TheOddBall

Here are some pics from my first two clutches of 2019. Both corn clutches within a day of each other and the mother of the first clutch laid another clutch! She laid in total 35 eggs this year!

I am so excited to have this clutch! She laid 5 good eggs and 1 slug. I’m confident in getting some Tri-Stripes and hoping for some Pieds! If I’m super lucky I will get a double visual! Clutch 1 was laid on June 11, 2019 and I’m expecting another 99 to be laid over the coming months!

One project I have been working on forever is producing an albino super mojave! I always liked the idea of having a solid white ball python with pink or red eyes. I started the project about a decade ago by breeding my male mojave to my albino female. I produced two female Mojaves het Albino in 2011. I then raised both girls up and bred them to an albino male and hatched my first albino Mojaves in 2015. I hatched out two females which I kept and still have. Unfortunately, I had no males produced at this point.

Finally, I produced this male in 2017 and he’s become a great breeder this season. He’s the only male albino mojave I’ve produced. I’ve had a lot of females produced though.

Anyway, I’ve been breeding him to my albino mojave females so when they have eggs I have a 25℅ chance of producing a red eyed luecistic. And they will be pos het pied as well so that will be fun to play with in a few years. His father is my albino leopard pied and I’m pretty certain this male is a leopard as well judging by the extreme oranges in him as opposed to the unrelated Albino Mojaves which didn’t hold the orange as they aged.

Yesterday, my genetic African cinnamon started to her ovulation for the season! This female came into the US in 2006 and has been in my collection ever since. Back in 2006 cinnamons were still pretty rare so I was excited to have an African import. In 2015 she had here first clutch and proved to be to genetic, so I was very happy about that! This year she has been bred to my white widow make and her 2015 son. She appears to have 7 or 8 eggs developing and I am excited about seeing her on some eggs later this summer.

Before I fed snakes this morning, I had to separate pairs and decided to palpate one of the double het tri-stripe pied females. She’s got half a dozen large marble sized follicles developing! With a few more pairings to either the tri stripe het pied or the pied het tri stripe I know she will ovulate! I’m still waiting on my first 2019 clutch of ball eggs to be laid, but it should happen any day.

Over the years I’ve let many dozens of female ball pythons incubate their eggs…in 2018 I used the incubator exclusively but this year am going to do a mix of artificial incubation and maternal incubation. Maternal incubation has always been a fun adventure and I enjoyed dispelling the myths associated with it: particularly that the females won’t eat while on eggs and that it’s unsafe. Both of which are false.

In 2014, my first tri-stripes were hatched via maternal incubation! That same female is due to lay eggs any day now!

Depending on how many eggs she has and how stuck together they are, I’m inclined to let my big burmese incubate her eggs as well.

Have any of you reading this ever let your snakes incubate their own eggs? Comment below and tell me your experiences!

Yesterday, I got my fourth clutch of corn snake eggs for the season. My female snow het dilute, charcoal, hypo and lavender had her second clutch of the year. She laid 6 more eggs. This is actually an older animal— I hatched her out in 2008 right before I started college. My favorite corn morph I should produce this year is called Whiteout which is a combo of dilute and charcoal and albino which makes a virtually solid white snake with light blotching on the back.

I believe the blotching is caused by the various other genes the mom and dad carry. A have a female whiteout I held back from 2017 that will breed next season and I am ready to see what comes out on her clutch. In 2017 I also hatched what I believe to be a lavender dilute ultramel which is very purple color even at two years old. I will snap some pics of her and post on Instagram this morning.

What I like most about the corn snake eggs is that they can incubate at a wide ranger of temperatures. I’ve incubated them successfully as low as 78 to as high as 90. This year I set egg boxes on top of a ball python rack in the snake room. The temperature in there swings from 78 at night to 90 in the afternoon.

My first batch of corn eggs will hatch in about 2 weeks! I’m really looking forward to having a bunch of babies this summer!

When I was working with the snakes yesterday—-working with my animals is all I do—- I found that my massive axanthic female had her prelay shed! I got this female several years in a collection buyout. She’s the longest ball I have and she carries another gene that I’ve called the “black stripe”. She’s het for the trait which is recessive. The black stripes are pretty much what the name sounds like. They have a thick dark black stripe down the back. Last time she had eggs, she laid 10 so I’m hoping she lays just as many and that I hatch a pastel axanthic black stripe! I love the contrast between a black stripe and the axanthic black stripe below! These random genes that pop up are what make breeding ball pythons really fun. I’m going to have a bunch of those pop up over the next year.

—Peter v. Ruegner

This has been one of my longest drawn out projects to date but I am certain that I will hit the double visual either later this summer or in early 2020! The male Pied Het Tri-Stripe has proven to be a prolific breeder. He lives for the lady’s pleasure. He’s about 700 grams now and is a complete stud. He’s been breeding to several of my double het females. Even if I miss with the double het girls, my pied het tri-stripe females will breed this fall. Breeding the pied het tri-stripes together will produce all pieds with 25℅ being Tri-Stripe! So from eight eggs I should hatch 6 pieds and 2 Tri-Stripe Pieds!I know that this will be a great looking double visual and I’m excited about seeing it! It will be the first one produced ever so I’m also looking forward to the positive attention this combo gets!

Below are some pics of the male breeding and of my Tri-Stripe ands pieds from this project. Comment below and let me know your thoughts on this project!

Hope everyone has a great Sunday! – Peter v. Ruegner

I can’t believe it’s already June 1! I know it’s been a while since I posted on here, but I am going to be posting on here more regularly again. My first 2019 ball python clutch should be laid any day now: one of my het tri-stripe females! And following her will be a het pied, axanthic and then my big burmese python! And then many many more. From now until September 2020 I am expecting to have 100 ball python clutches produced. It’s been a long process to grow that many females to breeding size but I am super excited about it! It’s June and I have snakes breeding now! My pied het tri-stripe females as well as my double het tri-stripe caramel albinos will be breeding soon. I’m not sure which one I am more excited about seeing. I think an adult caramel albino tri-stripe will be wicked awesome with the tri-stripe pattern and the lavender and orange of the caramel albino. But, then too, I have no real idea what a tri-stripe pied will look like. I always enjoyed posting on here over the last five years and am excited to be doing so again! WordPress is on my new phone!

Thanks for following, Peter vonLehe Ruegner

Here are a few recent pics of some of the collection: