Holy crap, SNAKES!

[Grimster]

So back in like 2002 or 2003 I bought a couple snakes. An albino female and a het for albino (means he carries the gene but doesn't display it and looks normal) male boa for the cool sum of $1000 delivered from a breeder in Chicago.

They ate and grew:

Sometime last year, late summer I think (I'm a terrible herpetologist) I put them together while I cleaned cages and as I often did, left them for a day or so "just in case they feel frisky". Well they felt frisky! I saw much coupling.

While she skipped 1 feeding the female never stopped eating her normal meals so I figured "oh well maybe next year.

Today I come home and her cage is all condensed over for the 2nd day (it does this for a few hours after she poops but never for a full day). Then I see a little head crawling up the cage door, HOLY ****, WE HAVE BABY SNAKES:

I saw at least 8 of them! and 4 albinos! Sweet those are worth like $400 and the normals a good $125!

Here's one hiding in the corner being well protected by over 7 feet of momma snake:

So I quickly call Terry, an old herp buddy who also runs a nice local reptile show (shameless plug: http://www.dixiereptileshow.com/) and ask him what I should do, he said seperate them asap, and to be ready for an aggressive mother (oh great I hate being bitten). So I don my welding gloves and leather jacket and move my male to the holding cage so I can move her to his cage while I remove the babies.

Here's the mother saying bring it on fatboy:

I can just imagine her saying to the little ones "HANG ON CHILDREN IF I CAN PULL THIS OFF YOU'LL EAT LIKE KINGS" (yes I read Far side).

(continued in 2nd post darn 10 picture limits)

 

[Grimster]

So I get the male into my holding cage, while the red foot tortoise looks oh angrily, no doubt screaming in his grumpy turtle mind "YOU KIDS GET OFFEN MY LAWN":

And I bravely get mother out and eventually into his cage:

Grab a 5 gallon bucket, throw some clean white towels in it, and begin depositing baby snakes:

Whoa wait a second there's a WHOLE lot more than 8 here I think:

Only 2 slugs, here's one, it felt kinda like a heavy overripe peach, I fought the urge to squish it:

So I currently have 20 baby boas in a 5 gallon bucket with some towels:

I didn't take a ratio of albino to normal, pretty sure it's more normal than albino maybe 7:13 I think.

Just had to share!

 

[planenut]

Pretty cool!
Thanks for sharing.

 

[passedpawn]

Very cool. baby boas. My wife would have a coronary if I brought a snake home.

 

[Evets]

Very cool!
I once caught good size garder snake while at work. I wanted to take it home to show the kids, so I put it in my lunch box. When I got home, I put the box on the kitchen table and went up to take a shower. As I was drying off I heard a blood curdling scream. I ran downstairs to find my wife with her hands over her mouth staring into my lunchbox. When I looked inside, I saw the snake plus one tiny one. My wife said when she opened the box there had been at least 6 or 8 babies but the mother had started eating them right away. SWMBO was not a happy camper for some time after that.

 

[brewmonk]

take 'em on a plane? (beautiful mama snake).

 

[Wade E]

Awesome snakes! Very cool with the blend there! what are they worth?

 

[Grimster]

Awesome snakes! Very cool with the blend there! what are they worth?

The little pinkish ones should fetch $350+ the grey ones $125-150 each. So assuming they mostly all survive it should be a nice recoup of the expenses in raising the parents for 7 years (and counting).

 

[Wade E]

Awesome, hope they all survive, beer money!

 

[mosquitocontrol]

Gross. I think I'm gonna have nightmares now when I go to bed. Damn that is a lot of snakes.

I mean. Good for you? Pretty sweet that your pet birthed some cash $.

 

[JOHN51277]

Beautiful snakes.

I hate snakes!

 

[lamarguy]

I've had it with these motherf*cking snakes in this motherf*cking forum!

 

[Grimster]

Awesome, hope they all survive, beer money!

Me too!

Gonna keep the two prettiest albino girls and try to find an appropriate albino boy for them to hopefully mate with in later years, and sell the rest.

 

[scrambledegg81]

 

[CDbrews]

man that is pretty cool and very interesting!! thats awesome that you can recoup some money off the babies. Can you tell what sex a baby snake is or do you have to wait till they mature to be able to tell? just curious since i know nothing about snakes

 

[Austin_]

man that is pretty cool and very interesting!! thats awesome that you can recoup some money off the babies. Can you tell what sex a baby snake is or do you have to wait till they mature to be able to tell? just curious since i know nothing about snakes

It's been a while since I messed around with snakes, and correct me if I'm wrong Grimster, but if their tail gets narrow rather quick after their sex organs/pooper then it's a female; a long tail for a male. Maybe it's the other way around. I can't remember.

 

[weirdboy]

So, that bucket holds like $4k worth of baby snakes? I had no idea they were that expensive...

 

[Grimster]

It's been a while since I messed around with snakes, and correct me if I'm wrong Grimster, but if their tail gets narrow rather quick after their sex organs/pooper then it's a female; a long tail for a male. Maybe it's the other way around. I can't remember.

It's one "rule of thumb", while they're small you can also "pop" them, basically turn them over and slighly bend the tail while pushing on their back right above the cloaca (poophole) with your thumb, if two little hemipenes pop out, you got a boy, if not, you got a girl or a boy you weren't able to pop.

Or you can probe them, pushing a probe (thin blunt piece of metal) into the cloaca and BACKWARDS, if the probe goes in like 2 or 3 scales deep at most, girl, if it goes in like 7 or 8 scale rows deep, boy.

 

[nutty_gnome]

What the heck is a slug in this context?

 

[Grimster]

What the heck is a slug in this context?

An unhatched and probably unfertilized egg, basically, it solidifies in the mother and gets passed out along with all the babies when they're born.

 

[lamarguy]

An unhatched and probably unfertilized egg, basically, it solidifies in the mother and gets passed out along with all the babies when they're born.

So, you're sayin' it would taste great if battered and deep fried?

 

[kryolla]

Congrats, I used to breed boas and ball pythons. Now all you have to do is wait for their first shed and feed them.

 

[JOHN51277]

So, you're sayin' it would taste great if battered and deep fried?

MMMM, beer battered slug. Chased with some cold beer!

 

[jiggs_casey]

Nice err, umm... "catch"..

My son found a garter snake a few years ago that we put in a cage that had babies while we were on vacation. They all died and were well into decay when we got back. It was probably the most disgusting thing I have ever had to clean up.

 

[Blueblood]

Thats sweet, my wife is trying to get our milk snakes to bread.

 

[android]

holy cow man, that is the coolest post i've ever seen! congrats!

 

[Grimster]

Congrats, I used to breed boas and ball pythons. Now all you have to do is wait for their first shed and feed them.

I've already got some offers "as is now" for the whole lot but they're lowballs, $25 per normal and $150 per albino, think I'll hold out.

 

[Grimster]

Thats sweet, my wife is trying to get our milk snakes to bread.

I love milk snakes, the guy I called for help, Terry was the first person to produce albino tri coloreds (kings I think mighta been a milk) ever, he made -bank- off those snakes.

 

[timberghost]

we all have our little quirks. love the snakes. congrats

 

[Berock]

Just to answer the question before its asked. Use Oxyclean and Starsan (don't fear the foam) on the 5 gallon bucket before use. Unless you're going for a snakey flavored wheat or something.

 

[Grimster]

Just to answer the question before its asked. Use Oxyclean and Starsan (don't fear the foam) on the 5 gallon bucket before use. Unless you're going for a snakey flavored wheat or something.

Hmm ya know, not being a hophead I think many big hoppy brews sorta taste like snake piss (my apologies to the hopheads).