Share your Advanced Practices!

Another thread gave me the idea to start this discussion. I know a lot of you (myself included) have unconventional or advanced methods for keeping your animals and I'd like to dedicate this thread to sharing these practices.

This thread is not intended to be a care sheet or any kind of reference piece for a new and inexperienced keeper. It is for those of us who wish to learn from others and maybe discuss controversial issues that we wouldn't normally talk about on threads geared toward newbies.

I know I don't do everything "by the book" and maybe we can learn from each other about alternate methods for keeping these animals instead of regurgitating the same information over and over.

Some topics for discussion:

Quarantine

Hot Spot and Ambient Temperatures

Hides or No Hides

Planted/Living Vivariums and Displays

Co-habitation

Breeding

Assist/Force Feeding

Incubation (maternal vs. incubator)

Live and F/T Feeding

Substrate

Lighting


I know a lot of these things have been discussed at length in the past, but it is always useful to review and update our practices. Some threads are outdated or end up off topic or don't have a resolution. I'd like this to be a place where we can share detailed information, pictures, videos, experiences, and stories. This is not a place to criticize people for "doing it wrong". If you don't want to share your practices for any reason, thats' perfectly fine!

Lets give the Advanced Husbandry section some love! I will spend some time outlining my unconventional practices and I will post them here.

Hope this turns into a sticky, looks good.

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Quarantine

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60 to 90 days

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Hot Spot and Ambient Temperatures

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76/78 Ambient 86/88 Hot spot (cooler months) - 84/86 Ambient not hot spot (warmer months)

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Hides or No Hides

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Case per case

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Planted/Living Vivariums and Displays

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None

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Co-habitation

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Preference 1 per enclosure, capable of successfully maintaining more than one animal in an enclosure.

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Breeding

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Year round.

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Assist/Force Feeding

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When necessary, case per case, when and for how long may vary (hands on experience necessary) - How to available on this forum already.

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Incubation (maternal vs. incubator)

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Incubator

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Live and F/T Feeding

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Live

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Substrate

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Newspaper, Cypress & Aspen

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Lighting

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Daylight

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Originally Posted by Deborah

60 to 90 days

76/78 Ambient 86/88 Hot spot (cooler months) - 84/86 Ambient not hot spot (warmer months)

Case per case

None

Preference 1 per enclosure, capable of successfully maintaining more than one animal in an enclosure.

Year round.

When necessary, case per case, when and for how long may vary (hands on experience necessary) - How to available on this forum already.

Incubator

Live

Newspaper, Cypress & Aspen

Daylight

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Almost the same, but I do keep the hot spot all the year, and I feed F/T, It´s easier for me to pick all the rats for the month and keep them in a exclusive for rats freezer, also I dont mind leaving a dead rat overnight....

Quarantine:
My quarantine practices are not as great as I'd like them to be, but I do successfully quarantine against, mites, RI's, parasites, and other common illnesses. It is my opinion that unless I have a completely separate building to QT in, I will not be able to successfully quarantine against major collection destroying illnesses. Until I have the means to quarantine on that level, I will continue to quarantine in a separate room for 30-60 days against mites, RI, parasites, and common illnesses.

Hot Spot and Ambient Temperatures:
I use a hotspot between 88º-92º (varies from shelf to shelf) and an ambient temp of 72º-75º. Eventually, when I have a reptile room. I'd like to maintain an ambient temp of 78º-80º which will help reduce the load on my various heating elements.

Hides or No Hides:
It depends. For picky eaters who like to use a hide, I give them one. Most of my adults don't have a hide and just go under the paper. Most of my babies have hides, although I think they would eat fine without them.

Planted/Living Vivariums and Displays:
I've done one in the past for cresties, but I wouldn't do it for a ball python simply because I don't want to set up a beautiful display for a snake that spends 90% of its time hiding, or that might flatten natural plants. I would however consider doing PVC displays for some of my cooler morphs.

Co-habitation:
Haven't done it, don't plan on it. Except for breeding.

Breeding:
I don't do a temp drop currently. Perhaps I will change my mind, but this is my first breeding season so I'd rather just keep it simple and keep the temps constant. I've witnessed many locks and have a few females building. We shall see how effective my methods are.

Assist/Force Feeding:
Thankfully haven't had experience with this.

Incubation (maternal vs. incubator):
An interesting topic, but I will go with the incubator just so I can watch the eggs more closely and get the female back on feed as much as possible.

Live and F/T Feeding:
I do both. I don't sit there and watch every single live feeding. I just plop them in. I check on them after 15 minutes to make sure they ate. If they don't, it goes back into the colony for next week.

Substrate:
I use paper towel, indented kraft paper, and cypress mulch. I'm considering switching everyone to cypress once I have a reptile room. Mainly because I have no where to store a giant bag of cypress mulch.

Lighting:
Nothing specific for the ball pythons.

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Originally Posted by Kaorte

Quarantine

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6 months in a totally separate room. Vents are close and sealed to avoid cross contamination by central ventilation system.
I work with my resident animals first. I clean, handle, maintain, and feed the residents then work on quarantine animals after.
Feeders are bred by myself so if a QT animal does not eat, the live feeder stays in the QT room in it's own tub set up to be saved for another day or fed off immediately to my ferrets. That feeder does not go back to the colony to avoid cross contamination to the other feeders that would be fed off to the resident animals.

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Hot Spot and Ambient Temperatures

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Winter:
88-90 hot spot.
70-75 ambient

Summer:
88-90 hotspot
80 ambient

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Hides or No Hides

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Hides to all hatchlings and picky juveniles.
Adults do not get any hides. The enclosed rack acts like a giant hide itself.

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Planted/Living Vivariums and Displays

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None yet

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Co-habitation

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Yes. For breeding purposes.

No, for non breeding purposes. However, I have done so on purpose in the past.
Due to the whole "can't-co-habitation" committee, I decided to house 2 females of the same age and initial size together for a year as a personal experiment.
I kept the same routine as my other snakes. I qt, fed, watered, cleaned after the two girls the same. I am an advocate for not feeding in a separate feeding bin, so I used a barrier divider to keep feedings separate without physically removing the snakes from their enclosure. No health or behavior issues ever arose. One female eventually outgrew the other female by 500 grams, so I decided to end their cohabitation.

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Breeding

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Enclosure temps: 90 hot spot, 70-80 ambient (depending on season)
Cool down: I don’t do designated cool downs. The ambient temperature may change depending on the seasonal room temp. But in general, I find that cool downs are an unnecessary extra step that could potentially result in RIs.
Enclosure substrate: Newspaper
Side note: I do not provided water bowls or hides in breeding tubs.
Humidity: ~ 60%
Lighting: Increased darkness that correlates with natural daylight in Winter here in Northern CA.
Breeding intervals: I pair snakes for 4 days. Then I separate them back into their own tubs for 4-7 days in order to recuperate and feed, then I pair them again for another 4 days, and so on and so forth. Parings will continue until the female ovulates.
Feeding Status: All adults are fed live small rats. The big girls are fed multiple smalls. Nobody has gone off feed yet. I will continue to feed my breeding snakes as long as they want to eat.

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Assist/Force Feeding

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Just to jump start slow starters or when a hatchling looks deathly thin

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Incubation (maternal vs. incubator)

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Incubator - I want as much control over my eggs. Keeping the conditions in the female tub perfect is more difficult. There is more variability in environmental factors when maternally incubating.

Temps: 88
Humidity: 99-100%
Incubation medium: Equal weight of water:perllite

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Live and F/T Feeding

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Live

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Substrate

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Newspaper

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Lighting

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Natural room/window lighting

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Originally Posted by satomi325

6 months in a totally separate room.

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Wow that's some serious QT, hats off to you for being so strict. :)

I've kept ball pythons for a while and learned a few things, I'm not sure if I'm "advanced". I'll participate anyways :gj:.

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Quarantine

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Different racks - 30 days and/or 2 sheds.

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Hot Spot and Ambient Temperatures

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91

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Hides or No Hides

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Hesitant feeders get hides. Picky feeders get hides. Bitey/hissy snakes get hides. I use reptile basics hides.

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Planted/Living Vivariums and Displays

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None - I use simple tubs in a rack system.

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Co-habitation

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n/a

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Breeding

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n/a

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Assist/Force Feeding

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n/a

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Incubation (maternal vs. incubator)

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n/a

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Live and F/T Feeding

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I prefer to hang out with live rats and feed f/t rats to my snakes. I take the number of rats I need out of the freezer when I wake up (around 10 AM), place them in a plastic bag then let them thaw until the sun begins to go down (6 or 7). Then I place the bags in a large plastic container and fill it up with hot sink water for about 30 minutes for medium/small rats. 10 minutes is normally good for fuzzies/pups/hoppers. I take the rats out of the bag, and press on their stomachs to feel for cold spots. Normally by this time, they're warm. Sometimes 1 or 2 rats will still be cold so I just leave them in for 10 minutes at a time, then re-check. I keep this up until I know they're good to go. Then I dry them off and offer to snakes.

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Substrate

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Aspen for the water bowl tippers, paper towels for the rest of the snakes. I'm actually going to switch from paper towels to aspen for my 41 qt tubs.

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Lighting

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Daylight - no bulbs of any sort.

Here's another few:

Sexing

Popping (don't know how to probe)

Heating Element(s)

Belly heat via flexwatt heat tape controlled by thermostat. I use a helix, vivarium electronics, and Ranco I believe?

Cleaning

Sink washed using hot water and soap. Since I use paper towels, I'm unable to spot clean. Hoping to change this when switching to aspen.

Some topics for discussion:

Quarantine

I don't have room for a separate rack so i just make sure im careful to handle my collection before i handle new additions and to wash my hands in between.

Hot Spot and Ambient Temperatures

87/88degree hotspot. The cool side is usually high 70s and the ambient temp never goes below 70.

Hides or No Hides

Depends on the animal. I have a small collection so providing a hide for most of them isnt a big deal. Most of mine don't need them though even though they have them.

Planted/Living Vivariums and Displays

None. All are in a rack.

Co-habitation

I have no reason to except for breeding. I doubt id ever really try it bc i dont really have any interest in it.

Breeding

Male goes in with female(s) for 3-5 days usually twice a month.

Assist/Force Feeding

Never have had to.

Incubation (maternal vs. incubator)

I'll be using an incubator. Maybe will try maternal someday for my own interest but otherwise ill be using an incubator.

Live and F/T Feeding

Both. I thaw the rodents in a plastic coffee can of warm water. Once theyre thawed ill let them sit in it for like 15min in hot water right before i go to feed.

Substrate

I use newspaper for everyone.

Lighting

No special lights are used. Natural sunlight or if the lights on in the room.

EDIT: i dont really think anything i do is advanced. Its just how i do stuff and what tricks ive learned.

I don't think anything I do is advanced. Sometimes I will feed on the first night I receive an animal and I handle them in that first week.

My Cal Kings and Rats don't have a hot spot right now and are doing great.


I do have a question. For those of you that vend shows. Do you place everything you don't sell into QT after?

I do not have hides in the cages unless the snake will simply not eat without it.

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Originally Posted by 3skulls

I don't think anything I do is advanced. Sometimes I will feed on the first night I receive an animal and I handle them in that first week.


I do have a question. For those of you that vend shows. Do you place everything you don't sell into QT after?

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x2 i always offer whenever feed night is. If they happen to arrive on the day i feed then ill offer it to them. Never had a refusal.

I'd be curious about that too. ;)

So I filled this out with my own practices at home. All the staff among the stores have their own techniques and preferences, too, so there's almost 30 different perspectives on husbandry for any one animal!

Some topics for discussion:

Quarantine
Personal collection - depends. If I've been watching the animal at work for a month or more, then no, I'll give it a couple weeks to settle in and start feeding and after that it just gets assimilated. If it's brand new, then 30 days being cared for separately to monitor it. Since I live in a one bedroom apartment, the best I can do is keep the new animals in my bedroom while the rest stay in the living room.

Hot Spot and Ambient Temperatures
My own collection I keep hot. Basking spot/warm spot 95, with gravid females sometimes getting hot spots up to 100. Ambients vary from 70 to 80 depending on time of year. I cycle my balls in summer, and dial down the hot spot to 85 with the tanks having an ambient of 80 (helps with my electricity bill during high demand months, too). Winter I had the most success the year I kept them in the garage and had ambients of 65 and the warm side of the rack with basking areas of 95 and a heat light pointed at the warm side to increase air temps. The last couple years they've been warmer and not nearly as fecund as they were the "cold year". The ball pythons, anyway.
My amazons I keep cooler - no night time heat, so they drop to 70 at night, and daytime basking temps only get to 85/86.
The lizards I keep hot - blue tongues with basking areas of 110+, ambients in the 80s, Frilleds with basking areas of 100+, ambients in the mid 70s.
I raise crested geckos under a mercury vapor bulb. :) Pretty sure that's my most controversial set up but it's also one of my most successful.

Hides or No Hides
Depends. No hides for snakes in racks, I have a hide for the retics because they're in a relatively large tub, hide for my house snake 'cause she likes it... ATBs don't need actual hides, as they perch, and the lizards all have basking areas. Cresteds get cork tubes.

Planted/Living Vivariums and Displays
I love these. When done well, you can put literally any animal in a display. Ball pythons included. They just need a sturdy, very specifically designed enclosure to do well. I think the expectations for a planted or display enclosure for different species need to be adjusted - a ball python won't do well in the same enclosure that a dart frog would, and vice versa. I've made some pretty cool huge terrariums for animals like corn snakes or leopard geckos. The video I'm linking below sits on my desk at the office for my frog eyed geckos. They love it!
http://youtu.be/Nzu0P-aPPbw

Co-habitation
For snakes I don't usually like encouraging this, as predators rarely cohabitate in the kind of close quarters we inflict on them here in captivity. I've housed multiple ball pythons together before and can set up larger enclosures where they thrive (imagine 6 foot vision cages set up with cork and caves - they do great), but for my own at home I keep them individually the majority of the time.
I've done several multi-species habitats of smaller lizards and geckos that did extremely well. For several years I had a cage with gliding lizards, dwarf geckos, and limbless skinks where the gliding lizards and dwarf geckos were breeding quite prolifically. The limbless skinks may have had babies but I never found them. If you have a large, well set up cage with niches for each animal you're keeping, it is very doable and rewarding -but definitely more difficult than keeping animals individually.

Breeding
Ever since I started keeping my ball pythons warmer they have been little punks about breeding and I don't even want to talk about it

Assist/Force Feeding
I can and will assist feed a baby that will not start well on its own, and they usually begin feeding on their own after one or two feeds. However, I will not hold back or breed a baby that had to be assist fed to get started.

Incubation (maternal vs. incubator)
I highly prefer maternal incubation, personally. Just set em up and let em go. That's when I'll set up females with 100 degree basking areas - they often incubate just off the heat pad, which is perfect and keeps the eggs from cooking. I keep the temps up for the entire duration of incubation, as the reason they chose that spot to incubate is because with those temperatures, they could maintain their clutch at the right temps. The females are much better than I am at incubation.

Live and F/T Feeding
I feed live to all of my reptiles most of the time. The bullsnakes and retics will get frozen thawed when it's hard to get significant numbers of rats (like right now), but the ball pythons all get live. I throw the rodents in, do something nearby (usually talk in a baby voice to the blue tongues for an embarrassing amount of time...), and monitor them for a bit to make sure everyone eats.

Substrate
I prefer orchid bark, but I'll use cypress mulch too. My fire skinks and frilleds also get a mix of eco earth in theirs. Bullsnakes get shredded aspen. Retics get a blend of orchid bark and moss. ATBs are on cypress/eco earth. I have no problem mixing up bedding until I get a blend or consistency that works well for my needs.

Lighting
I put UVB on anything in a display cage. Ball pythons, retics, and bullsnakes are all in tubs/racks so they do not get UVB. But I've got it on my ATBs, my cresteds (that mercury vapor bulb, hah), frilleds, fire skinks, heck even my ornamental tarantulas in their display cages have old UVB bulbs on them. I use the old bulbs on the tarantula cages because they don't need UVB...so they just get the older bulbs that pretty much just light up the cage. Anything in display cages also gets a basking bulb, even if its just a low wattage bulb - I was pleasantly surprised at what the various animals would do when provided with naturalistic lighting. Those frog eyed geckos, for example, are definitely nocturnal, but I'm watching them on my desk now and they spend all day going inbetween the rock crevices and sticking just one part of their body out to bask. I've seen this behavior in my leopard geckos as well when I housed them in an naturalistic setup, and the same with my cresteds.

Fun topic!! I like reading these, seeing what people do. Keep em going!

-Jen

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Originally Posted by LLLReptile

I raise crested geckos under a mercury vapor bulb. :) Pretty sure that's my most controversial set up but it's also one of my most successful.

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Every time my snake room gets over 80 degrees, I panic about my cresties dying. Is this against your personal experience with them?

My apartment has spiked up to 86 (which sent me into a panic over my chinchillas), and the cresteds were fine. They can tolerate hotter temps, so if it happens, it's alright, but they do definitely seem much happier with the option to stay cooler. For 4 to 6 months of the year, mine never get below 80 just because it's so hot where I live in the summer - and they've been alright.

Interestingly, with keeping mine warmer/with the option to get warmer, they eat a wider variety of food items. Mine'll eat roaches, mealworms, even canned caterpillars and solid chunks of fruit like apples. When you look up New Caledonia weather, right now it shows it being 84 degrees F there - some areas are hotter, some are cooler, but in general it's in the mid 80s there right now. My cresteds have done well with daytime spikes into the mid to high 80s as long as at night they drop back down to cooler temps, and they can escape the basking temperatures if they want. I keep mine in a 36" x 24" enclosure - so they've got a lot of space to get away from that powersun if they want to.

-Jen

[QUOTE=Mike41793;2011141]Some topics for discussion:

Quarantine

I don't have room for a separate rack so i just make sure im careful to handle my collection before i handle new additions and to wash my hands in between.

X2 on this, I want to be able to do stricter quarentine so I just place he snakes habitat/bin away from the established collection:

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Originally Posted by Deborah

Breeding

Year round.

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those of you that breed year around, i'm interested to know a little more about how you do so. do you pair males year around? or are you constantly palpating your females for follicles year around to know when to pair? Deb, you say you drop ambient temps during cooler months instead of keeping them the same year around. does this not help get the girls that are off season back on the right track?

Background with Snakes: (added this as I feel it gives people an idea of the experience the keeper has.)
This will be my first year breeding bps but I've been keeping corns since 2001 and breeding since 2003. 2 years of vet school though it included plenty about cows and most of my professors thought that a good snake was a dead snake. Have to love it... :)

Quarantine:
30 days unless I find something 'off' about the animal. This is done in the same room but a separate rack on the opposite side of my established collection. I keep the rack a little warmer as well to help them deal with the stress of the move. Luckily nothing bad has never happened. Never dealt with mites, RI's, or any other issues with my collection. I am also very picky about any snake I bring in. If it doesn't look 100% healthy, mite free, or the breeder seems shady, it doesn't come into my home. Maybe I'm too picky but that's just my practice.

Hot Spot and Ambient Temperatures:
Hot spot for balls is at 90 in established and 92-93 for my quarantine rack. Ambient is around 78 for both. Corns are kept at 90 as well though they could care less honestly.

Hides or No Hides:
All of my snakes have hides because I use plastic shelving for my racks which leaves them more exposed than the traditional rack. The balls seem to like tight hides that they don't actually fit into (though they think they do) and the corns don't care. The balls have the Reptile Basics hides while the corns have plastic bowls from Wal-Mart with a hole cut in it and the edges softened so they don't cut. I've also used the hanging basket liners made with coconut as a hide and they seem to enjoy it (corns).

Planted/Living Vivariums and Displays:
I kill plants under good conditions much less in a tank... I do, however, keep a large display rack with 3 40 gallon breeder aquariums in my family room. The bottom is currently a Russian tort while her table is being built. The middle is my 12 y/o beardie (who used to be free-range in the house). The top is my corn snake, Flurry. I don't think I'll ever keep a ball as a display pet. The corns work well for it and actually come out for things other than food.

Co-habitation:
Been crucified for this plenty but yes, I have and did actively up until December of 2012. The reason behind it was when I first got my pair of corns, my male, Flurry, wouldn't eat. Going with the "if dogs and cats can learn from each other, why not snakes?" theory, I put them together so Flurry could watch my girl, Kitai, eat. Now, the thought of what could have happened putting 2 young corns together for a feeding, horrifies me, but at the time, no one told me how dangerous it was. To make a long story short, Flurry ate and then somehow got attached to Kitai. She could have cared less about him but when we separated them after hearing about over-breeding, cannibalism, stress, etc., he would stop eating and do nothing but cruise the tank. Logically, I know it shouldn't happen but after multiple times seeing him go on hunger strike, I gave in. Honestly, I feel it can be done safely if you know what you're doing and the signs to watch for though I wouldn't do it with an animal that has an extreme feeding response (like many corns tend to, hence pictures abounding of them eating their brothers, sisters, and their own tails). I don't feel it benefits the animals, however, despite my odd experience with my first two. As nice as it sounds to think that they love each other, I know that's not reality and won't force animals together except for breeding. If they were in large 'lifelike' enclosures with space to avoid each other, I'd be fine but not in the tub systems that I prefer to keep them in.

Breeding:
Currently going with the 3 on/4 off system for my boy. Plan on keeping this up until I see an actual ovy. I put my male into my female's enclosure and use a piece of fabric to cover 3 sides (similar to the coverage of a rack system) instead of giving them a hide. I do leave the water bowl in as they have been nice enough not to be too messy or noisy about the whole thing. Temps have not been altered at all. They locked on day 2 and keep locking without any issues since then. I continue to feed through this as well. With my corns, my original pair were kept together and bred every year like clockwork. For them, they are fed in separate containers unlike the balls who are fed in their enclosures so breeding means just putting them together and making sure they are fed plenty to keep them from eying up each other. Once I feel eggs, the boy gets to go back to his bachelor pad. I always move the males to the females enclosure for breeding. Not sure that matters but it's habit for me.

Assist/Force Feeding:
I haven't done it with bps but have done that along with tube feeding for corns. I will say this, it should only be done under dire circumstances. Most animals come around in time and with the right tricks. With very weak/small corns, I have tube fed and prefer that to a pinkie pump or force feeding. Last time I had to do this was with a 3g. hatchling who looked small enough for the pinkie to eat him. After offering pinks multiple times under multiple conditions, he was tube fed with a mixture of ferret food, water, and probiotics (blended together of course) for about 4 months before he had gotten big enough to tackle a pinkie. I always offer normal food on feeding day and then, if they refuse after a couple hours, I will then do the assist/force/tube feeding. They are always given a chance to eat on their own first though. Honestly, assist/force feeding seems to stress them out a lot more than the tube feeding does. I've never had a regurge with tubing but it has happened with forced.

Incubation (maternal vs. incubator):
Haven't done it for bps but planning on using light grating over perlite which is what I do with my corns. The bps will have an incubator but corns get incubated on the top shelf of my rack.

Live and F/T Feeding:
If I can avoid it, I will never do live feeding. My albino girl was purchased at around 80g. and already had a few scars from bites. If they will eat F/T, I don't see the point to risk them with live. Part of that is probably from having it harped on in the corn snake forums where feeding live is one of the seven deadly sins. After reading the forums here, I'm not against it if done correctly and could see that many WC bps would need live feeding. Personally, I plan to never breed any snake that will not take F/T as I feel feeding response is an important part of a strong snake. I'm also spoiled by corns who will eat anything/everything/and then some... I say do what works for the snake and you but if you do live, it needs to be done right with a calm, well fed rodent and then supervised especially with young, inexperienced snakes. Yes, it's instinctual but lets face it, some of these guys are just downright clumsy. :)

Substrate:
Paper towels though I'm starting to think I should just own a factory that produces them. I have used aspen and ecoearth for the corns but cleaning is easier with paper towels in the tubs for me.

Lighting:
My racks get natural, Wisconsin, lighting. I only keep the lights on when I'm in checking on them or feeding. This has kept my corns on a regular breeding schedule for years without any temp changes needed. Maybe this is luck and maybe it's just coincidence, but I think light plays a big part in their cycles.

Snake Room Setup:
Room of their own that they share with inanimate objects. It has southern and western facing windows which I leave uncovered for natural light cycles. No one goes in there on a regular basis except me to check on them morning and evening so they are in a very low traffic area.

Handling:
Everyone gets time out though some more than others. For bps, I've been going based on how jumpy/nervous they seem when pulled out and watching for feeding issues to determine how much it is bothering them. Ceti is a rather nervous girl so I handle her rarely though none of them have ever refused a meal. Aria is always calm so I take her out almost daily, including while in shed. Though many people seem to frown on this, she's shown no signs of stress and I want to ensure she remains used to that amount of handling as I do educational programs. There, she is passed around from kid to kid and needs to be 'bomb proof' as I like to call it. With my corns, they are handled regularly even if they start out a bit nippy/nervous. The reason behind that is that I haven't had one who doesn't calm down after getting used to handling and with my corns, I pride myself on family friendly pets. None of them leave my house unless they can be handled by anyone without fear of biting. With bps, I plan on noting their personalities but will not push them to deal with handling the way the corns are because they seem to stress more easily. The last thing I want is to stress a baby into not eating.

Most of my experience is with corns but maybe it will help. Most of it has been learned from trial and error, reading forums like this one, and talking with successful breeders. I've really enjoyed reading the different ways people keep their collections from small to large. :)

Quarantine
depends, sometimes a month, sometimes not at all

Hot Spot and Ambient Temperatures
ambient 76, hot spot 89
Hides or No Hides
no hides usually, i try and break them if they come from someone who has used hides, this sometimes takes up to 6 months of spotty feedings
Planted/Living Vivariums and Displays
sometimes, depends really

Co-habitation
no
Breeding
male bps at 450g females at 1400g
Assist/Force Feeding
if i have to, i wait till the 2nd month but also depending on the size of hatchlings. I hatched a Bel in 2010 at 26 grams and i only waited 3 weeks. Took 2 force feds, 3 assists then she was ok.
Incubation (maternal vs. incubator)
i live in az, and the humidity is horrible, i only incubate with a bator

Live and F/T Feeding
both, but i also pk alot
Substrate
aspen, i tried newspaper and paper towels but i dont like the snakes slithering in crap when im at work or making a mess with water bowles.
Lighting
just room lighting

Feeding- Live, F/T....most only eat live, some eat both and only get f/t when I have an excess of feeders and need to freeze some off.

Heating- Heat cable, 90 hot spot, 80-82 ambient during the day, 76-78 at night, year round.

Breeding- when they are ready...males generally start around 600-650 grams, females depends on a combo of age/weight. I got a nice clutch from a 22 month old girl at 1,800 grams, and have had a couple good clutches from girls 3-4 years old at 1,200 grams.

Only use hides for the pickiest of the picky, no plants/decorations...but then again, they're all in racks.

Cohabitation- Have done it with no ill effects(there are no special techniques to it, outside of the ability to practice common sense), and I currently do not.

Substrate- unprinted newspaper

Quarantine- 2 months(ish), snake room is on ground level, and have a walk in closet I use upstairs. I have pulled breeders out of my established collection and put them in the QT room to breed, and have then kept them in for an extended period.

Assist/force feed- Have done it, prefer not to...and have only needed to with hatchlings that were real slow to start feeding.

Humidifier in the winter, dehumidifier in the summer.

Other necessities(for me)- plenty of back up water bowls, tubs, heating elements...ability to pop and probe...2 temp guns...generator...spray bottles...back up plan in the event of an emergency(health, financial, or otherwise).

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Originally Posted by irishanaconda

no hides usually, i try and break them if they come from someone who has used hides, this sometimes takes up to 6 months of spotty feedings

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http://static2.fjcdn.com/thumbnails/...b6ab5bced1.gif

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Originally Posted by creepin

those of you that breed year around, i'm interested to know a little more about how you do so. do you pair males year around? or are you constantly palpating your females for follicles year around to know when to pair? Deb, you say you drop ambient temps during cooler months instead of keeping them the same year around. does this not help get the girls that are off season back on the right track?

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nobody? i know there has to be a handful of people on here that breed year round.

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Originally Posted by creepin

nobody? i know there has to be a handful of people on here that breed year round.

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Ya know, I started pairing a female in may last year. Paired her for a good couple months, and only now does she start glowing. So, I'd say you probably CAN breed year round, but I think you are going to have more luck at seeing ovys if you stick to the schedule.

This is my first year of breeding so I really can't add much more :(

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Originally Posted by Kaorte

Ya know, I started pairing a female in may last year. Paired her for a good couple months, and only now does she start glowing. So, I'd say you probably CAN breed year round, but I think you are going to have more luck at seeing ovys if you stick to the schedule.

This is my first year of breeding so I really can't add much more :(

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well thank you for adding what you can. i keep hearing of people that breed "year around" but it seems to be a subject that's shrouded in mystery. lol

I agree there isn't much elaboration on this practice. I kinda just wanted to get a head start on my first "practice" clutch so I could be ready for my other clutches. That is why I started early.. although it didn't really do much good!

I think in the future I will start pairing in october and keep pairing until I see an ovy. Even if the pairing needs to continue longer than february.

Hi,

I don't intentionally cool for breeding so my girls have more or less split into two camps regarding the time of year they want to breed.

At the moment 4 or 5 of them seem to be in the mood. Three are well into breeding and two are locking up on occasion.

I more or less palpate ( or try at least :rolleyes: ) every time I am putting the girls back into their tubs and introduce the males depending on what I feel.

In the past I have had clutches laid from November to January and from May to July.

I suspect it has more to do with the weather fronts unique to Scotland ( or your location ) than anything else.


dr del

I agree with Del, but basically i pair up my snakes till they lay, they go when they want to go and it might take all year so does that count?

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Originally Posted by creepin

nobody? i know there has to be a handful of people on here that breed year round.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by irishanaconda

I agree with Del, but basically i pair up my snakes till they lay, they go when they want to go and it might take all year so does that count?

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There are people who will cool different groups to get production from different animals year round. As far as how they do it I don't know many details.

As far as what we will do is just continue to breed each female until she goes(as long as the female and male both remain in good condition).
Last year was our first year breeding and we stopped breeding everyone who hadn't ovied at the same time.
This year we don't plan on stopping unless the female Ovys, the male starts to lose to much weight(then you could always rotate a different male in), or the female just stops being interested in breeding for an extended period of time.