Birth Announcement!

[pitbulllady]

My female hypo Florida Banded Water Snake gave birth to 24 babies last night and this morning, 23 live and one still-born. I don't have any pics yet, since I'm letting them all sort of "settle in", and I haven't sexed them yet, either, so I don't know the ratio of male to female. Right now, they're all going through their first sheds, so it's hard to really see colors, but it looks like there are a few interesting-looking little individuals, none that I'd call "cherry hypos", but there are some with really faded markings and bright red on their faces that could turn out to be quite handsome once they've gone through a few sheds. I've never seen babies of this particular morph, so I don't know how they look compared to normal Banded babies. I've also got a couple that are almost anerythristic, with very reduced reds and yellow tones, which look rather odd. I've got one tiny little runt, though, that I'm kinda concerned about, and the mother hasn't eaten yet. My other female, the Midlands "garbage disposal", actually ate in between births last year. I don't know if the mother is done yet; I HOPE so, and I hope there aren't any stuck in there that can cause problems. I guess after giving birth to 24 young 'uns she's just pretty tired. NOW my big female Red-Belly has gone into shed, probably her last before popping out HER litter, so I'm soon going to be covered up in baby Water Snakes!

pitbulllady

[gregmonsta]

Congrats :D looking forward to the pics ;)

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

Congratulations!!! good to hear you got some variety!!! My cherry hypo girl had 26 this year, pretty good it was her first time!!! I actually like raising baby watersnakes even more than garters... the babies are larger and seemingly more brave right off the bat. I found that with my clutch, the hypos were very apparent from the normals and the two different hypo's were distinguishable once they have their first shed. I got cherry hypo's like mom, pale hypo's like dad, and normals. The pale hypo of the dad seems to be codom in that it looks like it's either there or it isn't. The female's cherry hypo looks like a polygenic line bred hypo because all of the babies, even the normals and pale's, have the red influence of the cherry. My male looked a lot like your girl except he had no red bars like her. I did take some comparison photo's of the different types I got...

Here's a good comparison of a cherry at the bottom, and a pale on top with some red influence.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/aSnakeLovinBabe/Snakes/Garters/P1080870.jpg

this was my nicest normal.... a keeper of course. will you be keeping any?!
http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/aSnakeLovinBabe/Snakes/Garters/P1080885.jpg

and I have been meaning to ask... this is their super weird almost patternless sibling... have you ever seen anything like this!?
http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/aSnakeLovinBabe/Snakes/Garters/P1080889.jpg

[drache]

congrats
looking forward to your photos to compare to Shannon's

[guidofatherof5]

Great news
Sorry to hear about the stillborn.

[TwistidMutations]

Congrats on the new babies. sucks about the stillborn.

[pitbulllady]

Alright, got some pics. I also offered these guys their first meal, Tilapia slivers on forceps, and was quite happy that about half actually ate! Even the runt ate, which made me REALLY pleased, since he's about half the size of the others. After some finished their first shed, and I started taking pics, I realized that I really do have some "lookers" in this bunch, color-wise.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v669/pitbulllady/Snake%20Photos/IMG_1227.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v669/pitbulllady/Snake%20Photos/IMG_1215.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v669/pitbulllady/Snake%20Photos/IMG_1230.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v669/pitbulllady/Snake%20Photos/IMG_1226.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v669/pitbulllady/Snake%20Photos/IMG_1229.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v669/pitbulllady/Snake%20Photos/IMG_1216.jpg

I had to put them in this tub so I could count them(if anyone has every tried counting a wriggling pile of baby snakes, you can surely relate), and see who ate and who didn't, plus I want to get them used to being handled and picked up.

pitbulllady

[pitbulllady]

Here's a few more, including some feeding pics.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v669/pitbulllady/Snake%20Photos/IMG_1213.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v669/pitbulllady/Snake%20Photos/IMG_1210.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v669/pitbulllady/Snake%20Photos/IMG_1209.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v669/pitbulllady/Snake%20Photos/IMG_1212.jpg
Looks like SOMBODY got TWO meals!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v669/pitbulllady/Snake%20Photos/IMG_1214.jpg

I'm pretty happy with how these little guys turned out. It looks like I've got some possible red hypos after all, plus some of the light-colored hypos, the amber-colored ones, and just a few actual normals, but even those seem to have some really nice red or orange on them. I guess I will be able to tell more as they have a few more sheds.

pitbulllady

[MasSalvaje]

Congrats on the amazing bunch! They look great!

-Thomas

[count dewclaw]

Congratulations!

[pitbulllady]

Just an update: all 23 are doing fine. All but 3 or 4 have eaten at least once, including the runt, and the mom just ate a big piece of Tilapia, so she seems to be doing well, too, and hopefully it won't be long before she regains her "girlish figure", lol.

Here's a pic I just took of the runt, on the right, alongside one of his normal-sized littermates, a red hypo-ish baby, so you can see just how tiny he is compared to the others. That doesn't stop him from eating, though, and he's a scrappy little fella who has no reservations about shoving his larger siblings aside to grab his fair share of fish!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v669/pitbulllady/Snake%20Photos/IMG_1234.jpg

pitbulllady