devboy

I would love the opportunity to look for them in the wild... I'm hoping next year sometime. I should be posting some more pictures soon of some eggs from this same female, she hasn't shed yet but she looks full of eggs. If we get some good weather next weekend, I may be able to take some pictures of the babies from last years eggs (which are pictured above).

Thank you everyone for the nice comments. Over here (UK) they don't attract much interest, people are usually drawn towards brighter more 'attractive' snakes. They say "beauty is in the eye of the beholder", well I must be dull enough for me to see the beauty in this species. Hi reptilX, firstly may I congratulate you on your taste in music, nuff spek dude! Early Black Sabbath, are a favourite of mine too. Ahhh, are you refering to the first picture? That is actually the male biting the female during copulation, they do this to aid them in positioning for alignment (as do many other species of snake, the 'copulatory bite' as it is known is employed by many ratsnakes also). Usually the bite is placed around the head or neck, my male is young and inexperienced, so he bit her around a third of the way down the body! Silly snake, as the second picture shows, he also missed with his 'gift of life'. An especially silly snake.

Bonjour! Hello! I'm afraid I can't speak French. My name is Dave Royans and I keep mainly Old World ratsnakes, my favourite being the Ladder Snake Rhinechis scalaris. You want pictures of me? Are you crazy? Ok, seeing as you asked... I'm the one on the right. One of me at an all you can eat buffet... the owner was eaten first, then yoda second. The allure of the darkside is strong with this one...

Merci!

Forgive the blurry hurried nature of these pix, I didn't want to disturb them during this time. These were taken a week or so ago, the female is heavy with eggs again this year. The same male is trying his luck with another female presently. Here's where he missed his intended target, unless it was exactly where he intended... if that is the case, I suspect I feel similar to how a devout Catholic might considering similar sexual acts. Here's a selection of pix from last years breeding. She had two clutches of eggs, the first produced 6 babies, the second produced 10! The male was not reintroduced, following the first clutch. The female is around 18yrs old, the male around 3-4. First clutch... The brave foot killer... Second clutch... ... finally but not really... the female