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Posted by dan felice on April 07, 2002 at 13:09:23:
In Reply to: Re: Cribo breeding Temps? posted by Dwight Sayers on April 07, 2002 at 11:03:16:
: : I found the discussion on breeding temps informative & fascinating, particularly the differences in methods among successful breeders. Would anyone care to go out on a limb & carry it over to the Central & South American Drymarchon. Most people that I've spoken to keep all Drymarchon under couperi conditions ( whatever that is) this has always seemed unlikely to me due to the large range of these snakes south of the border. I know that Blacktails & Unicolors are bred with some regularity ( have eggs myself this year) what about Redtails or Yellowtails (mine showed no inclination to mate), the information on the new Drymarchon species suggested that the habitats of the various "species" in Venezuela were quite different.**************************************
: ***In the seventies and early eighties I had the fortune of breeding cribos four times. Three of these times were yellowtails and one clutch were Central American. Back then temp ranges were not known and people who did hatch Drymarchon eggs just complained about bent and twisted babies. However I can truthfully say that all the cribo eggs hatched at 83 - 85 degrees!! Not one deformed baby. Back then I used sphagnum moss as a incubating substrate. They hatched around 75-80 days. We didn't know about low incubating temps. and hatched the eggs at normal colubrid temp. ranges. If i manage to breed current pair of yellowtails I think I will incubate at about 80, no higher. Who knows!!!! We also bred easterns back then, using mid 82.5-84.5 degrees. These temps produced kinking and twisting in babies, however we did get the odd straight one. Bred Texas, and hatched 6out of 10 eggs at 83.5 F and all the babies were fine. Again, I certainly would not recommend those temps nowadays, but we didn't know back then.
david, both of my unicolor females have now laid, 3 weeks apart. the total egg count is 24 and all the eggs seem fine at this time. i live about 100 miles south of you in philadelphia therefore our notes are easily interchangeable. the way i 'do' it is........ i do nothing at all! probably due to the fact that we have 4 distinct seasons here in the northeast and all my snakes are constantly exposed to a natural photoperiod [windows galore], and mere ambient room temp [except in the coldest months], nature takes it's own course. in late september, when the days are quickly growing shorter and there is a noticeable chill in the night air, my males suddenly become invigorated and begin chasing the girls. counting backwards, apparently the females don't get interested until much later as they only just laid recently. in my opinion, w/ my snakes, the onslaught of shorter days and obviously chillier nights automatically triggers the breeding response. as soon as those first cool nights hit in sept.,it's like somebody threw a switch on the males! the lowest temps that they are exposed to at night is in the low 60's w/ a very gradual ambient warm-up during the day. i have not tried to breed my yt's yet but next year they are gonna get the same treatment although i've noticed that they definitely prefer warmer overall temps [+10*] than the uni's, so i will adjust accordingly when the time comes. overall, i would say that in my case, the combination of slightly lowering temps and the obviously diminishing autumn daylight provide an irresistable catalyst that the males at least understand loud and clear. it just seems it takes the females a bit longer to come around to their way of thought. but that's life...... and how life is made. at least here in philadelphia. ;-]
