Greg's fun palace!

[gregmonsta]

First litter today!!! Thamnophis sirtalis infernalis

First lock 06/02/2013, born early hours of this morning 20/04/2013 = 73 day gestation.

Weights - 11/02 - 281g
18/04 - 340g

Result - 20 healthy squigglies and one stillborn.

This is what greeted me this morning:













A few more pics to come ...

[gregmonsta]

Had to peel one or two eyecaps from the first shed brigade -





A good start to the season . After last years chasing marcianus scrubs from behind the heating, etc, I'm happy to say catching these guys was a lot easier and all of my babyproofing paid off!!!

[guidofatherof5]

Congrats. That is really strange about the retained first shed. Usually that first shed skin is more like ash. Nothing like subsequent sheds.
I've never had that happen with any new scrubs on the Ranch.

By the way, nice size babies.

[Stefan-A]

Congratulations!

[chris-uk]

Congratulations, that's a good litter and timed their arrival for a Saturday when you have time to deal with them.

The parents are Sjoerd's breeders aren't they? As an indication as to how fast they grow, three of last year's litter are all around 40g and 40cm now, and I think last year's were born later in the season too.

[rickymar81]

congrats, those are great looking lil ones

[Selkielass]

Beautiful!

[indigoman]

Great news Greg! beautiful, congratulations.

[gregmonsta]

Congrats. That is really strange about the retained first shed. Usually that first shed skin is more like ash. Nothing like subsequent sheds.
I've never had that happen with any new scrubs on the Ranch.

It was a bit more like soft rubber. I peeled 3 eyecaps in total and a small patch on the back of one of them.

By the way, nice size babies.

Definitely a good length and some are a little chunkier than others. A lot bigger than the wee marcianus squigglies I was dealing with last year!

Congratulations, that's a good litter and timed their arrival for a Saturday when you have time to deal with them.

I feel lucky on that one - we were sleeping in the living room too as we fell asleep while watching a DVD. I opened my eyes in the morning and my first word was "Babies!" as I spotted 2 little ones squiggling away between the glass and the plinth.

The parents are Sjoerd's breeders aren't they? Aye As an indication as to how fast they grow, three of last year's litter are all around 40g and 40cm now, and I think last year's were born later in the season too.

I expect them to grow pretty fast. About 7 or 8 of them started feeding today some preferring worms but most have already had a small piece of smelt too

[chris-uk]

three of last year's litter are all around 40g and 40cm now, and I think last year's were born later in the season too.

I lied. Their weights aren't too far from the 40g I said, but they are closer to 50-60cm long.