Another morning photo op

[Brendan]

I had another snake call yesterday morning that I photographed and released within a 1/4 mile of pick up. This was actually a very pretty blacktail for the area. It had a nice lite brown ground color with dark brown diamonds.

[Brendan]

Here's a full body shot

[Brendan]

Headshot

[Brendan]

Last one.

[Rich G.]

they may not be as brightly colored as the high elevation snakes but I really like low elevation molossus. A lot of them really show their durissus ancestry.

[Brendan]

One day I'd love to see some of the blacktails south of the border. I've only seen pictures of them but they look awesome. An albino blacktail would be pretty neat to see as well.:D

[Rich G.]

:-)

[Brendan]

DOH!!!!!! Ya had ta go and post it. He is one awesome looking snake. Anytime he needs a babysitter you can drop him off with me. (yeah right) Wishful thinking anyway. Do you have any shots of him posed on semi-natural terrain? My pretty little girl would love for him to spend the night!!!!
http://gallery.pethobbyist.com/data/28780sbt3-med.jpg
http://gallery.pethobbyist.com/data/28780sbt2-med.jpg
http://gallery.pethobbyist.com/data/28780sbt-med.jpg

[FlagstaffHerper]

Rich,
Where did you take the picture of the albino blacktail? Is he in your collection? Or at a zoo?

[Fleas]

Thanks for posting the wonderful pictures.

[Brendan]

My pleasure John. Thanks for lookin.

[Rich G.]

at my house. Albinos get dirty very easily on natural substrates, or at least they show it more. So instead of a natural substrate I decided to give his cage the ancient Aztec ruins look, so I glued and painted styrofoam to look like block.

Brendan, sorry I don't have any pics on natural substrate. To really do it right I would have to take him back down to saguaro/palo-verde association. It would take many, many nights (a couple years worth)with your girl to get any results because of the life bonding issue. It took almost seven years for him and my female to bond. I think the holdup was more on his part. I caught her as a newborn in 1989 and he was the first male she was ever exposed to so I don't think there was any problem there. But when my cousin caught him in '93 he was an old adult already. I am sure he already had an established mate (of course we didn't know any of these things about rattlesnake sociology back then) It took about three years for him to demonstrate any possessive attitude. It wasn't until late 99 that he started initiating any courting behaviors.

[Rich G.]

cookin' babies. Here some baby shots.

[Rich G.]

but the shots had to be taken through the glass as she was VERY protective and opening the door was downright dangerous. I left the babies with the mother for about a month and opened the door only long enough to throw mice in.

[Brendan]

Rich,

I had no idea that blacktails were so selective with mates. That might explain why several of the calls that I get for blacktails are two snakes (male and female). It makes me wonder if that might be part of the reason that people have such a difficult time breeding tiger rattlesnakes. Maybe they display the same type of mate selective behavior and most people are just too impatient to wait for them to bond. Just a thought.

I was just kidding about him spending the night. Even if bonding were not an issue, I'm sure she would need to be introduced to his domain for breeding to take place. I'm just glad to know that his genes were passed on and some day he won't be the only known albino blacktail. It's about time something other than d-backs and praries come in the albino phase.

Thanks for posting the pics.

[Rich G.]

that was one of the issues with tigers. As kids growng up in the Catalina foothills north of Tucson my cousin and I almost always found them in pairs. It's also why I think that the success rate will increase as more captive born babies become available as they will not already have an established mate.

I know you were kidding about the overnighter. I don't think she is that kind of girl anyway.lOL.

I think breeding rattlesnakes would be the opposite of kingsnakes or other colubrids as far as domain goes. In the wild females do not really cover that much ground. And pre-mating and gravid females have their established places to be, especially once the are gestating. Males on the other hand wander far and wide. Species such as scutes and atrox who do not seem to be so monogamus will breed with any female they find. In species that seem to choose long term or permanate mates such as molossus, willardi and lepidus, the males wander but seem to know exactly where to be when the female is in season. They are also usually nearby the whole time th efemale is gravid and gestating.(I have seen film footage of family groups of lepidus, mother, father and babies all in a pile) I think with these forms it would be better to leave the female in her established place where she is comfortable and then introduce the male.

[Brendan]

That's an interesting observation about tiger pairing in the catalinas. I have yet to come across a pair of tigers together except for that snake call I had a couple weeks ago where the female got sqawshed. Looks like that poor guy is back on the market.

Aside from the 3 species you mentioned are there any others that are known for this behavior that you know of? I know mitchelli wouldn't fall into that category. Most males seem to be opportunistic and will jump on any female that is receptive.

What method of introduction did you have to use for your albino to finally bond with your female? Did you cage them together for an extended period prior to mating time? Ideally I would like to try and breed my female "reduced pattern" tiger one of these days but I first need to find a suitable male. Maybe I can borrow your albino tiger for a bit. :D

[FlagstaffHerper]

Rich,
You mentioned in one of the lasts posts that when the baby blacktails were in with the mother that you would just throw in mice to feed them. Did you have any problems with them biteing each other? I have tried to feed baby chondro pythons that were in the same tank and had one bite the head of there siblings,causing a pretty nasty tear in the skin of the other one. I would think that even though they are the same species that I bite from one would still cause problems.

[Rich G.]

and the mexican montane forms would probably be much teh same. Originally when I started introducing the molossus I didn't know any of h=these things so I just put the female into the males cage and left them together. They have known each other for so long now it doesn't really matter who goes into whose cage. It often depend on whose cage I want to clean first,lol. I periodically introduce them to each other throughout the sprinbg and summer although I don't expect them to breed until it's time. They breed like clockwork around Aug 27-28th. Most of the time when together they just coil contentedly. If I put them together around Aug 15th the male will initiate couting but the female just whips her tail and avoids him. On the 27th or so they will start breeding.

James,
I throw mice in for the mother but don't feed the babies yet. What I am trying to do is imprint prey smell to the babies. It has been known for quite some time about female molossus and other species guarding the babies till their first shed(10-14 days) Recently Greene and Hardy in their studies have found evidence that although the babies are not right with th emother all the time, they stay in her vicinity for up to a year and probably pick up scents from prey items from her and learn a few other behaviours. With my first batch of molossus babies in 2000 I removed the babies right after they shed. One ate mice right away, the others refused everything including lizards for up to a year and had to be force fed. With my 2002 babies I left them with the mother for a month. When they were removed they all accepted fuzzy mice right away.(all are fed individually) It could all just be coincidence, but I'll try anything that works, lol!

[Brendan]

Rich,

I did try using the idea of imprinting this year with baby mitchelli which can often be a big pain to get started. As of yet it hasn't paid off for me but it did work well with the baby tigers. Maybe some species are more prone to stick close to mom and follow her lead but these little buggers aren't.