Ha ha, my colored worm had eggs.....

[Jeff_Favelle]

Last year of playing around with these guys. Super fun, and I highly recommend them for the 1st-time keeper, and definitely for the 1st-time breeder!!

Apricot still laying. Hated to disturb her but...

http://members.shaw.ca/jefffavelle/PMF1_eggies.jpg

[Zoe]

lol, nice... real nice, Jeff. Coloured worm. I like that.

How many more eggs did she lay? One? Boy their eggs are shaped funny...

[Jeff_Favelle]

Not sure Zoe, she's still laying. I'll check later tonight.

They ARE shaped funny eh? Not like python eggs at all. They look like giant cricket eggs, ha ha!!

Thanks!

[Zoe]

They look like infertile python eggs, I find. If I saw that coming out of a snake I'd probably thing they were infertile! I mean if I didn't know any better, of course.

I can see the next egg she's getting ready to lay - very neat pic. I missed my python laying because she did it in the middle of the night, but I'd have loved to have seen it.

Zoe

[Matt]

congrats jeff!

[Jeff_Favelle]

Thanks Matt!

They look like infertile python eggs because of the time frame involved. Python eggs are WAY developed when they are laid. Female pythons ovulate, then shed 30 days later, then lay 30 days after that. By the time the egg is laid, its 60 days into development!! For a colubrid, milksnakes in particular, they lay like 6-10 days after the shed (7 days in this case). I don't notice veins in colubrids until maybe Day 15-20 of incubation.

I got to see both my Jungle clutches laid this year! It was way cool. I feel like such a boob disturbing them though...

http://members.shaw.ca/Uploaded_pics2/JCF4_eggs%20001.jpg


http://members.shaw.ca/Uploaded_pics2/JCF5_eggies%20003.jpg

[Emily-Fisher]

haha...coloured worm, eh? Nice pics and good luck!

[Jeff_Favelle]

Thanks Emily!! Your avatar kicks a$$ by the way! Way cool! :D

[vanderkm]

Congrats on the latest clutch - very nice apricot!

mary v.

[Zoe]

WOW those last two pics are amazing. Such pretty, pretty eggs.

Zoe

[Jeff_Favelle]

Heh heh Zoe, I think you and I both know, that at this stage of the game, ALL new eggies are pretty!! Heh heh....right? :D

[Tim_Cranwill]

Cool Jeff! Why are you getting out of them, too busy with your "real" snakes?!?! ;)

[Jeff_Favelle]

Ha ha Tim, not really. I love all snakes, as do you. But once you do something repetitively, you should search for something new and more challenging. Its a progression-thing. After 10 years of colubrid-breeding, I don't think there is much left for me to learn from it. Maybe there is, but are those pieces of knowledge of significance at this stage? Probably not.

So something has to give. I don't think I'd get the same excitement from hatching my umpteenth colubrid, as I would say a Lace Monitor, or a Boelen's Python, or even a Black-head Python. So I take the knowledge from this level and apply it (in principle) to the next level. Its why I've steered clear of Beardies and Leos etc etc. They take zero talent to breed, so that only leaves one thing. Money. I don't feel right churning out 10,000 animals a year to make a living. Not saying its wrong. I just don't want to do it. I'd rather breed a few select animals that I really enjoy working with, or find challenging. That's what drives me to keep and breed animals for a living.

You see Tim, we could both go halfers on a warehouse, get our Helix thermostats, rack systems, and timers and create a breeding center for colubrids. We could probably produce 15,000 animals a year, every year. Easy. At an average of 15 eggs a clutch, that's only 1000 breeder females. We could sell those animals wholesale for $20 and make $300,000 ($150,000 each) every year. Nice living for breeding reptiles. And that's not counting the double and triple clutches!!! But would it be fun, or would it be a job with repetitive tendencies and menial chores? I think the latter.

So its not a matter of one snake or lizard being better than another. They are all cool. Way cool. But unfortunately, we get desensitized to their "coolness" after working with them for so long. But its all right, because there are enough species to last a lifetime!

Thank god!

Cheers my man.

:D

[Tim_Cranwill]

Yeah, I hear ya. When you start thinking of it as a business, which is not a bad thang at all :), you need to start thinking of it this way...

To house, feed, and breed a pair of $50 snakes of a given size/requirements costs the same amount as housing, feeding and breeding a pair of $500 snakes of the same size/requirements. The only difference is the profit margin. Now, the third side to this coin is the fact that you need to work with animals that you really love working with or else it becomes a chore and nobody likes doing their chores! :D

What are you doing with your apricot pair after this season?

[Jeff_Favelle]

I've got more than a pair. This was just the only female I actually caught in the "act" (so far).

After the season, I'll look at the cage space, look at how the animals sold at the shows, and then evaluate their worth. I hate to say that because they are worth everything (being a living thing). I look at it more like, what will it take to pry them from my hands (ha ha).

I can also farm them out whereby I GIVE them to somebody for a cut of the production. But that's probably bad Karma, LOL!!

But I totally agree Tim. You have to work with animals that are fun and offer new things. Otherwise it becomes mundane and too much like real work. And we don't want that, now do we?

Cheers. :D

[Stockwell]

Nice Jeff, glad to see I'm not the only one that hasn't tossed in the towel on cambelli...I've been working with them since around 83 and I still love them, despite their "super spas" status (;o)
Are you only working with the Apricots?

[Jeff_Favelle]

Yeah Roy, I just got a bunch of Apricots. Ian (mouseman.ca) had a few of the normal phase, but his have a stunning white/green in them. And one is HUGE! Its like a Honduran!

They are neat little guys. I think they are one of the funnest colubrids that I've had the pleasure to work with, and they were my first introduction into thr world of Lampropeltis over a decade ago.

It'll be kinda sad to see them go.

You working with any oreo's or halloween phases?