deebo
Very Well-Known Member
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- Jul 2, 2007
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Hi All,
I was a bit hesitant to post a thread like this for fear as coming across as an idiot who didn’t know what he was doing, but I thought it might be important to share some information like this, especially with some of the new aspiring herp keepers.
We often hear about people’s success but very rarely hear about the downsides of keeping and breeding reptiles. While I cannot claim to be an expert or an incredibly experienced keeper I have been keeping snakes for about six years now and have bred them for the past three years and in that time, especially with breeding, have had both successes and failures.
Some of you may have read/seen about the success I have recently had with a clutch of RSP that hatched this year; but even within that clutch there has been some disappointment. I had 12 fertile eggs and one slug laid, one egg went mouldy about 6 weeks into incubation and later died, and the other 11 hatched and all seemed fine. I was checking on the hatchies earlier this week and found one with its body all tensed up and lying with its mouth gaping open. I thought it was dead but when I picked it up it started to writhe around and then about 20 seconds later it literally died in my hands. Upon closer inspection I found its body was a bit swollen around where I think its heart would be and also seemed a bit darkened and black when looking from the underside. I am not sure exactly what happened to it but assume it was some sort of defect that took a while to show any problems.
In previous years I have had near 100% hatch rates with jungles, BHPs and womas. This season I would be lucky to be pushing 40% success.
I also had 100% success with two clutches of jungles this year but lost a clutch of six patternless childreni eggs about one week into incubation.
I also had six eggs laid from a woma this year that all seemed fine until hatching day came around. Two womas made it out of the egg but were tied to the egg via their umbilical to large unabsorbed yolk masses that were still connected to the outer egg shell. I managed to the tie their umbilical off and cut them free. Of the remaining four eggs one drowned in the egg as it was unable to cut its way out, another died full term for some reason, one egg was full of a clear jelly-type liquid with a fully formed snake inside and the other egg had a tiny woma in it which was alive when I pipped it but died shortly afterwards. All the eggs when cut open were found to have large hard unabsorbed yolk in them. The two hatchies that did emerge from their eggs died earlier this week. They were very weak and small and I was dubious as to whether they would go the distance. The same female produced some lovely healthy babies last year that were fantastic feeders and the two I held back are powering along.
I guess what I am trying to share is that it is not as simple as buying a pair of snakes, throwing them together, getting eggs, incubating them and getting hatchies. Reproducing would probably have to be one of the most risky things that nature has in store for us and we should realise that it is inevitable that things will go wrong in the process. Compared to my previous years at breeding snakes, this year has been a real eye-opener for me.
I don’t believe there is anything shameful in posting information like this and I hope that it might help some people in some way. I know other people who have had pretty poor seasons. I’ve seen how they keep and treat their animals and having poor success at breeding is not always a reflection of one’s ability to keep and look after their animals, but the idea that a reputation will be potentially damaged by posting such information stops them from doing so.
I don’t think we should stop sharing our successes, as these are what make it all worthwhile, but whenever we are working with animals there are bound to be some failures and it is from these that we probably learn the most. I have learnt a great deal this season and will go into the next season with a bit more experience and more grounded attitude as to what may come out the other end of it.
I’d be happy to see other people post about their successes and their disappointments; however let’s keep it to information sharing and not personal attacks.
Thanks,
Dave
I was a bit hesitant to post a thread like this for fear as coming across as an idiot who didn’t know what he was doing, but I thought it might be important to share some information like this, especially with some of the new aspiring herp keepers.
We often hear about people’s success but very rarely hear about the downsides of keeping and breeding reptiles. While I cannot claim to be an expert or an incredibly experienced keeper I have been keeping snakes for about six years now and have bred them for the past three years and in that time, especially with breeding, have had both successes and failures.
Some of you may have read/seen about the success I have recently had with a clutch of RSP that hatched this year; but even within that clutch there has been some disappointment. I had 12 fertile eggs and one slug laid, one egg went mouldy about 6 weeks into incubation and later died, and the other 11 hatched and all seemed fine. I was checking on the hatchies earlier this week and found one with its body all tensed up and lying with its mouth gaping open. I thought it was dead but when I picked it up it started to writhe around and then about 20 seconds later it literally died in my hands. Upon closer inspection I found its body was a bit swollen around where I think its heart would be and also seemed a bit darkened and black when looking from the underside. I am not sure exactly what happened to it but assume it was some sort of defect that took a while to show any problems.
In previous years I have had near 100% hatch rates with jungles, BHPs and womas. This season I would be lucky to be pushing 40% success.
I also had 100% success with two clutches of jungles this year but lost a clutch of six patternless childreni eggs about one week into incubation.
I also had six eggs laid from a woma this year that all seemed fine until hatching day came around. Two womas made it out of the egg but were tied to the egg via their umbilical to large unabsorbed yolk masses that were still connected to the outer egg shell. I managed to the tie their umbilical off and cut them free. Of the remaining four eggs one drowned in the egg as it was unable to cut its way out, another died full term for some reason, one egg was full of a clear jelly-type liquid with a fully formed snake inside and the other egg had a tiny woma in it which was alive when I pipped it but died shortly afterwards. All the eggs when cut open were found to have large hard unabsorbed yolk in them. The two hatchies that did emerge from their eggs died earlier this week. They were very weak and small and I was dubious as to whether they would go the distance. The same female produced some lovely healthy babies last year that were fantastic feeders and the two I held back are powering along.
I guess what I am trying to share is that it is not as simple as buying a pair of snakes, throwing them together, getting eggs, incubating them and getting hatchies. Reproducing would probably have to be one of the most risky things that nature has in store for us and we should realise that it is inevitable that things will go wrong in the process. Compared to my previous years at breeding snakes, this year has been a real eye-opener for me.
I don’t believe there is anything shameful in posting information like this and I hope that it might help some people in some way. I know other people who have had pretty poor seasons. I’ve seen how they keep and treat their animals and having poor success at breeding is not always a reflection of one’s ability to keep and look after their animals, but the idea that a reputation will be potentially damaged by posting such information stops them from doing so.
I don’t think we should stop sharing our successes, as these are what make it all worthwhile, but whenever we are working with animals there are bound to be some failures and it is from these that we probably learn the most. I have learnt a great deal this season and will go into the next season with a bit more experience and more grounded attitude as to what may come out the other end of it.
I’d be happy to see other people post about their successes and their disappointments; however let’s keep it to information sharing and not personal attacks.
Thanks,
Dave