First time with a double clutcher

[carnivorouszoo]

Shade double clutched. Is there any special care I should take with her? Extended smaller, slightly more often feeds maybe? There were 4 deffinite slugs and 2 I am incubating because I am not sure. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Knowing now that she has a tendancy to double clutch I will not breed her again unless she is at least 400 grams. She went from 300 to 180 post first clutch and was barely 200 before she began refusing food, now weighs 150. At least the second clutch did not take that much out of her.

 

[carnivorouszoo]

21 views and no advice? Reminds me why I stopped coming around. I'll just pm Kathy.

 

[baitman]

i know the feeling mate, i have had a couple of post with no replies and plenty of views....

if i could advise you i would, but not been in your situation......good luck

 

[carnivorouszoo]

Thanks, I figure I will feed her fuzzies twice a week for 3 weeks at first. I PMed Kathy Love just have to be patient until she has a few mins to send me advice.

 

[Riyeko]

Im sorry Carni.
I dont know much about double clutching corns or breeding corns in general to honestly tell you.
I plan on learning a buttload of stuff during this summer after I get my own corns and then possibly breeding the two im getting on tuesday, or breeding them with others ive got my eyes on.
Im a total noob, so I couldnt help you even though I want to.

Maybe you should try feeding her... more often? Like they say with pregnant women, six small meals a day.. maybe you should feed her smaller stuff, but more often?
Makes sense to me since she just gave birth (whether to eggs or live young im pretty sure the strain and stress is the same lol).

You could also just leave her alone and give her privacy so she can recuperate too.
I know I want privacy after I have a baby.

 

[baitman]

when my female has her eggs (she shed friday) i will feed fuzzies for about 3 feeds, then slowely increase the size....

 

[carnivorouszoo]

Riyeko: I truly appreciate your concern and support

Baitman: That's what I did after her first clutch but she did not recover as I had hoped and now I know why, her body was making a second clutch and most of her food went to that. Honestly she did better with the second clutch and it did not take from her weight anywhere near what the first clutch did which I suppose is a lot to be thankful for. I just did not know if double clutching females should be treated differently than females that tend not to double clutch. I did not breed her again after the first clutch was laid, she did this on her own. I plan to give one fuzzy each feed but feed more often for the first 3 weeks (probably roughly every sun and wed or thurs). After that I will go to feeding hoppers every 5 days until the feed lands on a sunday again. Then I will go to weanlings every 6 days until it lands on Sunday again, then back to adults every sunday. I am hoping this slow advancement will build her up but not cause her to put on fat. I will be monitoring her recovery very closely.

 

[Buzzard]

Carn. . I have doubles every year from one or two snakes. Be careful trying to pump your girls up to a large weight it can actually hurt their fertility. 300 gram snakes can double with no issues as long as after the first clutch is laid, you feed her steady. I feed every 5 days until the female reaches her pre-lay weight. I often add a little calcium to the food to help replace the loss from egg production. This also assists in the 2nd clutch if she has one.

 

[Pasodama]

Care shouldn't be much different than for a female who had a single clutch.
First meal should be something smaller, than usual, and then, each feed, just increase the size of the feed item. Feed a minimum of once per week ... although, with smaller feed items (such as a hoppers, etc.), make the feeding days closer together than once per week.
You want the female to gain weight but not "all at once" (so to speak).
Although I am sure she'd be fine without it (since they get calcium from mice)... A little dusting of the feed item (on its back end), with calcium (that has D3), may not hurt either ... this does not have to be done for too many feedings.

 

[Susan]

21 views and no advice? Reminds me why I stopped coming around. I'll just pm Kathy.

And how many of those views were bots? How many were members that really have no experience or advice to offer? We do have lives and don't spend every waking hour on this forum just waiting to respond to every post made. You had to wait 3 1/2 hours for a response to a thread title that didn't ask for help, just made a statement. You should try some other forums where you can wait days for even a view, let alone a response.

Many of my females will double clutch without a second breeding. The first just gave me 11 slugs 2 days ago and I expect many, many more. I like to give my ladies a rat pink or fuzzy (depending upon their size) for their first meals after any clutch they lay. It's something they simply can't resist as I've had too many females not want to eat right away after laying, some never eating again. Mice fuzzies are okay, but too small, IMO, unless she gets 2-3 of them. I then only take another two feedings to get them back on their usual sized meal unless there has been a rather dramatic loss of condition.

Your female is half her pre-lay weight, not her pre-breeding weight, which means she is on the small side to begin with. Technically, she doesn't have to gain it all back, just to what she was before she was bred. Trying to get her back to what she weighed just before laying is unrealistic as a good portion of that was eggs, not her. I would probably skip the first 3 weeks of your plan and just go to a hopper her next meal or two and then to a weanling the next couple, then back to her regular schedule.

 

[Buzzard]

And how many of those views were bots? How many were members that really have no experience or advice to offer? We do have lives and don't spend every waking hour on this forum just waiting to respond to every post made. You had to wait 3 1/2 hours for a response to a thread title that didn't ask for help, just made a statement. You should try some other forums where you can wait days for even a view, let alone a response.

Many of my fema{/QUOTE}
Your female is half her pre-lay weight, not her pre-breeding weight, which means she is on the small side to begin with. Technically, she doesn't have to gain it all back, just to what she was before she was bred. Trying to get her back to what she weighed just before laying is unrealistic as a good portion of that was eggs, not her. I would probably skip the first 3 weeks of your plan and just go to a hopper her next meal or two and then to a weanling the next couple, then back to her regular schedule.

Your right Susan. I mis-stated that pre-breeding is what I should of said not pre-lay. Good catch.

 

[carnivorouszoo]

Thanks to those who gave advice I truley appreciate it, and honestly Susan I have had several posts that never got any response. Ever. Thats why I got snippy. It was not really a personal dig but rather a sigh at how pip posts get such big responses where posts about issues seem to take days to get advice. That is unless the op says something to upset someone. Prebreeding was 300 grams not prelay weight. Sorry if I mistyped. I don't want to powerfeed her at all so I appreciate your advice to skip the first part of my plan and will follow your advice. I did not know if double clutchers required special care or not. Figured I would learn about that when I needed to, just did not expect it to be so soon. I should have known better and researched this too. I do appologise for getting impatient, but with as many members as the forum says it has I guess I hoped someone would have something to say. I should have been more patient. I do not expect anyone to "live" online anymore than I "live" online and did not mean to imply that anyone should.

 

[deedee]

I can understand why you got frustrated. When your hyped up & worried about your beloved snakey it's almost all you can think about! & it's hard to understand why other people can't sense your urgency. I nearly tore my hair out waiting for responses to queries when popcorn displayed behavior or did things that worried me right at the beginning. They were all very average things & mostly normal for a snake but I didn't know that at the time & it drove me crazy. I was very fortunate & got some great advice from people on this site. I would have ended up going do-lally without the people here. But I can sympathize with you on your point.

 

[Susan]

I understand where you're coming from. I know some threads don't get responses right away. As my time to read this forum is often limited depending upon what day it is as well as the time of day, I will skip over many threads in favor of others and perhaps get back to them later on. I will suggest that a title indicating that you are asking for some help will more likely get the attention of those who like to or are able to give advice more quickly than other titles. For example, titling this thread as "Concerned About Double Clutching Female" may have gotten quicker results as when I read the title you chose, I didn't think you had a problem or concern and were just announcing that you had your first female double clutch. That's why I didn't even open it until much later when I had more time to simply browse the forum.

 

[carnivorouszoo]

Thanks Susan, I will remember to be a bit more direct in my titles in the future.

 

[Jessicat]

Perhaps no one responded because it seems there has been a lot of people posting about double clutching lately. A quick use of the search button is always a good thing.

 

[carnivorouszoo]

Most of what I found in the search was about eggbound double clutchers, thats why I posted. Thanks anyway.