Solomon Pair & ? for Stockwell

[JDouglas]

http://showcase.netins.net/web/reptiless/stuff/solomon/5.JPG

Stockwell, will these guys change color as they mature or will their appearance stay the same at maturity?

[HetForHuman]

Nice looking little guys Jeremy..

Quite the difference in color between the two..

[Stockwell]

Yes, they will change quite a bit. I suspect the one on the right will develope much more pink and peach coloration than the one on the left which will likely continue to have a higher contrast.
I can't say for sure how they will turn out, but they will definately change, and it will probably be for the better. Babies all tend to look various shades of beige,and babies are rarely spectacular, but adults can have lots of subtle tones, including lots of pinks, peachy tones, and rarely even brick red.
The high contrast black and white, Isabel type babies, start noticeably higher contrast than those of mixed color, but even black and whites change alot from hatchling coloration and the contrast between white and black tends to become more extreme with age. The color change should be complete at the time of sexual maturity at 2 to 3 years of age. They don't change much after then, but there can still be huge swings from day to night, and right after a shed they can look quite spectacular.

[vanderkm]

Great looking boa babies!! A very pretty species and another one that I cannot believe are not more popular - guess it might be because babies are so tiny and I have heard they are hard to get started on feed. And they are quite secretive too aren't they? Adults I have seen have been very lovely with incredible pattern and color - will look forward to seeing how those turn out,

mary v.

[Linds]

Congrats! They are very nice looking pair... I can never get over how tiny they are! :p

[JDouglas]

Thanks everyone! I am thinking of getting another pair at the Chicago show next week.

[beth wallbank]

cute little worms!! Love em! Thanks for sharing.......too bad Roy don't ship....heehee

[bistrobob85]

Gotta love Solomon Island! Those babies are sooo cute!!! Solomon's are a particularly interesting breeding projet because of the cool color changes :)

[Vanan]

Mary, another reason why they're not as popular as you'd think is due to the fact that they're not big eaters. They take more than 4yrs to mature and eat only every 10-14 days for babies and twice a month for adults. In my opinion it's the lowest maintenance cost snake you could have next to some erycines. Alot of people get out of keeping them cos "The darn thing won't eat often enough!". It's a shame cos they are beautiful snakes. I speak of the whole genus Candoia. :)

[Stockwell]

Most of mine eat weekly if offered, and I have bred them at 3 years, the same as most boids. It is true that mature males can go several months without food,during the breeding season but females generally eat quite well and young males eat regularily the same as immature females.
Candoia are usually more regular feeders than Ball Pythons, so I don't quite understand people's intolerance to saving money on feed. I assume it's just "worry wort syndrome" :)
The female that produced my litter a week ago ate right through gestation.
I think Candoia is still one of those species to "catch on" Paulsoni come in such an array of colors and variations that there is lots of room for "morphs" and selective breeding to produce pure lines of reds, black & whites, etc. There is even a leucistic one, with hets now being sold in the US. (see Jerry Conway's Candoia page on KS)
One issue with Candoia is the small size of babies and the fact that some of them wont take pinkies right away, but scenting is very effective, and once they click in they are very easy captives and don't require much room. They also don't rub. I have raised them in deli containers for many months , problem free, and have have a couple breeder males still in shoeboxes. They are quite well behaved.
I remember when I was breeding Ball Pythons in the late 80's. Nobody wanted them! They were piling up on me so I got out of them. But Ball Pythons eventually caught on. I've heard some actually sell for over 50 dollars now.. LOL
I think Candoia could be next, of course I'll have to stop breeding them and sell all mine before they become popular.. :)

[Vanan]

Yea you should sell them off Roy! :D

BTW, what I posted about their lower metabolism is what I gathered from reading the forums on "the other site". Maybe it could be that you keep your guys warmer than most? Thus inducing a better response.

[Vanan]

Found this on the other site. Seems to be the trend with Americans to not overfeed Candoia.

"I have two subadults, one male about 18 inches, and one female about two feet. Both are on small adult mice. Even my juvenile male, who's roughly 12-14 inches, is on hopper mice. The prey item should leave a slight bulge, just barely noticable, once the snake has swallowed it. While I wouldn't recommend feeding your snake more often, I would consider if fuzzies are large enough prey. My two subadult Solomon Island Ground boass are fed every 3-4 weeks, my juvenile SIGB male & my juvenile Santa Isabel female (she's about 10 inches and still on pinkies) are fed every 2-3 weeks. Neonates to about yearlings I feed every 10-14 days...usually closer to 14 days."

[D J N]

Wow cute little guys I deffinatly want some of those :)