Late Friday night I walked into the snake room and found a few extra snakes crawling around my female's cage.
I bought the pair of these snakes at the expo earlier this year.
As it was fairly close to winter when I bought them, they could have mated while still with their previous owner.
So I cant say with 100% confidence that the breeding was with me. However, I still cycled them and saw some mating activity in the spring.
I cycled them by allowing their last meal to pass through their systems before turning off the heating in their cages. After about two weeks I placed them in plastic tubs which I put into the fridge for about 3 months at 5 degrees Celsius. They had access to water during the whole hibernation from a small water dish that I placed in the corner of the tub. Each tub had one hide in it which the snakes hid in throughout most of their hibernation. (I saw the male come out and drink once or twice).
In September I took the tubs out the fridge and placed them in their normal cages. Within the hour they were both out and basking. I fed them both every week until the end of September. At this time I placed the male into the females cage. He showed interest immediately by smelling her and crawling over her while twitching. I did not keep the pair together the entire time but rather took the male out for a few days and placed him back in for a few days. The re-introduction always seemed to spark interest between the two.
I never saw them copulate and was away for a while in October so I don't know what happened during this period. I stopped rotating the male at the end of October.
I first noticed swelling in the females mid section in October sometime but this was very slight. In November she really started to increase in Size and by mid December she was pretty fat. However, she still accepted her meal in December.
8 babies were born and I think the ratio is 3.5 but I want to get a second opinion on some of the babies. They are pretty big and could take a small pink without a problem.