A bit of a sucky season

[Waterrat]

So saying that Michael,whats our options in regard to feeding hatchies...If pinkie mice are a unnatural food source for hatchie Chondros,what is there to replace the pinkies...We use mice-rats-quails-chickens etc as there readily available...Just like hatchie BHPs etc,they eat lizards etc,but owners-breeders are NOT going to go out in the bush to collect them to feed to their hatchies,are they...So the next best thing to do is use rodents etc as when the hatchies are older,they wont need to worry about changing the food item...

I don't think there is a substitute (not an acceptable one anyway) but we can "dress up" the pinky a bit by rolling it in chick dawn / rat or mice fur and injecting it with calcium syrup.
I like the variety of foods you offer to your snakes. Variety is an essence of life.

 

[D3pro]

I don't think there is a substitute (not an acceptable one anyway) but we can "dress up" the pinky a bit by rolling it in chick dawn / rat or mice fur and injecting it with calcium syrup.
I like the variety of foods you offer to your snakes. Variety is an essence of life.

Haven't they been known to eat moths in the wild?

 

[yommy]

cheers for the comments guys, as bad as it seems i still have some good eggs remaining. Spoke to PSimmo at the Reptile festival in Ipswich about the water method with womas as i had 1/2 on a drier perlite mix and others on water. I was using the SIM system and am not blaming it but PSimmo suggested with the water to sit the eggs on a dry bed of mixture to absorb any excess water that may of got on the tray and they are coming along nicely. It all a learning experience.

Good food for thought waterrat. All females where really well conditioned proir to breeding on rats and jap quail. though i know breeders that feed only fresh killed and had bad results this season. just one of those things

 

[deebo]

Hey Yommy - a guy I know who has been keeping and breeding for years and years always puts is eggs in a smaller tub on a grate, which then sits of the grate over the water in the bigger tub. Hope that makes sense, essentially a tub within a tub - with no lid on the smaller tub obviously. He does this as he feels that moisture may build up on the bottom of the eggs as it rises in the tub.

I am not sure whether it would or not but i guess its one of those things that you dont want to find out.

Seems like a similar thought to what PSimmo said about having dry vermiculite or whatever under the eggs.

Hope the rest go the distance.

Cheers,
Dave

 

[MR_IAN_DAVO]

Yommy, I am sorry about your losses.
Me thinking: the eggs were fertile but didn't pull through. There has to be some nutritional deficiency on the female's side. I am always dubious about snakes that had been fed monotypic, defrosted food all their lives, just like my obsession about feeding pinkies to hatchlings. Both are totally unnatural food sources that wild pythons would never meet in the bush, not to mention eating them .... but we keep feeding them crap because it's convenient to us. Would I enjoy live having to live on food from my freezer and nothing else?

That does not reflect on you yommy, I don't know what your snakes are on. Just making a general comment.

Michael, I eat defrosted frozen meat most nights, we do not all live in the place of luxurey where every night you can choose from OH WHAT TONIGHT, fresh BARRA or fresh MUD CRAB.
Cheers mate.

 

[Scleropages]

That sucks , hope you have a better season next year!!

 

[Waterrat]

Michael, I eat defrosted frozen meat most nights, we do not all live in the place of luxurey where every night you can choose from OH WHAT TONIGHT, fresh BARRA or fresh MUD CRAB.
Cheers mate.

Well, I don't eat those delicacies every day either but I go to the markets to buy fresh fruit & veg, when we buy meat, we eat it the same day, it never goes into the freezer first and when I have some spare time I do go out to catch mud crabs and prawns. It all takes considerable effort, believe me.

We live our lives best we can and the way we live is sometimes our choice, sometimes it's a destiny but our snakes don't have any choice. They eat what we give them or they die. There is a difference.

cheers
Michael

 

[MR_IAN_DAVO]

Thats fine Michael,
Where does the average breeder get thier hands on litle critters.
I feed my pythons a mixed feed of rodents & chooks when they are avail. But I think that this is not the problem behind a poor breeding season. I have not had the privelagde of breeding GTPs yet, but with what I have done over the past few years, this season looks like a bummer.
I don't think it has to do with food, but more the unseasonal conditions we have had right through winter & even into now.
It would be interesting to know how wild numbers are going this season.

Mate I hope that you have a couple of cold beers with that Mud Crab.
Invite me anytime.

 

[norwich]

having the same results here mate dont know hothing has changed hope next year is better cheers micky

 

[yommy]

Here are a few pics of one of the woma eggs that was on water. Obviously at an earlier stage of development with the 'foetus' then the pic of the albino Darwin originally posted. Though interesting to see the early stages of development between the two.

One thing I have noted though the eggs that went off on substrate really smelled especially when opening the container and cutting open the actual egg. And the ones on water had no odour at all to really mention or that put you off cutting. I also noted I got a lot of dark mould on the ones that went bad and died.

Interesting egg pics 1st - foetus to follow

 

[yommy]

And the interesting developmental pics.

At the end of the day i am more upset i lost so many woma babies then anything else as developing the traits that interest me with the boodaries was my pet project this season. can't wait to see what will pop their heads out with the remaining good two this season and into the future.

Fingers are crossed. Here is one that did not make it.............

 

[gunny]

HAHAHA at least it died happy.

 

[Aussie Python Lover]

Sorry to hear yommy, last season I had a total of 14 coastal eggs all died in the sth east qld heat wave last xmas only 1 hatched then time came it had enough energy to hatch but then 4 hrs later it died....Finger's crossed for this yr if not next...Good luck for you for next time.

 

[yommy]

HAHAHA at least it died happy.

i reckon that's where the umbilical cord ends up not what you were thinking

as his not really smiling........

 

[Ozzie Python]

like everyone else in this thread yommy i've had a crap season too. i only put one pair together and got eggs but they looked like crap, and now look even more so like crap, i doubt im going to get any of these to go the distance.

 

[Varanus1]

Sigh...a disappointing season for many, by the sounds of it. I'm in the same boat; my gorgeous female eastern brown was sadly lost due to egg binding just a few days ago...I was devastated, she was an outstanding snake and I haven't had an incidence of egg binding before.

I am sorry for your losses this season Yommy; let's hope the eggs which are still incubating all come out as healthy, strong feeding juvies mate.

Regards,
Trent.

 

[Elite_Reptiles]

Feel for ya Yommy. My season has been average too, not so much with loss of eggs, but lack of.

It is good to hear from others though that we are not alone, it seems quite a few of us have had a bad season.

But just like Mr_Ian_Davo mentioned, I'd too be interested to know what the stats have been on the wild side of breeding this season? It could be due to seasonal change or just coincedence that it has happened to so many this year.

All the best though Yommy, only another 6 months to go and it all starts again.

 

[yommy]

cheers for the comments, as dissapointing as it is that is the joys of this biological hobby we are so passionate about and like previously mentioned there is alway next season.

All my females are putting on good condition so getting feeding what i did get out this season is a priority and start prepping those i wish to breed for next season next to do.

Ozzie pythons are you incubation using the water method with the eggs on a dry mixture? i did this with my remaining woma eggs only they they seem to have come good. time will tell though.

yours look like they are drying right out. all the best with em

 

[buck]

cheers for the comments, as dissapointing as it is that is the joys of this biological hobby we are so passionate about and like previously mentioned there is alway next season.

All my females are putting on good condition so getting feeding what i did get out this season is a priority and start prepping those i wish to breed for next season next to do.

Ozzie pythons are you incubation using the water method with the eggs on a dry mixture? i did this with my remaining woma eggs only they they seem to have come good. time will tell though.

yours look like they are drying right out. all the best with em

I'm using this method with my Woma eggs. almost identical to what is on the Snake Ranch website, only difference being I am using smaller tubs with lids as opposed to glass tops.
I had one egg develop a bit of mould on one end but it has not spread at all and the egg seems fine.

 

[Pythons Rule]

hey yommy I've also had terrable luck but with the 3 years I've tried this breeding thing. 1st season most of you know I got 22 eggs, 8 slugs and had nothing but bad luck from 2weeks on to hatch date. I put it down to lack of exsperiance and bad weather + a faulty digital thermometre/hydrometre. I had 2 eggs at the end on 65days but some reason 1 died a day before the other came out. cause I lost one of the 2 viable eggs I desided to pip the last one on day 65. and the egg was very dry inside and the shell was touph, however there was a healthy hatchy inside - avatar pic. the other I opened the egg to find a fully formed, no kinks healthy looking baby...then I noticed no egg tooth....so sad I almost gave up after that it was so heart breaking.

pic's of last 2 eggs from clutch of 14 fertile eggs. all but 2 died from weeks 2 +. large one on left went bad a day before the other came out.
View attachment 174306View attachment 174307View attachment 174308

red banded hatchy that drowned in the egg
View attachment 174309
striped hatchy that made it due to me pipping.
View attachment 174310

2nd year I had 36 eggs layed but when I went to remove them from the female she wouldn't let go and tipped whole clutch over, all died from 2 weeks....I was then furious and upset.

3rd year I ended up seeking out a mentor, did everything he told me, built a new incubator from instructions he gave me, did all the research he sent me, listerned to everything he told me, I updated him with pic's etc through out, I did everything I was told, stressed a lil when I went on holidays but ended up calming down thinking she would lay by the time I got home, she went through all the signs and prelay etc and was huge and then when I get home she still didn't lay but was much skinnier then before I left. bloody hell she pulled a phantom on me... 3rd year bad luck....

I have desided to wait till 2012 before I try again at least then I can make sure all my females are fat enough and healthy enough to produce healthy eggs. I should also be down in sydney by this time and in a place where keeping an incubator at a stable temp is easier and also cooling of animals more successful.

maybe its this particular snake thats got weak genes who knows, but I do know that this pair produce a spectacular looking animal which is my pet project if I could ever produce anymore with a close to 100% hatch rate one day. its the most frustraiting and time consuming thing to go through if it doesn't go according to plan so I feel all your pain and more.