This week has been fairly exciting. We tried last year for Pastel Sppotnoses, but the one clutch we got, failed to hit the cross. This year we got another small clutch, but we got lucky and hatched out a male Pastel Spotnose. He just shed this week, and I am thrilled. I’ll get another pic of him soon.

Also last year, we tried to produce a Sable Pinstripe. The Pin female decided not to lay last year. This year, we bred the same 2 animals together, and out of a five egg clutch, we were fortunate enough to produce a female Sable Pinstripe. It appears to look very similar to a Chocolate Pinstripe, but has some very subtle differences. I have long felt that Sables and Chocolates were as similar to one another as Mojaves and Lessers or Cinnys and Black Pastels. I was hoping for a Male Sable Pin, so that I could attempt to make a Camo Ball a bit faster, but I guess that project will have to wait a bit longer. I guess this will allow me to make another Sable cross male to breed to the Sable Pin female. I haven’t figured it out yet, but maybe a Sable Spider, Sable Pastel or Sable Enchi. We’ll see what happens. For now, you just have to enjoy the pics.

We have had an exciting week. We finally hit on the Mystic Potion, after missing on our first clutch. We also just today hatched out our first Pastel Spotnose. We tried to make these last year and missed, but were fortunate enough to get a male this year. We have some Spotnose girls growing up, so maybe we can make a Pastel Powerball in the near future. We also hatched out 3.2 Double Het VPI Axanthic Pieds. They look normal, but I know what they can do,and therefore, it was exciting for me. Lastly, we have 2 clutches that will be hatching soon that we are excited about. First up is a Sable Pinstripe waiting in the egg. I can’t wait to see it out. Stay tuned in to see it when it emerges. We also have 3 Pewter Het. Pieds and 2 Pastel Het Pieds in the eggs from breeding our Pied male to a Sterling female. The Pewters look amazing. On to the pics for the week.

Have a good week, and check back soon.

Daytona was alot of fun this year, and I can even blame the event for not posting in a while. I helped a buddy work his table in Daytona this year, so I did have work to do, but I managed to get around a bit. There were some cool things there, and I managed to pick up a new project. I have wanted to get into Blood Pythons for a while, and this is the year that we will be doing it. We picked up a Red Stripe Het. Albino Blood female from Keith McPeek, and we talked to Tracy Barker about our next Blood purchase. So, hopefully in a month or so, we can make the other additions. Below is the female we got from Keith.

We alsoxwere able to add another long awaited purchase this year. My long term goal with our Nicaraguan Boa project is to make a T+ Albino Motley. We have a Het T+ male and produced some Poss Hets this year. Thereforethe only thin missing was a Motly male. Below is our new Motley Nicaraguan from Exotics by Nature.

Lastly, we were finally hatched out our first Corn Snakes ever. This is mostly just a fun project for us, but it is always exciting to see snakes hatch. This was a breeding between out Hypo Lavender male to a Candy Cane female. These babies are tripple Hets, and look normal, but it was still exciting. We ended up with 3.5 babies. Below is a pic of the pippers and the first 2 babies out of the egg.

I do have one last picture (I promise, the last one). This is the first of a couple picsof Ball Python holbacks (the next picture contains snakes that haven’t hatched yet). Pictured are a Hypo Mojave female, a Pastel Yellow Belly female, a Pastel Ivory and a Mojave Spider Het. Hypo male. Enjoy the pic, and have a great week.

I know it hasn’t been a week, but I had some snakes shed that I was excited about, so I thought I would take a pic. In the pic are our first Pieds ever. We bought our pair of Hets in 2004, and have since added a Pied male. This happens to be her first clutch, and consequently our first ever Pieds to hatch. Included in the pic is our second ever Hypo Cinny. I love these guys, and this one looks better than the one we hatched last year. Enjoy the pic

We also happened to get another first. We had four clutches laid in one day on Monday. That was a first for us. They also happen to be great clutches, with potential to hatch, Sable Spiders, Enchi Spiders, BumbleBees and Sterlings. We should have some great fun cutting in about 52 days.

Lastly, we got our 50th clutch today. This happens tobe another first. We have never had 50 clutches before, so another landmark has been reached. This also happens to be one of our most anticipated clutches of the year. Our Cinny Het. Hypo bred his sister and she laid 5 eggs. If she proves out, we could hatch a Super Cinny Hypo. Wish us luck.

We were on vacation all last week, and got home this past Saturday. Plenty happened while we were gone, and he we are to document it. The first thing to happen while we were gone was our first ever Pieds hatched. We started our Pied project in 2004, and finally hatched 2 males. They are in shed right now, so once they get some clean skin, we’ll get some pics. Our second ever Hypo Cinnamon hatched while we were away as well. I was hoping for a female, but we got a male instead. That’s ok, he is beautiful just the same. Same as the Pieds, I’ll get pics once he sheds.

The next excitement that occured while we were gone was some eggs being laid. Our first shot at Axanthic Pinstripes was laid. We got 9 eggs from our Pin Het Axanthic to an Axanthic girl. Man I hope I get some luck here. We also got a clutch of eggs from a Pastel Poss. Het. Genetic Stripe bred to one of his Pastel daughters. We got 8 eggs from this female. I sure hope we can prove her out and get some Pastel G-Stripes or even a Super Pastel G-Stripe, but I have never hatched a Super Pastel, so those would be just fine as well.

Lastly for the week, while we were away, our Pastel Mystic and Mystic shed. I thought that since this project is fairly new, I would get some good comparison shots so that everyone could see what this gene looks like compared to other animals. The first picture shows a Pastel Yellow Belly on the left, a Pastel Mystic on the right, and a Pastel in the rear.

This picture shows a Normal on the left, a Mystic on the right and a Mojave in the rear.

Thanks for reading, and check back next week, for some other fun stuff.

For 2 years now I have been waiting for my Mystic male to breed. He finally decided to turn on this year. We have 5 clutches in the incubator and 2 more coming from him. This first clutch was a bit of a surprise. This Pastel female always lays early in the season. She ended up laying eggs, and I never saw the Mystic breed with her. Last year she bred the Cinnamon, and produced 3 Cinnamons and 3 Pastels but no Pewters or Normals. So, I was curiousto see if she would produce any Cinnamons or Pewters thisyear. Our Mystic never turned on, and I never saw a copulation by himuntil this clutch was already on the ground. Well, the Mystic got it doner. We ended up with a male Pastel Mystic, a male Mystic and 2.1 Normals. Her is a pic of the Pastel Mystic and the Mystic.
We still have two shots at Mystic Potions, and two more shots at new Mystic crosses. Stay tuned to see what those might be.

Another week come and gone. We made an adjustment to our incubator temps. We had been incubating at 88 degrees this year, and still cutting our eggs at day 50-52. Well the eggs aren’t hatching until day 62 or so, and I think the babies were being exposed too long, and it was causing problems. We increased the temps back to 89 degrees, and we will see how that works. We did cut our clutch from Mystic to Pastel, and it looks like it will be exciting. That is all I will say for now. Check back early next week, and we should have some pics up.

Lastly, we got another one of our most exciting clutches this morning. I opened tubs this morning to find our Sterling female sitting on eggs. She bred our Pied male, so this clutch only has two outcomes. Pastel Het Pieds or Pewter Het Pieds. Here’s to a pile of Pewters. I was also surprised by the fact that she was sitting on 7 eggs. I palpated her numerous times throughout the season and only ever felt 5 follicles. The strange thing is out of 7 eggs, we still only have five, as 2 of them are infertile. They are still in the incubator, but I bet they’ll be dead in a week or two. Enjoy the pic below.

We got clutch #31 tonight, and it happens to be the second of about 4 of my most anticipated clutches of the year. This clutch was from breeding our Pied male to a VPI Axanthic female. I have been wanting to start this project for a while, and even more so after I saw the Lightning Pieds produced by Mark Mandic last year. Hopefully I can get some decent odds from this 5 egg clutch. Here is the pic of the proud momma.

Also, we have been building a new snake room, as we have run out of space. I happened to have the camera out for the above clutch, and decided to take a pic of our progress. The far wall is actually the other side of our new storage room for rodent chow and shavings, and on the other side of that is the rodent room. The new room will be 12′ by 25′. The goal is to have it done before the NARBC Tinley show. I think we should be able to meet the deadline. Here is the most recent pic.

We got our first ever Corn snake eggs today. We bought some corns 3 and 4 years ago, and have kept themin the living room, mostly just as display animals. However, I knew with my addiction, I would one day breed them, so I bought 1 male and 3 females. Our 2 4 year old females bred this year, and so far we have one clutch. This is from breeding our Hypo Lavender male to a Candy Cane female. Unless one of them is carrying something we didn’t know about, then all of the babies should be normal, but triple hets. Breeding some of their babies back together would probably be fun. Here is the pic.

We also got a clutch of eggs today from our Mojave male bred to a normal female. This is to date the only female I have that has laid a clutch of eggs every year we have bred. This is her fourth clutch in four years of breeding.

Lastly, we also hatched out 6 Het Caramel Albinos. Even though mom didn’t prove out this year to be a Het Caramel, baby 100% Hets are always fun to hatch. Maybe we just missed on the odds, and mom will prove out next year.

We finally started a blog. With that said, I don’t really intend to type new entries on a regular basis. Our initial intent was to get our Clutch record up for easy tracking. However, now that I am getting the hang of this blog thing, I think I will post pics of some really cool hatchlings, and make anouncements regarding upcoming shows or other important events. Take a look around, and please let us know if you have any suggestions or requests.