Can someone go through their hognose breeding procedure?

Also, how many females can one male breed? How old/large do the animals need to be before breeding?

250g or higher is a good weight for the females to breed. Males.....when ever they feel like it, LOL. I had a really small 06 male (around 60g) sire a 32 egg clutch last year. With the males, it is more age than size.

I do not brumate mine, though some will tell you it is required.

My girls range from 250 to 400+. I just have some girls that are just smaller, regardless of how I feed them. I do feed year round. I have found with my westerns, that they will go off of food a few months at a time. My best guess is that this is some sort of self imposed "brumation" even thought the temps have not dropped. It seems to be at random times, depending on which snake it is. For example, one of my girls ate on 9-4, and did not eat again for me until yesterday11-7. She was offered food every week, but showed zero interest. Yesterday, she was coming out of the container for the food. When they go on strike like that, I monitor their weights. If they are holding steady, then I do not worry. If they start loosing weight, then I know this is more than just a fast. I will let her eat a few more weeks and then introduce the male. If I see good interaction, and a lock up, then I leave him in a few days on, then a few days off. I do this until I notice that the male is not interested anymore and the female is starving all of the time.

At this point, I double the females food intake, sometimes triple. For example, if a girl is use to being fed one mouse every Monday, I will start feeding her 2 mice every Monday, and one mouse dusted with calcium / vitamins on Thursday. This prevents the females body from being depleted to much. Then you just wait for that prelay shed. Once she goes blue, I put in a moist hide (I use sphagnum moss) for her to shed in. Once she sheds, I use the same hide as a nest box. When the eggs are laid, I mark the top of each egg with a sharpie, and gently transfer them to the incubator container which consist of a 1:1 ratio (by weight) of vermiculite and water. I carefully nestle each egg about 1/2 way into the medium. I do incubate in air tight containers (gladware) and just open the lids once a week for air exchange. I incubate at 78 degrees, and the eggs normally hatch anywhere from 52 to 58 days. Hmmmm....can't think of anything else to tell you.

Oh, I start all of my babies on f/t. Some will eat immediately if you just put them in a deli cup with the pink. Some require a little visual stimulation to start (feed off of tongs). I have had a few that refuse to eat. I don't know why, but some of these will start eating on their own after I force feed them the first one. Babies get dehydrated easy, so make sure their water bowl is shallow. They are not good at finding the water by themselves.

Hope that helps.

Sweet!!! A big Thanks!

How many females can one male breed in a season?

Two or three is good. You just have to be careful, the males tend to go off of food when their mind is otherwise occupied, and can really wear down.

Thanks!!! I'll have to keep this in mind. My son wants to get into hogs.

Do you have any het albino females available?

Nope, only one I have is a 66% het male. No one to prove him with yet, but I am working on it :D

Ok i am a fellow breeder of hognoses as well.
You say you don't cool any of them down? I know mine do the whole off feed thing alot too so my question is Are your animals Wild caught? Also How many times have you been successful with this ''No cooling" policy?
I have never heard of this. The male must be cooled to produce fertile sperm?
Just curious on this method you are using.

That some good info right there florida. Thanks for sharing!!

Alan

Ok i am a fellow breeder of hognoses as well.
You say you don't cool any of them down? I know mine do the whole off feed thing alot too so my question is Are your animals Wild caught? Also How many times have you been successful with this ''No cooling" policy?
I have never heard of this. The male must be cooled to produce fertile sperm?
Just curious on this method you are using.
Nope, mine are all CB. I do not cool because it is 83 degrees in the mid of November here. I have had successful clutches the last three years, with clutches laid in the spring and fall. Some of the females even double clutched. Last year I had western eggs hatch in December. I guess they don't read the same books we do :D

I run into the same issues here with ball and boa breeding. I listen to everyone's cooling / breeding schedule, but it just don't work here. It hit the low 80's here today.

Florida is just weird, you have your own books for breeding down there. :lol:

Yea, I had the oil heater on the last few weeks. Today I had the air on in my outside reptile room because it hit 86. My boa room hit 84 today too.

The balls are still locked up though. Plus it should cool to the low 70's tonight.

Gotta love the Florida weather!!:D

I sure do. I moved here from Michigan three years ago and don't miss it one bit. I am ready for it to be cool for awhile though.

Cool thanks for the info.