My new gal is finally home!!

[Snakefood]

She is a 2011 Spider Het Ghost (PH Lavendar) after all the fuss with Torruks RI and the vet bills, it is great to finally have her home!!:bouncy:

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[alessia55]

Congrats. Out of curiosity, any signs of head wobble?

[Snakefood]

I haven't seen her do it yet, and the breeder said he hasn't witnessed it yet either. So I guess we'll have to wait and see!!

I'll watch her alot next week when my son is in school to see if I can detect any wobble

[Caylan]

Her head may vibrate when you go to feed her.. very nice spider, are you going to try and prove the lavender het in her? You can almost see it she's soo pretty!

[Snakefood]

Yes, I'll eventually try to prove out her het, but I have to raise her up first (she's only about 300-350g, I have to weigh her) I also have to find a male with a lav gene in him.

my first project with her is a planned cross with my pastel male, which I am hoping for bumblebees out of, and then a joint project with a friend with a ghost male.

I also would eventually like to either find someone to go into a joint project with or find a really nice albino male as I think albino spiders are gorgeous!!

but first things first, she has to take the next 2(ish) years to grow to at least 1200g before I breed her with anyone!!

I was watching her explore her new viv, and I might have seen a very slight wobble, but it was so slight that I'm unsure I actually saw it at all!!

[Caylan]

If she's like any other spider I've worked with, you'll get 1200 in a year or so lol... Crazy how they seem to grow.

[Snakefood]

well if she grows that fast then I'll be ahead of plans, my pastel is already breeding size for a male.

Turruk sure put on the weight fast after the RI!!

BTW, this gals name is Neytiri

[Caylan]

Well you won;t really be any ahead, you'll just have a much larger snake by the same time than you thought you would have, I'd still wait the 2 years obviously.
Sure glad Turruk is doing well, its amazing how quick they can recover, its as if nothing happened sometimes...
Great name too!

[Snakefood]

Ya, it took Torruk so long to beat the RI that he lost something like 40g's, I haven't weighed him since he started eating again, but he's had 4 meals since all symptoms were gone and he's definately heavier to pick up!!

I tend to name all my Cornsnakes after gods and deities, so I decided to name all My BP's after characters/creatures from Avatar!!

I was told by 3 breeders out here that breeding is to do with size and weight not age, and as long as the females are 1200g or more, and the males are 600g or more, then they are reproductively mature??

I know with corns it is the 3:3:3 rule, so as long as they are 2 out of the 3, they are perfectly able to breed without jeprodizing thier health in any way, is this not the same with BP's??

[Caylan]

Many breeders want babies as soon as they can get them, also have to deal with egg binding, small clutches, weak babies, tiny eggs. Age is hugely relative if you look at things, and I would never let a snake under age 3 produce eggs, regardless of size. 1200 grams is also small, I would say 1500 minimum... As for males, well thats a different stoty all together, they don't use as much of their bodies for breeding as a female does. Pretty sure viable sperm is viable sperm, so whatever age they can produce that, they can breed. Its just a matter of moderation and not letting them over breed that they lose weight, as they likely will go off food during breeding season... so think of it this way... a 600 gram male starts breeding and goes off feed immediately...after months of spending energy breeding, and not eating anything to replace it with, that snake might have a harder time coming back from the breeding season, as it might be weakened to the point of having difficulty feeding... whereas a larger more robust/older male that has a slower metabolism, won;t lose weight as easily, won;t lose it to the point of no return, and will be over all healthier for the next season, as it isn;t a full time recovery getting back to weight, its just gaining a bit of weight back and then moving forward until the next season.
Never heard of a 3:3:3 rule, but even if I bred corns, I would wait for all three to line up...

[Snakefood]

Alright, it's always nice to get as many breeders thoughts as you can when getting into a new species!! So thanx!!

I want her babies to be healthy, I don't care how long it takes or how many I get. Like with my corns, I have 2 female snows, yet I only bred one this year as I didn't need 2 clutches of the same babies (got that anyways when the one mamma double clutched on me, but that wasn't planned!!)

I have been playing with the gentic wizzard a bit (for fun and planning for now) and definately want an albino male, but I don't really need one for about 2-3 years ( so he's breeding age when Neytiri's female babies are breeding age). What I could do with sooner rather than later is a 2-3 year old female mojave, that would be really cool!!

[Snakefood]

So Neytiri has had her first meal with me (last night sometime), at first I thought "crap, she's not going to accept it" so I left it overnight in her viv, and VOILA!! it's gone!!

I wasn't sure she would. The breeder I got both Neytiri and Torruk from feeds fresh-kill and Torruk still won't take anything but fresh-kill, but this little gal, although hesitant, gave in sometime overnight and ate F/T!!!!

WOOOHOOO!!!!