2025 Breeding

 For 2025 I had several females ready to breed and was excited to get them paired with my males. I have a pair of eastern kingsnakes that are het albino. So I definitely wanted them paired up. I love the look of an albino eastern king. So I paired my male Apollo with his girlfriend, Hestia. Initially I didn't see much in the way of romantic activity. But after a couple attempts they clicked and I witnessed a lock. I continued pairing for a couple weeks. 

A few weeks later I could tell Hestia was indeed gravid. On May 2, 2025 while cleaning cages, I opened her enclosure to find 23 eggs. Some were obviously not going to make it. But I think I have 18 good ones in the incubator and they should be hatching in a couple weeks. 

These eggs look like she may have laid them a bit early as they were still connected via a little threadlike piece of egg shell. Kind of like a string of pearls. They are also very small eggs, but I candled them a couple times and they have strong veins which have only grown more prominent during the incubation process. So fingers crossed that we see a couple albino eastern kingsnakes arrive just after fourth of July.

Another pairing I was very excited about is my lavender hybino, mosaic project. Leto, the female is a gorgeous whiteside, hypo, mosaic, het lavender Florida kingsnake. Her mate, Ares is a hypo, mosaic, het lavender male Florida kingsnake. The triple combo of lavender, hypo, mosaic makes for a crazy cool looking snake. I paired them several times without seeing a lock, but on like the fourth pairing I saw a definitive lock. I continued pairing for a week or so. 

I honestly wasn't sure she was gravid until just a few weeks before laying. I feed the females pretty heavily during the breeding season to ensure they have the nutrition they need to produce healthy eggs. It eventually became obvious she was gravid and several weeks later I found her in her lay box busy depositing eggs.

She laid a dozen pretty good sized eggs. She is a eating machine so I made sure to remove the eggs promptly after she finished in the hopes I could prevent her from eating any of them. I don't think she managed to scarf any down though. Keep your fingers crossed for me that the odds gods smile upon me and give me a few triple combos in this clutch. Actually, lets just hope we can get them all to term.

Another pairing that has me hyped is my T- albino hybino project. This pair consists of my male T- hybino, Achilles, and my hypo, het T- albino, Asia. Again when I paired them the first couple times there was no hint of romance. But on about the third or fourth introduction, boom! I had a confirmed lock. I continued pairing for a couple more weeks and saw a couple more locks. I am 95% sure Asia is gravid at this point and I expect her to be laying any day now. I will update when she does.

The fourth pairing is a repeat breeding of my axanthic male, Zeus and a het axanthic female, Clio. They have produced some nice looking babies for me in the past. But the axanthic babies all popped male so I kept none of them. I would like to hatch a female axanthic which I would hold back and raise up.

Stay tuned for updates on the results of these pairings/clutches. I will try to post regular updates.