Pi Reptiles

Well, having started our second breeding season, it’s time to reflect on the events of the last 2 years.

We started this venture on a tiny scale, never expecting to be overwhelmed by the addiction that is royal python breeding, the more snakes we bought, the more we were tempted with, until we reached the level we are today, with almost 200 colour morphs and wild types.

Our breeding plans last year were limited to starting to prove out our wild caught desert ghost, Al, (if you’ve ever watched Sahara, you’ll understand the connection)

We captured on camera the lock, the ovulation, the eggs in utero by ultrasound, and the clutch of 9 big fat eggs that Nellie (the elephant) subsequently laid. The clutch weighed well over a kilo, though we were unable to separate the individual eggs as she laid them overnight. Having candled 9 viable eggs, incubation was uneventful, though nail-bitingly long, and we, unable to resist finding out whether Al was a co-dom, snipped the eggs at 55 days.

Our first baby ……how beautiful..

The next baby pipped on its own, and within 3 days all nine were out, named in sequence Uno, to Nove, all weighed a good birth weight, and the ratio seemed to be 5 girls to 4 boys. Those little babies couldn’t have been loved more, and so many pictures were taken in those early days,

We learned a lot, both happy and sad from this clutch of little het-for-Al babies. 4 fed instantly, and are growing well, 5 needed assisting, and sadly I have to report that 3 of the 5 are lost. Cinque, Due and Quattro, goodnight babies, you were not to be.

Of the other 2, one is now starting to feed independently, and the other is still afraid of food, but we’ll get there,

While all this was going on, we have moved 3 times to accommodate our ever growing collection, and we now keep them in a purpose fitted room within a factory unit. We decided that with such a collection there was no point spoiling the ship for a ha’penny worth of tar, so we invested in the best possible racking in which to house our precious animals, thanks here are due to the lovely John Charles from Pro-racks, I can’t thank him enough. I wouldn’t use anything else now.

We’re settling in to our new rooms, lovingly known as “the Pi Shoppe” . We have the main room housing royals, and our corns, hoggies and carpets. The Retics will move in eventually after quarantine, which leaves us a quarantine room, an import quarantine room, and a rodent breeding room. Who would have thought that one little male royal would have started this particular “ball” Rolling? Bless you Pan, you will always be remembered.

So, season 2 has started, some locks already, what will the Odds Gods have in store for us this time?

- Jackie