One of our female Calabars has had her first clutch of eggs! This is our first time attempting to breed Calabaria, and only a few people have ever bred them successfully. “Sika” had three huge fertile eggs. Now the hard part, incubation!
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This is super cool! I would love to see them widely available captive bred someday.
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Due to the fact that clutch size is generally 2-3 eggs, they will probably never become widely available, but they definitely could become less rare. We have two females and will probably hold back a third female from this clutch if it is successful.
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Congratulations, that’s so cool!!
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Yay! That’s so exciting! Please keep us updated! How are you planning on incubating them?
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That’s awesome. Congrats and good luck.
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I would LOVE to hear everything you did leading up to this.
I have 2.2 (1.1 of which are still in quarantine) and hope to be able to get something from them in the coming years, but any/all information would be so very helpful for my plans going forward
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That is AMAZING! Gorgeous animals!
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This is what we have done so far:
Care for the adults properly (can detail this if you are unfamiliar or have questions)
No cooling
Very heavy feeding leading up to the breeding season, especially the female. This is not just to build body mass, but actually triggers breeding impulses.
Pairing is straightforward, like any other snake.
Once the female is gravid and the male has been removed, it is important to provide a hot spot of 100 degrees, much hotter than they need the rest of the year.
We did not use a lay box, since the substrate we use is essentially laying material already (Eco-Earth & bark mix).
I’ll update this thread with information about incubation once we have an idea as to whether or not we are doing it right.
Another tidbit factor: The adults used in this pairing are both CH animals (bred in the wild, hatched in captivity from females who were imported while gravid). This means that they have been in captivity since day one (the next best thing to true USCBB). It has been said before that animals hatched in captivity are more likely to successfully breed in captivity than WC animals (especially females), so this may have something to do with the fact that we got eggs the first time we tried breeding, as most others who have bred or tried to breed this species probably had to start with WC animals. CH babies can be hard to come by.
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Congratulations, this is amazing news! 
I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed for you that incubation goes well and you get some healthy babies!
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These guys are so weird that I want one lol 
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They are really weird. Especially the way they eat. They don’t grab food with their mouth, instead they grab it with their body. I’ve seen them do triple constrictions before too.
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I would probably get a pair if they were more available CB. Congratulations on your clutch again!
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Congratulations!! Im currently looking to get a girlfriend for my boy Wicket!! Seeing successfully laid eggs is beyond awesome!!! Hopefully this species becomes more readily Captive Breed!
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This is fantastic info. Thank you West!!
I was not aware of the need for the need for a super high temp bump, luckily I am easily able to provide that in the cage I have.
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Yes, I have heard this said many times. When I got my first pair I was actually trying to purchase a CH group but someone else was faster on the trigger than I was, so I opted for the WC. I went into it knowing my chances may be lower but I also feel that, if you can fully acclimate WC animals and give them the time they need to fully adapt to captivity, there is still a fair chance of success.
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I bought a WC adult pair as well. The person I bought them from said they had been treated for parasites, and were fully acclimated and feeding. Well, they were full of parasites and not feeding, and the female had scale rot. Much vet work later, the female died and the male is doing great. We hope to try breeding him to our other female next year.
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The WC male Calabar that we got is probably acclimated now, because he is feeding well and presenting no issues. It took him about 6 months to get to that point (he needed multiple rounds of deworming). I think it will probably be no issue to try to breed him next year. I think the female are the ones that sometimes won’t breed for years after importation, but I haven’t tested this yet. I had a WC female Czech Blotched Ratsnake (Elaphe sauromates) that bred the first time I tried, but she had already been in captivity for 7 years at that point.
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Really cool.
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I have questions on this. If I was to get one (or a pair) what and how to do provide care?
The most important thing is a thick substrate they can burrow in. We use a mix of Eco-Earth and bark, mostly Eco-Earth. High-Humidity is important and can be maintained by misting daily, but the substrate should not be wet. We also provide partially buried PVC pipes as hides. An ambient temperature of 78-80 degrees is sufficient, but you need a 90 degree hot spot. No additional lighting is needed, and you have to provide darkness at night because this is nocturnal species. They usually do not accept adult mice even though they are big enough to eat them as adults, preferring multiple rat fuzzies/pups as adults or multiple mouse pinkies/fuzzies when young.
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