Rainbow Babies!!!

[Snakesitter]

On Monday, August 15, Living Gems was pleased to welcome the DuVall-Nephrite litter to this world. Mom delivered a large litter of 19 little nippers, who spent the morning and afternoon eagerly exploring their new world.

Dad DuVall is an orange stunner that traces his bloodline back to 50% Howard Leong stock:
https://c1.staticflickr.com/2/1693/25758364936_7c1cb19b0a_z.jpg
DuVall is a first-time dad, and seemed rather unimpressed when I told him the good news.

Mom Nephrite is a solid orange girl from a local breeder:
https://c3.staticflickr.com/2/1720/25663455522_c21221df4f_z.jpg
Her last litter numbered 16, of which only 12 made it, so this is a solid upgrade.

The enclosure looked like this when I found the little ones:
https://c7.staticflickr.com/9/8244/29052591686_4d388a96ee_z.jpg
And, a bit later (note the baby at the back):
https://c3.staticflickr.com/9/8550/29052590026_c3eea0f594_z.jpg

Here a few baby closeups:
https://c7.staticflickr.com/9/8374/29052595966_3826ff2d1a_z.jpg
https://c3.staticflickr.com/9/8501/29052594386_99cd9a64ee_z.jpg

(Fascinating factoid: Nephrite’s gravid period was *exactly* the same length as her last breeding at 107 days. Moreover, her post ovulation shed and delivery date were both off by only a single day from last time. The award for consistency goes to….)

Congrats to the parents for a job well done.

Thank you for reading,

[bigsnakegirl785]

Congrats! Lovely parents, and adorable little hissers/nippers. :)

[valkea]

Absolutely gorgeous animals! Especially love the father. Those photos of the babies swarming all over is adorable. Thank you for sharing!

[Tsubaki]

Congrats! hope babies turn out as pretty as the parents!

[Minkness]

Omg sooooo gorgeous!

[Jim Smith]

Congratulations!!! Beautiful babies. I hope that they turn out as stunning as their parents.

[Snakesitter]

Thank you all so much! We're eagerly waiting to see how they look after their first sheds with us. So far, their main opinion seems to be that fingers are evil. ;-)

[dannybgoode]

Congratulations Cliff. Looks a good clutch. Your rainbows are always some of the nicest I've seen...

[macandchz]

beautiful babies from beautiful parents! congrats!

[marvelfreak]

Congratulation stunning bunch of babies.

I have a question for you has a breeder. Everyone says baby BRB are nippy. Do you fine this to be true? I ask because after Scream had her babies they were really nippy the first couple days but then calm right down. She had them May, 2 and after the first week i been bite only three times. So i was wondering if i am just lucky or is the whole babies BRB's being nippy a misleading statement?

[Albert Clark]

Cool! Reptile reproduction never gets old. Grats Cliff.

[Magdalen]

Wow are the babies big or is that just a trick of the picture? Very neat tho. Love the colors on dad.

[Snakesitter]

Thank you all!

Congratulations Cliff. Looks a good clutch. Your rainbows are always some of the nicest I've seen...
Danny, much appreciated. We maintain a very small collection and only breed the top animals we find, and over time it pays off.

I have a question for you has a breeder. Everyone says baby BRB are nippy. Do you fine this to be true? I ask because after Scream had her babies they were really nippy the first couple days but then calm right down. She had them May, 2 and after the first week i been bite only three times. So i was wondering if i am just lucky or is the whole babies BRB's being nippy a misleading statement?
Chuck, the rumor is true...Brazilian babies are notorious for being on the nippy side. That said, it can vary -- widely -- by litter. Some are placid almost right from the start, some tame fast, and some stay nippy for a few weeks. Usually, though, I find most babies tame quickly, but each litter year seems to have one "special" animal that loves the taste of finger. ;-)

Wow are the babies big or is that just a trick of the picture? Very neat tho. Love the colors on dad.
Magdalen, they are long and noodley. About the width of a pen, but 18ish inches long.

[Snakesitter]

See below.

[Snakesitter]

See below...

[marvelfreak]

Chuck, the rumor is true...Brazilian babies are notorious for being on the nippy side. That said, it can vary -- widely -- by litter. Some are placid almost right from the start, some tame fast, and some stay nippy for a few weeks. Usually, though, I find most babies tame quickly, but each litter year seems to have one "special" animal that loves the taste of finger. ;-)

I think I've just been lucky so far. My buddy says I just have the touch when it comes to snakes. He's had some of the meanest snakes I've ever seen and I can reach right in and pick them up without even a strike. Matter fact that's how I got a couple of my snakes he got tired of getting bit by them and just gave them to me.

[Magdalen]

hehe long and noodley ... hmm so how big is mama if they are 18ish?


I really don't have room for a big snake....

[Snakesitter]

You clearly need your own TV show. ;-)

[Snakesitter]

Mom is probably around six feet long...pretty normal for an adult female. Males stay a bit smaller at five feet.

[JellyBean]

Gorgeous babies!

Question from a non-breeder... What do you expect your babies to be color wise? For example, will they be a mixture of what the parents are, or will they be "regular" color and "het for"...??

Sorry, I only know a little lingo from sugar gliders, and don't understand the science behind breeding for color :no:

[Snakesitter]

Thank you, JellyBean! I expect this to be a high orange litter. With normals, the babies usually fall around the average of their parents in a bell curve; there are no real "hets." Let me know if that does not make sense!

[JellyBean]

It makes little sense to me... Is there a breeding chart that says "put a high orange with a tiger stripe and they will only produce XY orZ"??

[bigsnakegirl785]

It makes little sense to me... Is there a breeding chart that says "put a high orange with a tiger stripe and they will only produce XY orZ"??

With morphs, yeah, you can reliably create that morph. With high color breedings, it's polygenic. You breed two colorful animals together to get more colorful animals. Some will be average, some about the same as the parents, and some brighter than the parents, but all are normals. The more you breed colorful animals together (measured in generations), the more likely you are to get colorful offspring.

If you want an example of what you're talking about, you breed a hypo (hypo brbs are an orange color with no red or black) to a normal, you will get all normals het for hypo. Those hets can then make more hypos when bred to another het or a visual hypo.

[JellyBean]

Yes! That makes sense. THANK YOU.

Thank You Snakesitter for allowing me to hijack your thread for a spell ;)

[Snakesitter]

No worries. Thank you to BSG for the assist. ;-)

[jay's reptiles]

WOW beautiful. I would gladly take one off your hands for free! XD

[Snakesitter]

LOL. I don't think I can survive on that business model. ;-)

[JellyBean]

Have your babies shed yet? Not sure how long that will take, but would love to see updated photos

[Snakesitter]

They have, and I've taken photos...but have had no time to process them. I've dealing with local emergencies. Hopefully by the end of this weekend....

[JellyBean]

I'll be looking for them!
Sorry your having a rough week... Good luck putting out those fires :hmm:

[Snakesitter]

Thank you. :-)

[sattva]

I want an orange one... But I want every snake I see...

[Snakesitter]

LOL! Have you checked out our wait list?