SpiritSerpents 2024 pairings

[Shiari]

We'll see how many of these cooperate... Breeding season usually doesn't begin for me until March, so I've a couple months yet of waiting

Gabby x Bansidhe (0.1 charcoal masque het hypo, amel, diffused x 1.0 ghost lavender het charcoal)
Hoping for a pile of phantoms het anery lavender to choose from

Athael x Pard (0.1 ultramel charcoal motley het anery x 1.0 anery leopard motley)
Be fun to see how much the leopard affects the pattern in the F1 generation

These ones are still slightly in the air as to which female will go to which male

Sova x Ivomun (0.1 lavender het charcoal diffused x 1.0 ghost het lavender 50% charcoal, amel)
Hoping to prove out the charcoal het. If he is not, he will move on. Will also be a chance to see if Sova is het for anery as her mom was purchased as a moonstone, but didn't quite look like one.

Larune x Bansidhe (0.1 charcoal het motley 66% hypo a, 50% amel x 1.0 ghost lavender het charcoal)
Mostly an opportunity to check for Larune's hypo het which gives a chance for more phantoms het anery lavender to choose from if proven

Talun x Peter (0.1 ghost het lavender 50% charcoal, amel x pewter 50% hypo, lavender, amel)
Hoping to prove out the charcoal on Talun, and the hypo and lavender hets on Peter. If Talun does not prove het charcoal, she will move on and in turn if Peter does not prove het lavender he will move on once Jet is breeding size and proven. If he is het lavender, he'll stay for while so that he can pair up with Dusk and Shade and test them for their lavender hets.

 

[Shiari]

The year is starting off well for me so far! Got 2 locks between Sova and Ivomun. No interest when I paired them for a third.
Today also saw my first locks for Larune and Bansidhe, and Talun and Peter. I was getting worried with Peter as he's a 2019 and had shown NO interest in breeding even when attempting to pair him the last couple years and earlier this year.
I'll be putting Bansidhe in with Gabby probably on Wednesday and if he locks then again with Larune on Saturday.
Athael is currently in blue so I'll be introducing Pard to her once she sheds.

 

[Shiari]

No sign of follicle development yet in Sova, she may be one of those gals that likes to go 60 days before laying instead of my more usual 30.
Talun and Peter only locked once - he is NOT an enthusiastic breeder. But I felt at least 12 LARGE follicles in Talun so here's hoping.
I've had 2 locks with Larune and Bansidhe and Gabby and Bansidhe.
Athael has shed but she was uninterested on Thursday. I'll be trying her again tomorrow.

 

[Shiari]

No sign of follicle development yet in Sova, she may be one of those gals that likes to go 60 days before laying instead of my more usual 30.
Talun and Peter only locked once - he is NOT an enthusiastic breeder. But I felt at least 12 LARGE follicles in Talun so here's hoping.
I've had 2 locks with Larune and Bansidhe and Gabby and Bansidhe.
Athael has shed but she was uninterested on Thursday. I'll be trying her again tomorrow.

 

[Shiari]

It's been a very rough season so far. Gabby ended up throwing some blood clots likely due to cancer and was euthanized.
Sova decided she was calcium deficient and needed an injection in order to pass her eggs (9 viable out of 14) but at least she did pass them all and did not require surgery. I will be supplementing calcium for all my breeders in the future to prevent this ever happening again.
Talun at least laid all 13 beautiful eggs with ease, and Athael has locked with Pard finally. Larune had her pre-lay shed so hopefully she does well too.

 

[hypnoctopus]

It's been a very rough season so far. Gabby ended up throwing some blood clots likely due to cancer and was euthanized.
Sova decided she was calcium deficient and needed an injection in order to pass her eggs (9 viable out of 14) but at least she did pass them all and did not require surgery. I will be supplementing calcium for all my breeders in the future to prevent this ever happening again.
Talun at least laid all 13 beautiful eggs with ease, and Athael has locked with Pard finally. Larune had her pre-lay shed so hopefully she does well too.

Oh no, I'm so sorry to hear that. How old was Gabby?

 

[Shiari]

Oh no, I'm so sorry to hear that. How old was Gabby?

She was 12, so not terribly old but not particularly young either. This was going to be her last clutch before retirement. At least I have a whole pile of her children to raise up, and will have some of her grandbabies hatching this year.

 

[Shiari]

Larune laid all her eggs and had a total of 14. One is only half-shelled though, so I expect that one to die during incubation. That gives me a total of 36 eggs from the first 3 and now I'm just waiting on Athael. She got two good locks with Pard and she gave me 12 eggs last year so I can reasonably expect that many again but it will probably be at least 3 weeks before she lays.

 

[hypnoctopus]

Do you have a pic of the half-shelled one? I have a handful this year that came out looking like slugs, but now several of them have developed veins, but they seem to be very thin shelled. No idea if they'll make it to hatching.

 

[Shiari]

These are the half-shelled eggs I had from a clutch in 2022. They formed great veins on the parts that had proper shell, but all these eggs ended up dying

 

[hypnoctopus]

Oh weird, thanks for sharing! Mine look similar, but the whole egg looks like the thinner areas.

 

[crackerhead]

I raise chickens and quail and occasionally one of the older ladies will lay a rubbery/unshelled egg. Chronic soft shelled eggs are usually a calcium deficiency in birds but the occasional one is probably a hiccup in the shelling process. That said, I was curious as to their viability so I've incubated some as they occur. I've found that the lack of a hard outer shell doesn't seem to affect the fertility or development of the embryo. I've had chicks hatch from rubber eggs.
I've also encountered partially shelled snake eggs and they too have hatched unharmed. That's why when in doubt don't throw it out!

 

[Shiari]

Athael has finally had her pre-lay shed! Hopefully I'll have eggs on the ground from her and Pard soon.

 

[Shiari]

She started laying today. Looks to be a decent number of slugs, similar to what Pard produced with Moose a couple years ago. I think he may not be the most fertile male.

 

[Shiari]

Sova's clutch proved very anery-type heavy... 8 of 9 babies are *some* flavor of anerythrism. I think I have either a pair of moonstones or a charcoal lavender and a moonstone, and one baby that might be a carbon? They're currently shedding. All those babies are very small, around 4 grams.
Talun's clutch is also hatching and uh... Peter proved to be het anery. I'm assuming that had to have come down through his father as Gabby bred to an anery-based animal and produced no aneries in her 14 egg clutch. Gallium bred to a snake I was sold as a moonstone but suspect was actually a lavender het anery. I got 11 eggs with no anery from that pairing. Odd, but still 'reasonable'.
Talun's currently given me 3 normals, an anery and a ghost.

 

[Shiari]

Sova's clutch shed out- I have the one teeny normal, some aneries, some very dark ghosts, and 2 moonstones. One of which is kinked. No signs of charcoal, but it's only 9 eggs from a het to het breeding.
Talun's clutch has all pipped, even if the last isn't out of the egg yet. Normals, aneries, ghosts, some ghost lavenders, and a lavender. The lavender and one of the ghost lavs are kinked. I'm having bad luck with the lavender gene this year on that front.
Larune's clutch is currently pipping with just 3 eggs left to do so. Normals, hypos, one charcoal, one phantom. Having severely bad luck with the frequency of the charcoal gene considering I've 14 eggs and this is a het to homozygous breeding.

 

[hypnoctopus]

Very pretty babies! Love that dark charcoal and the ghost lavender.

 

[Shiari]

I ended up with 4 charcoal based babies. I didn't pay too close attention and I have either 2 charcoals and 2 phantoms, or 1 charcoal and 3 phantoms. They are all keepers at this time, being het for anery and lavender, and possibly het for motley. Their mother is possible het amel but has not been tested for it.
I am particularly fond of the random banded phantom that hatched out. I'll post photos in a bit of some of the babies

 

[Shiari]

Got better photos of my snakelets to choose keepers from. There's actually 2 charcoals and 3 phantoms. I miscounted. Banded baby is a female and is definitely staying. 4 out of the 5 have eaten. Only holdout is one of the charcoals so far.

 

[Shiari]

Well, the first of the motleys from Athael (ultramel charcoal motley het anery) to Pard (anery leopard motley) has pipped.
Athael is an excellent classic Motley with a full pattern from head to vent. She was breed to a stripe last year and all her babies were full classic motleys in appearance, really lovely patterning.

I've been thinking for some time now that leopard resulted from breeding pinstripe into banded and this delightfully ugly banded just lends credence to that, I feel.

It will be interesting to see what the remaining six babies look like