Your first breeding experience...

[Bluebonnet Herp]

Whenever I browse through reptile related media, (which is all I do with my spare time lol) among the many wonderful experiences a herper has that I've read about is the first clutch of eggs or litter they produced. To actually stare down at some baby reptiles or eggs and think "I did this " for the first time has always been glorified with pride, awe, excitement, and fascination. I don't know what it's like, but I can always imagine, and just cannot wait for the day. (I'm stuck between just being impatient by sticking with normals and buying a male normal ball, or waiting another year or two to get the finances and produce something more 'fancy'. More likely the latter though, since it's the more responsible way to go.)
For those of you who do have experience, and may already be on your second, fifth, or 90th clutch, what was it like producing your very own reptiles for the first time? I want to know, not just what did you produce, but how did you feel about it? What is your story?
Oh yeah, and pictures always make a story better!

[decensored]

If you think you're addicted now.. wait until you hatch out a clutch. The hooks sink deep the first time you see a little ball python pip out of one of your eggs

[Stewart_Reptiles]

As far as producing something you really wanted to hatch it's a very rewarding experience, but even without producing anything special the miracle of life, seeing those babies take their first breath is always something special no matter how many clutches you produce, it's just a great feeling.

Every year I get to re-live Christmas morning over and over again every time a clutch hatch, now who wouldn't want that.

[Mike41793]

My cinny laid her first clutch yesterday. It was my first clutch ever. Honestly, I wasn't really that excited. I've seen and held the eggs before so it was more like "only 5?! I want more!!!" I'm much more excited for babies to poke their heads out.

[Bluebonnet Herp]

I was originally expecting more responses to this, especially since breeding is on every reptile keeper's mind...

[Ms_jojo]

If you think you're addicted now.. wait until you hatch out a clutch. The hooks sink deep the first time you see a little ball python pip out of one of your eggs

Ugh... yer so right..........




The clutch I have now is my our first.... Mind you the snakes are my sons but going off to college I have had to do things that he always did.... Years ago I was like "HELL NO" but that has so changed.........the snakes we have are awesome... and the babies we just had... WOW.... the waiting and waiting........ seeing them peek out of the egg..... seeing them all balled up.... finally in their own tubs and last but not least trying to feed them last night...... All I can say is WOW... WOW... WOW... It has been the greatest thing.....something I see me doing more of... In the future

[MrLang]

My first experience hatching reptiles - a friend's parents saw a large female snapper laying eggs in their yard and called me up because they knew I liked reptiles. They didn't want more snappers in the pond behind their house because they have kids, a dog, etc. that are constantly messing around near the pond.

I dug the eggs up after the mom left, put them in a rubbermaid bin on top of a few inches of loose soil, put a few more inches of loose soil on top and closed the lid and placed the bin under my desk in my room. I pretty much forgot about the eggs while they were there and figured if they went bad I would smell it and get rid of them.

One day I was sitting on the computer and hear little scraping noises and got totally freaked out because I couldn't figure out what it was - then I remembered the bin. I opened the lid and saw about 30 tiny snapping turtles emerging from the dirt! I went through and realized every single egg hatched flawlessly with no duds and no dead babies. I held on to a few for a couple of weeks and released the rest in a safe local pond at the back of a farm where nobody would bother them. Releasing them into the water was an incredible feeling that I'll never forget.


I have hatched ducks, chickens, had mammalian pets give birth, and other turtles since then. Now I'm on day 55 of my first clutch and everything looks great. I can barely sleep at night and when I wake up in the middle of the night I find myself scooting into the herp room and shooting a flashlight into the incubator waiting to see some little heads!