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

very very nice babys

Merci!

Amazing snakes! We don't see that very often around here.

It really sucks that you're so far from here, i'd really love to get some ladder snakes... Babies are always so beautiful... Congratulations!!!!

phil.

Very nice picts...

these are amazing congratulation, it's the first time that I see breeding pictures of R.scalaris is it frequent that the female eat the male during breeding

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.

Thank you very much for sharing these pictures with us!! Ladder Snakes are definately a beautiful ratsnake species!! The babies are exeptionnaly colourful!

I searched a lot for them when I was in France last Summer but had no luck with that species...

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).

In the mean time, here's some of the male

Here's one of him in mid hiss...

Here's one of the female doing the same...

One of her flattening her head, really exaggerating the dimensions of the head, presumably making them appear larger, possibly making them appear to have a 'triangular head' shape, maybe to give the impression that their bite is more dangerous than it actually is (totally harmless).

A profile and body shot


Once in a while, female scalaris can retain or partially retain their juvenile patterning and to varying degrees, their colouration. Many are born silver, only later to complete the ontogenetic transformation into the usual adult colouration and patterning seen above.

Here is one such female that I had, she passed away at around 14 yrs old, due to smoke inhalation from an electrical fire I had. I really miss this snake.

...and yes, she really was a silver as she appears.

Hi,

Finally, someone that keeps this species ! I have a 2 year old female and I'm trying to find a male... but that proves to be very very difficult !

Regards

That's unfortunate that you live over the water, I have a few for sale now and some eggs in the incubator.






Rhinechis
scalaris 9











Rhinechis
scalaris 13








Rhinechis
scalaris 14














All three
are female, Number 9 was hatched on 01/11/08, both 13 & 14 were hatched on
31/10/08. They are still quite small due to being brumated during both winters
for around 4 months. They should now start their growth spurt ‘proper’, as they
are on small mice and all eat with gusto, if left in peace to eat.


Rhinechis
scalaris 09/03








Rhinechis
scalaris 09/05











Rhinechis
scalaris 09/06








09/03 was
hatched on 31/08/09 and both 09/05 & 09/06 were hatched on 01/09/09.

I have at least 4 good eggs (there are another two that I presume mould will get the better of) in the incubator too, my old female (around 19years old now) laid 13 eggs, unfortunately I didn't discover them straight away (I was away for a few days) and most of them dried out. I hadn't really expected her to lay this year as I hadn't made any concerted effort to breed from them. The male was introduced but only over a few days and copulation wasn't witnessed.

Hi there,

You don't happen to be coming over to Holland for the annual snake-day in Houten this year, are you ?

That would be great, thanks for your trouble. One male would do just fine . My female scalaris still has this greyish colour, but she's turning more yellow-brown as she gets older.
I only know of one other person who keeps this species. He's the guy I got my female scalaris from. He has a group of 10 or so of this species, some adult, some juvenile. He breeds them quite succesfully, like you do, but he almost never sells any of them.

Last year this old female, laid two clutches, producing over twenty young. There doesn't seem to be many people keeping this species presently, some twenty years or so ago, they were quite popular. I suppose that's a reflection of availability of many more species, morphs and present day interest. Unfortunately, this is seldom in European species, more's the pity.

I presently have three adults, 3 young and the other six young are to be sold. I once had many more, I lost them to the effects of an electrical fire, from smoke inhalation.

I have a 1.2 trio of adults, the other female so far has not produced any young, or even eggs. I think she will need to 'mature' more first, she will be 4 years old next year. It seems age doesn't present much of a problem with this species. A friend of mine (Roger Butler), has a female of over twenty two years old and still produces fertile clutches.

Lets hope your female produces some clutches in the future too! :-)

I'll get back to you soon regarding getting a young male to you via Houten, I may pass the animal on to someone who has a table there, so it will be a case of finding that seller and asking for the snake, which will be reserved for you. Give me a day or two to organise this please. Would be nice to help a fellow R. scalaris keeper.

wow very nice snake,..

Merci!

Wow, this is very interesting . I love R.scalaris!!!! Over here, mine is totally berserk and cute . She's still pretty small, though. I can't wait to get her an unrelated male!!!!

phil.

Yes, they do tend to be on the 'berserk' side of normality. My adults are usually a little more so. Glad you enjoyed the post.

How's the popularity for those guys on your side of the ocean? Over here, they seem fairly underated...

phil.