Question on breeding Kenyan Sand Boas

[Metallica Rules!]

I have had a male ksb for over a year now, and decided to get him a laydee. She is an '08 the same as him, and is roughly twice the size of the male. We weighed her and she is about 80 grams. Having researched the breeding of ksbs, we have found out that she needs to be about 180-200 grams to be ready for breeding. Hopefully she will be ready by next summer. She is taking two large pinkies per week, and looks to be ready to take larger prey soon.

My question is this - which form of viv heating is best for a breeding female? She is currently on a heat mat, and has a red pygmy bulb on a timer to give about 6 hours of light in the evening. Would she be better with an infra red bulb as the heat source?

I have already done a lot of research, but any further advice would be most welcome

[oakelm]

Firstly hello from another KSB fan her, I am still waiting on the last of this years females to pop, I swear she is hanging on for the fun of it . As for heating I have personally always had excellent results from using heat mats. I personally keep all mine in rubs (50Ls when adult), never bothered with lighting other than what comes through the window. It is thought that light cycles dont play as much of a role as temp changes and seasonal barametic pressures do when it comes to breeding. Also for your female you will probably have to hold off another year as she could do with being 3+ and on standard adult mice before starting, as you know they are incredibly slow growers.

[Metallica Rules!]

Thanks Oakelm. They are lovely snakes aren't they, and sadly underrated. Our male Bertie is the most laid back snake I have ever known, infact we call him Bob Marley cos he's so chilled. We took him, along with a royal python and a corn to our son's school lunchtime pet club, and he was relaxed and happy to be passed around. Obviously, handling will be kept to a minimum now that we have plans to breed. Thanks for your advice, I may be in touch again next year!

[neep_neep]

Hi,

I also used a heat mat + mat stat for my female and it worked great I also brumated both my male and female for a couple of months in the winter before breeding, I know this isn't always necessary but it worked for me.

I agree with oakelm that 3+ years is ideal - my female was 350g and feeding on adult mice when she bred for the first time, and my male was 70g.

(Edit: hello fellow Sheffielder!)

[Metallica Rules!]

Originally Posted by neep_neep

Hi,

I also used a heat mat + mat stat for my female and it worked great I also brumated both my male and female for a couple of months in the winter before breeding, I know this isn't always necessary but it worked for me.

I agree with oakelm that 3+ years is ideal - my female was 350g and feeding on adult mice when she bred for the first time, and my male was 70g.

(Edit: hello fellow Sheffielder!)

Hello! It's nice to know that there is somebody local should I need advice

Wow - 350g versus 70g, that's gonna be a tough job for Bertie lol. So, I've a while to wait before thinking about breeding. Nice to have a female though, and although she does the body whip thing, same as Bertie, she is a very nice calm snake. Bertie is orange and black, and Bettie is peach and black so will be interesting to see what happens!

Thanks for the replies.

[Metallica Rules!]

Ok, the general consensus seems to be to leave her on a mat and stat. However, I wondered if you needed to have a different day temp to the night temp? You can't do this with a mat stat unless you turn it up and down manually each day. The day/night stats and pulse stats seem to be for ceramics and infra red bulbs don't they?

She is currently kept on a constant temp of high 70's to mid 80's, but obviously when breeding time comes, this will need altering?

[neep_neep]

Originally Posted by Metallica Rules!

Ok, the general consensus seems to be to leave her on a mat and stat. However, I wondered if you needed to have a different day temp to the night temp? You can't do this with a mat stat unless you turn it up and down manually each day. The day/night stats and pulse stats seem to be for ceramics and infra red bulbs don't they?

She is currently kept on a constant temp of high 70's to mid 80's, but obviously when breeding time comes, this will need altering?

Hi,

I personally don't change the day/night temperatures, even when my female was gravid. I have my warm end set to maintain around 90F, with the gradient going down to about 75F in the cool end You'll find that when the female is gravid she will spend a LOT of time sat on the heat mat!

[KSBnut]

Hi,
We keep ours in racks the same as our royals, and all are heated with either heat strips or mats linked up to a pulse stat. They go through the same temp/daylight cycle as the royals also and it works perfectly!

Brumation is not always necessary for breeding but we keep all our adult sand boas in the bottom tubs of our royal racks, and over the winter period the temperature in the room at floor level is several degrees lower than the general room temp. This gives them a natural cooling period over the winter without being drastic. The bottom tubs on the racks are too cool for the royals anyway, so it works perfectly for us.

As for breeding size, we stick to a minimum 350g for females. The first female we bought from someone was gravid when we got her but she only weighed about 180g. It turned out she was carrying slugs which compacted together inside her, and she was unable to pass them. We only found this out from the vet after months and months of waiting for her to have her babies. Unfortunately she had to be put to sleep which was very upsetting at the time. Having spoken to some of the big breeders in the States we decided on a minimum of 350g and always stick to it! As Oakelm says, the females should be eating adult mice at that size/weight (although we feed ours rat weaners), so if she is too small to eat these then she is not ready.

Hope this helps Any questions feel free to ask.

Tony & Becky

[Metallica Rules!]

Fantastic replies, thank you all. So we have everything in place already, we just need to get her up to 350g and we're all set! A salutory tale of the lost female, very sad that somebody tried to breed her before she was ready. This is why we wanted some good advice because the welfare of the snakes takes priority over anything else.

Cheers Guys and Gals