Pairings for 2013

[Greg'sGarters]

These are my pairings. I can guarantee that they will be attempted top be bred even though I cannot guarantee that they will breed. That's up to mother nature. This year, I only plan to breed sirtalis subspecies. My male proximus escaped leaving me with 2 breeder females and 1 yearling female. Here is the list:

• WC Eastern Male (Brumated) x WC Eastern Female (Not Brumated)
• CB Oregon Red-spotted Male x WC Oregon Red-spotted Female poss. low blue
• CB Red-sided Male (Narcisse Phase) x CB Red-sided Female (Narcisse Phase*)

Not a lot of pairings this season. Some snakes will be brumated over the summer to produce some winter babies.

*These snakes look different than the normal red-sideds. They contain very little red on their sides that is only visible when their scales are stretched out. These look just like the ones that are found up at the Narcisse Snake Dens in Manitoba, which is why I am calling them Narcisse Phase. Here are some pictures.

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This is one of mine just chilling in my hand, scales not stretched.

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This is what it looks like when you stretch out the scales

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This is a picture of some at the Narcisse Snake Dens breeding.

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This is a picture of one at the Narcisse Snake Dens, you can see here how the upper half of it's body is being stretched, and you can see the red, while you can barely see it on the lower half.

That is why I am calling them Narcisse Phase Red-sideds.

[Greg'sGarters]

What makes these harder to acquire is that it is illegal to take snakes from the Narcisse Snake Dens, so these may be the offspring of illegally captured snakes. This does upset me if their parents or ancestors were illegally captured. However, these guys are CB. If any of you guys are thinking of prices on the offspring, the babies will cost the same or less than normal Red-sideds.

Also, I am aware that it is possible to catch these in places other than the Narcisse Snake Dens, but these types of Red-sideds are most famous for the ones found at the Snake Dens so that is why I am naming them after that.

[Invisible Snake]

Some snakes will be brumated over the summer to produce some winter babies.

This doesn't sound like a good idea to me, wouldn't it cause some sort of problems for the snakes? (Psychological, etc..)

[chris-uk]

Your "Narcisse Phase" are what gets called "Northern Garters" in the UK pet trade.

[ConcinusMan]

What makes these harder to acquire is that it is illegal to take snakes from the Narcisse Snake Dens, so these may be the offspring of illegally captured snakes. This does upset me if their parents or ancestors were illegally captured. However, these guys are CB. If any of you guys are thinking of prices on the offspring, the babies will cost the same or less than normal Red-sideds.

Also, I am aware that it is possible to catch these in places other than the Narcisse Snake Dens, but these types of Red-sideds are most famous for the ones found at the Snake Dens so that is why I am naming them after that.

Tons of these WC red sides end up in Europe every year sold as "northern garter" . Makes me wonder how many die before they even make it to market over there.

[Greg'sGarters]

Oh, wow. What's weird about that is that the person that I bought them from called them northern garters, and I thought that they just meant eastern garter. And I looked at them and knew they were Red-sideds. Do you think I could start selling them as Narcisse phase though?

[Greg'sGarters]

This doesn't sound like a good idea to me, wouldn't it cause some sort of problems for the snakes? (Psychological, etc..)

I don't believe so. If they are CB and given a year off of breeding I don't think that it will cause any problems.

[ConcinusMan]

You can artificially manipulate the 'seasons' your snakes experience, to occur at any time of year. Even opposite of what is going on outside. Many breeders do manipulate the seasons their snakes experience, in order to time litters to be born in early spring instead of late summer. Doesn't matter if it's summer outside, you can make winter for the captive snakes occur each summer if you wish.

With WC snakes I brumate about the same time they normally would the first winter, but bring them out early. The following year, their "spring" has shifted to occur in Jan or Feb instead of April and they adjust to that timing. If I wanted to, I could shift it a bit more every year until their winter occurs in summer.

[Greg'sGarters]

Very true.

[thamneil]

Please don't call these Narcisse Phase! If you do, make it 100% clear that the animals have no lineage. While something way back may have originated from the area, I can guarantee that there is definitely some pollution in the line. I am working with animals from the interlake locality. These are animals that overwinter at the Narcisse Dens. I am trying to get a group of these animals into the U.S. and would hate for any mixup to occur.

By no means am I trying to infringe upon your right to name the animals! Just please do so responsibly!