Good Starters?

Selecta · 07-20-03, 11:00 AM

I was hoping to try my luck at breeding in the next year or so. Can anyone recommend any good starters, preferably lizards or any small (less than 5 ft) non-venomous snake. Should I buy a pair of proven breeders? What equipment would I need other an incubator.

lordkovacs · 07-23-03, 12:09 PM

corn snakes are very easy to start breeding. they are pretty much less then 5 ft. as adults, and are very hardy fo beginners to use... good luck!
Mike

lordkovacs · 07-23-03, 12:11 PM

oh about an incubator, there are a ton of directions for making an incubator on the net. I have heard those styrofoam boxes they use for packing fish, with an aquarium heater in water, and thermometer inside works well. look for those instructions.
If you buy a pair of proven breeders check out pics of the offspring to see how they turned out.
Mike

lolaophidia · 07-23-03, 08:23 PM

African House Snakes. They're small, good tempered, eat mice readily, pretty inexpensive and breed easily. I purchased an adult pair and had 17 eggs within a month. Granted, the female had to have been gravid prior to shipping but she clutched again a couple months later. I had to separate the pair so she could regain some weight. Do a search for them on google and you'll find lots of info about them. About the incubator... I got a great deal on a slightly used hovabator on eBAY.
Good luck!

Mike177 · 07-23-03, 08:39 PM

I would go for the corn snakes! all you need is 2 tanks. (1 for each snake out side breeding seson) an incubator and some vermiculite. if you want to try breeding colubrids just typ in breeding corn snakes on like yahoo or something. and if you want to breed lizzards try leopord geckos. they are SOO SOO easy. i have 2 eggs in my incubator right now,

Good Luck,
Mike

dylanb · 07-23-03, 09:53 PM

If I were u I would start with corn snakes they are just wonderful. I also recommend the corn snake manual by kathy love.

Selecta · 07-25-03, 08:27 AM

Thanks for all the replies. I think I'm going to try my luck with corn snakes, I'll definitely pick up that book.

Sean_.E. · 07-25-03, 10:55 AM

Corn snakes and African house snake are awsome. I have an adult male african house snake who is awsome. Males are usually smaller and stay around three feet but females can reach five feet. They are a highly prolific species and can have up to 4 clutches a year (although it is not the best Idea to let them do so). They generally have a very good feeding response, are good for handling and low maintainance. I keep my male in a 10 gallon tank with newspaper as the substrate (I am going to be switching onto beta chip) several hides and a water bowl. I have a heting pad under about 1/3 of the enclosure which provides a hot spot of about 88-90 degrees farenheight.

Here is a good site that has TONS of information on african house snakes: http://www.**************/housesnake/

Replace the stars with king snake.com (without the space)

Hope this helps!
Sean

RaVeNo888o · 07-25-03, 11:35 AM

how 'easy' are we talking about here with the corns? like do you pretty much just let them do their business on their own? how hard is it to incubate the eggs properly? Just wanna know how much of a step up is it from just keeping the snakes.

enso · 07-25-03, 11:41 AM

Breeding most colubrids is extremely easy. I agree with the majority about corns. Multiple morphs form one breeding

lordkovacs · 07-28-03, 05:35 PM

yeah, they breed very readily. you can't by any means just let the eggs fend for themselves, you still need the incubator as far as I'm aware of...but they are hardy. The adults are usually quite good and do not need a second male to induce breeding as other species do. Good luck.