So this season I planned on taking off except for my bull snakes. The bull snakes eggs looked good at first but quickly went bad and never had actual veins! The surprise clutch is actually doing good. One egg went bad, and the other 2 are doing perfect! They are due to hatch in the first part of August.
So the reasons for the bull snake eggs going bad is I think mainly the male did not get cold enough! Like a lot of people I rely a lot on the temps outside to cool my colubrids. This past yr we had 3 days with lows below 40, and most of the time it's 55-70. This is just not cold enough for bull snakes. This translates to temps in my garage of max lows barely below 50, and most of the time barely 60. I really think that they need to get down below 50 for a fairly long time. So basically it's all depending on the weather.
I don't know if I'm going to be putting my male eastern down for winter. He hasn't seemed to have recovered very well from last winter. I bought a bunch of mice to help get him back up to size. Hopefully he comes back. He's eating well and not regurging on me. The flames seem to be doing good. And the hypo is a bit thin! Hopefully I can get weight back in him for winter.
Keeping animals in general can be insanely rewarding, unbelievably sad, and absolutely frustrating!! Sometimes you hit out of the park! Sometimes the park hits back!!!
