FINALLY. After 139 days of waiting!!! After obsessively peeking into her tub 3 and 4 times a day for weeks, the moment finally arrived. I thought... how can she possibly hold them in any longer?! She was so heavy she was taking short puffy breaths. The female Hyper-erythristic banded water snake dropped a bomb today while I was at work! 25 HUGE, fat, healthy, awesome little ones. just 9 boys and 16 girls. They popped really easily, but are also the most sexually dimorphic babies I have ever seen. You can look at the tails and instantly guess which are the males... the tails are that different! I wish I had a few more males...Better than the other way around I suppose! No stillborns, deformed, runts or jellies! Amazing for a first time mama! Most of them are red phase and some of the others are black and red banded. I can't believe how red they are for being just born!!! Some of these, most actually, are going to be showstoppers for sure! I am going to have so, so, SO much trouble selecting my keepers. I have a female that has a vanishing pattern thing going on that I'll be holding for sure. She stands out compared to the others. 8 out of 9 males are reds, one is a black/red. Now to get them all feeding, photographed, labeled with an ID and priced!

Here are some pics, for which I apologize, I had to take them indoors since it was night time. I promise for some much better outdoor pics in the future! Yes, They really are that red!!!

Here's the whole mess of still-shedding babies (with flash so you can't see them too well)



The single dark male


Nice red male




Cool heavy patterned red male


Awesome "vanishing pattern" female




Cute little girl


Really nice black/red female


Red female


Black/red and red females together




Black/red, "vanishing pattern" and 2 red females


Black/red, red, and an in'betweener


Proud mama with one of her new sons... she looks really good for pushing 25 of those monsters out huh?!?!


the original pairing on 1-09-09