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Posted by Doug T on April 07, 2002 at 12:54:17:
In Reply to: What kind of lighting do you use??? posted by Dr. Phil on April 05, 2002 at 20:50:40:
: You use spots for both illumination and localized heat source for the snakes, or just fluorescents for lighting only?
The lighting is the heat source for the day. The females spend an hour or 2 in winter, sometimes a couple times a day. The male spends a lot more time basking (due to bigger body?). No fluorescents.
As for having a favorite nesting site and possibly covering eggs with sand, I can tell you my female never lays in her hide box, which is filled with damp peat moss, but uses a separate nesting box with damp vermiculite. I've never seen any behavior to cover the eggs, but I also take the eggs out within a couple hours of being laid. If they do cover their eggs, but need a days rest before they do it, I'm not giving them a chance.
As for later matings, I usually put them together several times. If they have mated once, and then the female refuses one time, I don't bother to put them back to mate later. They probably would mate later, although I haven't had much success with earlier mating attempts.
Body temperatures? Usually 74-80 during the day. The females move out of the basking area usually just before the lights have heated the cage enough to engage the thermostat. This is something I control. If I notice the cage lighting is on far longer than the snake is basking, I know it doesn't need the additional heat, so I turn the thermostat down. If they stay in the basking area longer than the lights are on, I turn the thermostat up. This is my general rule and I don't follow it perfectly or check it daily. I just keep an eye on it and try to keep things in a range that the snake can have some control.
Just a little more data to muddy the water.
DT
:shoot down to the bottom of an old favorite burrow, dump their load and then just pile up some sand from the sloped tunnel floor on top of the batch to hide them from predators.
: As for every one having success using widely different approches, I tend to look at it from an entirely different angle, as i have stated before. It makes just plain sense to reason that all the successful breeders all share a common denominator, but also that each one happens to tack on other parameters that they judge to be either essential or very useful, but that are in fact neither but merely tolerated by the snakes without significant ill effect on the whole breeding process. Let us recap here:
: >Barometric pressure; at least one breeder does well in the (relatively) dry season in his area, and at least another has no discernable variation year round.
: >photoperiod: everybody has matings somewhere between November and early March. And all eggs are laid during the first 4 months of the year with few exceptions. It's safe to say this is a constant.
: >Significant night time cooling and cooling in general: Two breeders always get matings well above the high 60s, so that seems optional. (I would bet at least a fifty that your guys would eventually do it if you waited a few more weeks into the new year Doug!At least! Maybe you and Fred should trade a female one year to see...)
:
: So the one thing that looks like a potential common denominator is that no one seems to expose their animals to temps over the high 70s for any lenght of time. The only blurry detail that would need to be made more precise here though is the body temps the snakes reach while they are basking, for those breeders out there that use heating spots. Any ideas guys?
: Dr. Phil
