It’s party time at our house, and all four girls have had at least 3-5 successful locks. 2 virgin girls and 2 virgin boys are getting their chance to show us their genes this year:
Luna (back to full recovery weight and ready for year two) was paired with Arctic (diffused amaretto by Chris Nicholas) to test her 66% het lavender, and HiJack to test his super tessera.
Goldie (amber stripe 66% het lavender) was paired with Arctic (diffused amaretto) to test her lavender het, too, and they should produce some lovely ambers and amarettos with 100% het stripe, diffused. Goldie was also paired with Smokey (diffused sunkissed motley ghost), to hopefully prove his pos hets caramel and stripe. Their babies will be het anery, SK.
Sunny (hypo SK snow) was paired with Speck (Super RF motley-stripe SK ghost). They’ll have RF hypo sunkissed ghosts (and snows if Speck’s het amel works out). All the babies will be het motley or stripe.
Finally, Starla (tessera diffused ghost) was paired with Smokey (motley SK diffused ghost). They’ll produce some cool diffused ghosts with possible pied and 50/50 tessera. All the babies will be het sunkissed and motley.
We’ll be producing a lot of ghosts again this year (if all goes well), but since Arctic was the starter and finisher for two of our het lavender girls, hopefully we’ll have some fun lavender, caramel, and hypo variety mixed in.
I’ll have lots of grey snakes, some yellow snakes, some white/pink snakes, and some purple-ish grey snakes. I’ll have all patterns too—stripes, dotted down the back, messy stripes spines that blur to smooth on the sides, and some normal corn saddle patterns. How’s that for an explanation to a person that doesn’t know corn morphs?
Yeah the timing was crazy. I’m a fan of brumation after this. Seeing them all ready at the exact same time (down to the minutes) was WAY easier than last year—when I completely missed one of my girls who apparently had a January ovulation and refused all the boys when I thought she’d be ready in March.
Starla had her pre-lay shed and is looking like she’ll lay any day now.
Any advice on three others who have gone into blue and are likely to lay while we’re out of town? Last year none of my mamas laid before May, so I wasn’t expecting them to be so early this year!
As long as the lay box moss is moist, not wet, and temps in the lay box are 78-82F, I don’t think you have to worry about not getting to the eggs for some time. And I’m pretty sure the moms do better when we’re not messing with them by checking on things.
@caryl didn’t you have a clutch that was missed while you were out of town and they didn’t make it? Was it Jubilee’s, if I remember right? Any advice from lessons learned?
Hi Natalie. Not sure what you mean exactly. Jubilee’s clutch didn’t make it, but most were slugs. I think there were 2-4 which seemed iffy but didn’t make it. Both she and Peredur were very young. I’ve been away from home when they laid on occasion. Annelie and Big Smile both laid while I was in Arkansas helping out with a new granddaughter but Dan was home caring for animals and he set up the clutches. He found it very stressful but he did a great job. Annelie needed to go to the vet to get the last two eggs eased out, which Dan also handled like a pro despite his worries. So yes, I’ve missed them laying on occasion (there was another a couple years ago, also because of a grandchild’s arrival) but they’ve never laid with nobody here.
My advice of course to have their nest boxes ready to go as Dean said, and as I’m sure you’ll do. If it is at all possible to have someone check on them daily when they’re due, I’d try and make that happen. They will probably be fine even if they’re home alone, but of course things can go awry. I know you know that, too. I tend to fall on the “prepare for every possibility” side of any line.
Congrats on the successful pairings, btw. Fantastic possibilities there!
I had a memory of you saying you don’t normally repair snakes after their first clutch, but you were so disappointed you missed this one, and the eggs didn’t make it because you were gone when they were laid, you tried to repair them again. Maybe it was a female you thought didn’t lock and weren’t expecting eggs, and then she laid when you were out of town. Maybe the eggs were lost because there wasn’t a lay box ready or something.
Then again, I don’t always trust my memory! I’m sure I could go back through posts, but it would take so long, I figured maybe your memory would serve us better
Ultimately, it sounds like if I have a moist lay box at the right temps (and I do), the very worst that can happen will be that I can’t pull the eggs apart…which isn’t the end of the world, and the eggs will most likely be just fine.
I do have someone I’m paying to check on them (and our cat), twice a day, but that person is only 12 years old. While she is wonderfully responsible, and likes snakes, and cats, and all the things…asking her to be responsible for a mama laying eggs seems like a LOT. Haha.
Found it! Memory serves! So the problem wasn’t being out of town, alone. And it wasn’t having an unexpected gravid mama with no nest box, alone. It was simply the combo of both was the nail in the coffin. Such a bummer…
Okay, well I feel sad at the memory; but better about some of my mamas laying eggs while I’m gone. Two have shed and the one is in blue, so it could very easily be all three of them lay while I’m gone. Stinkers. Hopefully they’ll lay early, or wait for me to get back! But if not, I’ll hold my breath and hope they’ll be just fine, regardless.
Sorry, I think maybe you’re merging memories of mine and someone else’s? Or several things that did sort of happen with mine, maybe? I haven’t had an experience like this, thankfully.
I have never had an intended clutch arrive without a prepared nest box, with neither Dan nor myself home. I have had an occasional girl decide she’s going to lay when she wasn’t bred, or not bred for a couple of years. I did have an older female lay three or four unexpected slugs several years after her last mating once but I think that was back before I was on MorphMarket.
Princess Irene shocked me a few years ago when she triple clutched. I wasn’t ready for that. She’d been bred and double clutched, for which I was prepared. That was 2024, and I was blessed with a bunch of healthy babies. I was super duper busy and didn’t realize there was a third clutch coming. When Princess Irene was putting on weight again, I assumed she was just putting on weight again.
Jubilee’s clutch last year was a bust, you remember that right. I was here and things were ready, though. They were both young, which I hope was the only issue. I’ll probably try them again next season. I didn’t want her to double, but she did (all slugs).
You’re right about me saying I don’t usually re-pair them after the females lay the first time. I would generally much rather that the females just recover from laying and NOT double clutch. I’ve been really frustrated with their insistence on laying after laying. If they’re going to do that, well, gee, maybe it makes sense to reintroduce pairs. I’ve also commented that I almost never breed females in successive years, although sometimes the females have other ideas and lay anyway. But that’s a whole 'nother thang.
Fwiw, I usually leave the clumps clumped. That’s what happens in nature, too. If that’s the worst that happens, you’re golden.
We were both typing at the same time, lol. You’re right, yeah, Revel did indeed lay without a nest box, although Dan was home when she did. She was ridiculously late laying. Still don’t know why.
Here’s Starla, a diffused tessera ghost (or hypo tessera granite if you prefer). She’s from Travis Whisler, no known hets. This girl has a small chance of laying before we leave, but it’s more likely we’ll miss her. She shed 7 days ago and we leave in three days (on Sat). Come on Starla!!!
If she were IN her lay box, instead of on top of it, I’d feel a lot more hopeful
Goldie is an amber stripe het lavender. She just shed Monday, and her time between shed and lay was 11 days last year. So…doing the math…we should be back home for her. Phew.
While she is wonderfully responsible, and likes snakes, and cats, and all the things…asking her to be responsible for a mama laying eggs seems like a LOT. Haha.
