a civil discussion-morphs

[Andy]

i agree but i do not keep anything that hasn't been kept and bred in captivity before. I prefer to let other people with more experience lead the way. I am in the hobby but its only a hobby for me. I dont have any plans to breed the rare and exciting new snakes, I leave that to people like you then happily spend my money on the results.

[gaz]

as an aside, boa constrictor longicauda regularly get NTL's(in the wild) down to 55F in the colder times of the year but will have DTH's very much higher due to clear skies and therefore unrestricted sunlight,also the amazon basin experiences a wet and dry season,some parts get two of each per year,during the dry times,with clear skies the night time temps will drop lower than usual while day times will be higher with the sun out all day,during the wet cycles the day/night temps will be vened out some what with constant cloud cover,so while there may well be parts of the basin that are reasonably constant with daily rains etc,there will still be temperature fluctuations from day to night and no doubt with the time of year,these areas no doubt produce the "hardest to breed" boas however even these have been bred in captivity with temperature cycling as the main tool,which to me shows that temperature variation is the main cue in the breeding cycle of these animals,whether that goes hand in hand with humidity and other factors doesnt seem to matter when it comes to captive breeding,i had a boamad friend once who made his boa breeding rooms airtight so that he could control air pressure,he figured that this was a key ingredient(low pressure in the wet season and vice versa in the dry) any way it didnt make any difference to his success and he went back to simple temp cycling,he was breeding amarali/ortoni/constrictor/orophias and various imperator
regards gaz
think i need to get out more

[gaz]

Originally Posted by Andy

i agree but i do not keep anything that hasn't been kept and bred in captivity before. I prefer to let other people with more experience lead the way. I am in the hobby but its only a hobby for me. I dont have any plans to breed the rare and exciting new snakes, I leave that to people like you then happily spend my money on the results.

it keeps me out of trouble i guess
regards gaz

[gaz]

anyway i think we will be upsetting HABU as we seem to have strayed some what from the original thread

now about those fancy goldfish.....................

[Andy]

I am glad there are people who go to these lengths I couldnt do it I am not that dedicated I dont think.

[LeeH]

i really like some of the morphs...some do originate from wild animals so not unnatural at all and one i think is big fascination to reptilekeeping...im sure nearly all of us have owned a morph reptile in one stage of our keeping
i see no problem in collecting easy to keep CB animals based on their colouration like corns and leos...it would be better than buying wild caught animals that are similar in the colour they are looking for

[Andy]

I have no problem with the colour morphs really, if it wasnt for them the hobby wouldnt be as popular as it is today. I mean how many normal corns would people keep?

[sami]

Originally Posted by gaz

as an aside, boa constrictor longicauda regularly get NTL's(in the wild) down to 55F in the colder times of the year but will have DTH's very much higher due to clear skies and therefore unrestricted sunlight,also the amazon basin experiences a wet and dry season,some parts get two of each per year,during the dry times,with clear skies the night time temps will drop lower than usual while day times will be higher with the sun out all day,during the wet cycles the day/night temps will be vened out some what with constant cloud cover,so while there may well be parts of the basin that are reasonably constant with daily rains etc,there will still be temperature fluctuations from day to night and no doubt with the time of year,these areas no doubt produce the "hardest to breed" boas however even these have been bred in captivity with temperature cycling as the main tool,which to me shows that temperature variation is the main cue in the breeding cycle of these animals,whether that goes hand in hand with humidity and other factors doesnt seem to matter when it comes to captive breeding,i had a boamad friend once who made his boa breeding rooms airtight so that he could control air pressure,he figured that this was a key ingredient(low pressure in the wet season and vice versa in the dry) any way it didnt make any difference to his success and he went back to simple temp cycling,he was breeding amarali/ortoni/constrictor/orophias and various imperator
regards gaz
think i need to get out more

Very well put, i'd also point out things like lack of sucess when trying to breed many types of BCC and the more tricky customers of the BCI world using photoperiod cycling only, temperature cycling along with a little bit of male/male competition seem to consistantly produce the best results. While photoperiod cycling can and does help, temperature seems to be the key. nothing presses the horny button in boas like those temperature changes!

Mason

[vikki_john]

But i ve got some boas at home aswell. Don't that instanty make me a world renowned expert ?

Sorry couldn't resist i ll stop now.

[gaz]

hehehehe we aint too good at this resisting comments lark,how about being the renowned ironville boa expert?anyways back to the morphy thangs
regards gaz