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LEOPARD GECKO

Scientific Name: Eublepharis Macularius
Life: over 20 years
Size: Adults:7 to 10 inches, Hatchlings: 3 to 31/2 inches
Weight: Adults: 45 to 70 grams (typical)
Sexual Maturity: 10months to 11/2 years
Productivity: up to 10 years
Breeding Season: Jan to Sep (you can make them breed all year round)
Clutches per year: up to 8
Eggs per clutch: 1-2

Enclosures: Best to use glass tanks with screen lid. 1 to 2 leos can go in a 10 gallon tank just don’t put 2 males in. 4 can go in a 20 gallon long tank. NEVER put 2 males in a tank unless the tank is at least MORE bigger than a 50 gallon. But its still best not to put more than one male per tank. NEVER use heat rocks.

Substrates and floor materials: You may use sand but I would tell you its not a good thing to use. If you use sand I would say T-Rex brand is best I would not use any other type of sand. Sand can cause impaction. You may use Paper towels or newspaper. Or some people use reptile Carpet.

Shelters: You will need a humidity hide box. This is a box that is filled with moss or soil you mist it every day to keep the humidity up. The tank will all so need some other hides. Like a log or a rock that they can get under (not heat rock). You will need to put at least 3 hides in the tank. One on each end plus if you count the humidity hide box that will make 3.

Light: Have a heat lamp on the tank. Never let the heat go over 94F in the day and never let it go under 77F and night. Use UV bulbs its the best for them. You don’t half to have a night bulb but some people use them. Some people use a UTH (under tank heater). If your thinking of breeding you will need to have 12 hours day light and 12 hours night light for them.

Feeding: They will eat crickets, mealworms, wax worms, super worms, pinkies, and silk worms. I would never feed them any thing bigger than there mouth plus don’t over feed them. If crickets feed 5-7 every 1-2 days OR if you feed any of the mealworms feed like 9 every 1-2 days. For superworms feed 5. For the wax worms only feed 2-4 every week or two. Or you can feed 1-2 pinkies every so often just don’t feed pinkies and none of the others. ONLY full grown leos should have a pinkie. If you mix feed than just feed 3 crickets plus 1-2 of the worms every 1 to 2 days. Dust the food before feeding to give the leo calcium. Crickets contain the highest calcium values, while maintaining the lowest fat and calories from fat than the others. All ways have a bowl of water in the tank.

Sexing: Adult Males have a V-shaped row of enlarged per-anal pores and hemi penal bulges. The Female does not have the bulges and she may have a V-shape but its not enlarged per-anal pores and you cant really see them on the female at all. You can sex Juveniles around 4 months of age.

Breeding: Leos are one of the most easily reproduced gecko species, and usually mate without any extensive pre-breeding conditioning. Before considering breeding your leos, thought should be given to your ability to provide the proper conditions and requirements for the eggs and baby geckos. You will need an incubation system for the eggs, extra housing and food, and a source for your surplus animals, unless you plan on keeping and caring for all the juveniles. The fist consideration to successfully breed leos is to have sexually mature pair, in good health and of acceptable body weight. Most females reach sexual maturity between 10 months to 11/2 years of age, and are usually between 40 and 60 grams in weight. Many breeders will not even consider a female for breeding until she has reached a weight of 60 grams. Females should be offered calcium supplemented food items, and vitamin/mineral mix ad libitum in a small dish several months prior to breeding, to help build up their calcium reserves for egg production. Males should be in top condition and minimum of 10 months of age.

Breeding Methods: There are two accepted practices for breeding leos; selective individual breeding and harem or colony breeding. Individual breeding allows breeders to selectively breed for color and pattern morphs, and accurately determines parentage. Females are introduced to the male for breeding, than returned to their own enclosures for production. Since females can retain sperm for an entire breeding season, father introductions to the male are usually unnecessary. Keeping females in production separately also reduces stress and allow you to monitor food intake. For economic reasons, many commercial breeders prefer to use a colony breeding method. Colony breeding is where lots females are kept in a enclosure with a single male. One male can service up to 20 or more females. The females need to be checked carefully for nay signs of fighting or excessive dominance over smaller females. These smaller females should be removed and kept in tanks by there self’s. Egg production will rapidly deplete calcium reserves, so supplementation should be continued throughout the production season. Females rapidly losing weight or under excessive stress should be taken out of production until lost weight is regained, and are feeding normally without any signs of stress.

Gravid Females: Females usually deposit their fist clutch anywhere form 15days to a month and a half after a successful breeding. The abdomen of gravid females will bulge slightly from the developing eggs. The shelled eggs will usually become visible through the distended abdomen as she grows near egg deposition time. Egg laying chambers should be checked regularly for eggs, and freshly laid eggs removed for incubation.

Getting ready for eggs: Before leos lay there eggs make sure the Incubators are ready. You will need containers to place the eggs in for incubator And a thermometer for monitoring incubation temperatures. The best Incubator to use would be the Hovabator.

Eggs: Fertile eggs should be placed in a suitable container such as a deli cup or plastic container with a moist medium for incubation. The most commonly used medium is vermiculite. The vermiculite should be moist. Eggs should be placed in the containers on their sides and half buried in the medium, and the container placed in to the incubator (don’t rotate the eggs). Mark containers with dates they were laid. To keep humidity levels high within the incubator, a container of fresh water can be placed inside the incubator. Fertile eggs will remain light colored and feel somewhat leathery to the touch and feel like a old marshmallow. Infertile eggs will feel like a hot water balloon. As incubation period progresses the eggs will appear pinkish as blood vessels start to form. Towards the end of the incubation the eggs will appear larger and darken somewhat as the baby grows.

Temp: Leos are temp sexed. The temps can go form 79F to 90F. If you want females set the temp to 79F-83F. If you want males set temp at 87-89F. If you want mix set temp at 84F-86F. 90F some times gives Hot Females which will not breed. The high end of the temp scale will hatch in as little as 35 days while eggs incubated at lower temps can take up to 100 days.

Humidity: Make sure the humidity is between 70%-88% in the incubator. Don't let the humidity get to low or get to high. If the humidity gets to high the eggs can become water logged or mold. If the humidity is to low they will fall in or harden up and die.

Raising baby leos: Baby leos are delicate when fist hatched. They should be housed individually and have paper towel in the tank NOT sand. They should eat after there first shed and fed pin head crickets, or baby food, or fruit flies.

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BALL PYTHONS

Scientific Name: Python regius
Life:20 to 30 years, longest lived was 47.
Size: Males up to 4 feet, females up to 6 feet.
Weight: Adults 600 to 1,600 grams maybe even more.
Sexual Maturity: Males 16 to 18 months, females 27 to 31 months.
Productivity: 25 to 30 years.
Breeding Season: February to beginning of April.
Eggs per clutch: 1 to 11.

ENCLOSURE'S: Ball Pythons should be kept in tanks that are specially constructed to house snakes. The tank should have a screen lid that fits the tank. Cages that adre not specifically constructed for housing snakes, are not escape-proof. Keep in mind that BP's are powerful and are escape artists. To know if your BP is in the right size tank let the BP strech out and let his tail touch one end and if the head does not touch the other end it's the right size tank.

Substrates and floor materials: You can use aspen shavings, rpetile bark, orchid bark, or reptile carpet. NEVER USE PINE SHAVINGS THAT CAN KILL YOUR SNAKE.

Shelters: First make sure the shelter(hide) is the right size. You can use a pot, log, cardboard box. Just make sure the BP can fit under it and not hang out.

Light: BP's need UVA lighting like all reptiles do. Only have the light on one side of the tank (hot side). You should give the BP about 13 to 14 hours day light. The hot side should be 90F-95F in the day and at night it should be 75F-80F.

Feeding: PLEASE FEED PREKILL...... When you get your BP it may not eat for a while. But when it starts feed F/T (frozen/thawed) or fresh prekill. Young BP's like yearlings can eat from pinkies to fuzzies (baby mice). Feed baby BP's every 5 to 7 days. Adults can get from full grown mice to rats. Feed Adults every 7 to 10 days. The food size depins on the width of the largest point on the BP's body.

Sexing: There is only 2 ways to do this. One is by "popping" that is when the BP is still young you half to take your thumb of one hand and place on the anal scale and use to gently pull the scale forward, exposing and slightly opening the vent. The thumb of the other hand is placed on the subcaudal surface of the base of the tail and, applying gentle pressure with a rocking motion toward the vent, attempts to evert the hemipenes of males. OR you can use the probeing way. This should be doen by a vet. BUT if you have what you need and you know what to do than you can do it. (The prob in male will pass 8 to 10 scales, female 2 to 4.).....

Breeding: Before breeding your BP's first you will half to set the temperaturs and day lengths throughout the year. Some captive BP's wont produce fertile eggs even if they mate. They require environmental conditions to trigger a good egg laying. You will need to provide a gradually changing annual light cycle varying from 15 hours of light at summer to 9 hours of light at winter. First do a winter cooling period. The temps shoule be 85F-90F. In the tank have a small basking spot for them to get to. When the winter time is turning into summer it's time to turn up the temps and lighting 88F-95F. BEFORE January put the female in the tank with the male. You may see breeding in the next few months. If you miss or see the breeding you will notis that the females belly will swell. The swelling is from the eggs. 20 days after breeding the female will go into a shed cycle. Make sure the male is not with her at this time he has doen his thing. Still she will eat. Eggs are laid between 24 to 34 days after shedding their skin. In this time she will not eat so do not try to feed. They usually lay the eggs at night.

Eggs: The eggs measure 71-96mm in length. The eggs are large and white or off-white in color and are adhered together. After finding the eggs in the tank take them from the female and put in containers with slightly damp vermiculite at 90F. Don't overcrowd the eggs in the containers. Put in the incubator and incubate the eggs at 86F-90F for 53-60 days. The eggs will need high humidity.

Baby BP's: Baby BP's slit several openings in the shell with it's egg tooth, and then pokes it's head out of the egg. At this time the baby usually has a large amount of yolk outside it's body and is still connected to its umbilicus by large blood vessels. The yolk is being quickly adsorbed into it's body, after which time its umbilicus will colse. The baby usually will not leave the egg until this process is completed, about 24 to 36 hours after it slits the egg. As soon as the baby emerge from the shell, they should be transferred to a clean tank with heat, a shelter, water, and high humidity.

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MORE TO COME........