Breeding Tigersnakes

[Stefan]

Hi folks!

As some of you might know I live in Europe in the Netherlands. And my favourite snakes are your Aussie Elapids. As it is forbidden to export your native snakes, there aren't much around in Europe. Still we have some inlands, coastals, red bellies, colletts, mulgas, black tigers and common tigers.

I know some people with adult tigersnakes but unfortunatly those people aren't really succesfull in breeding them. Tigers are known for giving birth sometimes to more that 30 animals. But here in Europe people are allready "happy" if they get one or two youngsters. Sometimes they get five to seven dead babies and also sometimes no babies at all. Matings have been obeserved more than once...

Now I would like to ask you guys if you have some tips for us European guys to get our tigers to breed

Thanks in advance,

Stefan

 

[Stefan]

No one after this topic has been read almost 100 times?

 

[jeremy_88]

For the most part most captive bred tiger snakes in collections are animals that are kept outdoors and little success happens indoors. But I don't breed tigers, this is what I have heard from the experienced.

 

[jack]

they would like european weather... dont heat them so much just because they are australian

 

[moosenoose]

I've got a couple of pairs and don't want all the dramas with breeding them :lol: So I keep them separate....sorry, I'm no help!

 

[BARRAMUNDI]

Hi Stefan,

Its pretty important to keep them cold over the winter period. As said most reproduction here in oz occurs in outdoor pits, as the animals have access to colder temps than indoors and they tend to cycle better outdoors.

Tigers will tolerate overnight lows of below zero. However if you can give them access to 5-10 degrees celcius overnight that would be sufficient. Its also very important to give them small but solid and secure hides when they are exposed to these temps. Day time bask temps throughout winter should be kept to 25 degrees with the cool end around 15 degrees. Photoperiod around 8hrs

Summer temps can be fairly warm with a bask of around 28-32 max and a cool end of about 25 degrees. Overnight during summer would be about 20-25 degrees. Photoperiod about 12hrs

Also try sending Jonno from ERD a pm, he has worked with alot of Tigers in his time and bred quite alot when he was in SA,

 

[PilbaraPythons]

I 'll try to get Rob McCloud to coment, he used to speacilise in this species many moons ago and bred them hand over fist.

 

[Stefan]

Thank you a lot, I really appreciate all your comments!

@ Barramundi: Thank you! I will try to contact Jonno from ERD.

@ PilbaraPythons: Do you contact him to give a comment here, or can I contact him somewhere else?

 

[Jonno from ERD]

G'day Stefan,

The trick is to get them cold...a few months with night time lows well into the single digits (Celcius), for both males and females. It's also important not to keep them too hot in general...ambient temps in the low 20's with a simple spotight bulb to create a warm basking area in the low 30's. Introduce them in the later parts of spring and wait 4-5 months.

Good luck.

 

[Stefan]

Thank you Jonno! Are there a lot of differences in temps and other conditions between ater niger and scutatus?

 

[Jonno from ERD]

G'day Stefan,

Not really. They aren't considered to be different species or subspecies any more - they are all synonymous with N.scutatus. Feed them a lot too - it's almost impossible to feed a Tiger too much, they are giant garbage disposals.

 

[Stefan]

Yes I know. But Australia is large and it wouldn't suprise me if there were differences in captive condition you keep them in. But you can just keep them exactly the same?

 

[TrueBlue]

I kept and breed Tigers indoors in QLD for a number of years, as has been said make sure they have acssess to cold night time temps over winter. In saying that I also supplied them with a heated area as i would feed them thru winter as well. When they had passed all food i would give them a few nights without heat between feeds but would always give them acsess to heat once feed untill all food was passed. As long as the tank has an area that is uneffected by any heating they will feel the day/night and seasonal temp changes and cool themselves when ever they want.
A also used to leave the windows in the snake room open at night to cool the room to the outside temp in winter.

 

[Stefan]

Thank you TrueBlue!

What are the temperatures in winters in Australia? Because they need a cooling down at night to 5 or 10 degrees celcius but during the day they need a basking spot at around 25 degrees celcius.

Most of my rattlers and vipers need a hibernation period during winter for 2 and a half months. So I have a refridgerator at about 8 or 9 degrees celcius all the time, day and night. But it would be a lot of effort to put the tigers in the refridgerator every evening and get them out in the morning

How can I manage to get the enclosures that cool in the evening? I don't know if opening the window would work properly. Here in Holland it can be -20 degrees celcius at night sometimes and I don't want frozen snakes

 

[TrueBlue]

If it gets that cold at night over there dont open the windows at night as the room should stay above 0 degrees. As long as you can give them acsess to 2-4 or more weeks of temps under 10 degrees at night they should breed no trouble.

 

[Stefan]

Thank you a lot! Would it be possible to put them in the refridgerator just like my rattlesnakes? They don't get heating in the daytime but will stay at 8degrees celcius all day. But then only for 3 weeks and not 3 months like my rattlesnakes

Or is the daytime heatin 100% nessecary too?

 

[TrueBlue]

I dont really know as ive never had to resort to those sorts of measures to get them to breed. As said id just keep them in tanks where they had an area that was not effected by the heat source so that they would feel day/night and seasonal temp changes and they would breed with out any problems.
One girl gave birth to 38 young and i never lost one, all were raised sucssesfully.

 

[Stefan]

Ok thanks! For me one of the easiest things would be giving them some sort of short hibernation in a refridgerator... But if it turns out bad, than it is going to be very expensive... These snakes are really expensive over here, if you can get them at all.

Maybe I am going to sleep in the livingroom for a month and then give my bedroom to the Aussie tigers. I can not not drop the temps that low in my snakeroom as my cobras won't like that Than I am going to install a computer fan for fresh outside air and keep my total sleepingroom at 8 degrees celcius at night and can give them little heating in their enclosures

edit: Which other Aussie Elapids need these conditions for breeding? Colletts, red bellies, taipans, copperheads, etc?

 

[waruikazi]

You can use ice packs inside enclosures to lower temps. I have used them in the past. If you have well insulated cages then you can drop an average 3ft enclosure's ambient temps by around 10 to 15 degrees with about 4kg of ice.

 

[Jonno from ERD]

Ok thanks! For me one of the easiest things would be giving them some sort of short hibernation in a refridgerator... But if it turns out bad, than it is going to be very expensive... These snakes are really expensive over here, if you can get them at all.

Maybe I am going to sleep in the livingroom for a month and then give my bedroom to the Aussie tigers. I can not not drop the temps that low in my snakeroom as my cobras won't like that Than I am going to install a computer fan for fresh outside air and keep my total sleepingroom at 8 degrees celcius at night and can give them little heating in their enclosures

edit: Which other Aussie Elapids need these conditions for breeding? Colletts, red bellies, taipans, copperheads, etc?

G'day mate,

Most southern species of elapid need nice cool temperatures to breed - Death Adders, Tigers, Copperheads, Red Bellies etc. You'll also find that these species are live bearers.