should be housed one to a cage. A 5 to 10 gal tank with a VERY secure lid works best if you need to add a heat light but if you live in a hot place and the room you keep them in stays around 80 degrees with natural sunlight coming through a window you can use a flat reptile kritter keeper.

The only things that can be a pain with them is treating ailments due to there very small size and sometimes they have a bad habit of pooing all over your hand if they are upset or stressed.

They need lots of hiding places and seem to do best on a substrate of dry fill dirt with a layer of small rocks strung about the floor. larger flat rocks work best for places to bask, hide and hunt. Live or dry desert plants are great for hunting spots and looks. (please don't use cactus)


all of this i have mainly found out on my own and reading bits of info on the web. not much is written about them so care sheets and info is very hard to find.

wow, thats pretty darn amazing if i had to say so myself.
i never though about going herping, except for frogs and gartner snakes, because thats all i have around here...