hmmm...good idea, or not?

[Rex322]

well as alot of you know, i hope to breed my BCIs in the future. i had an idea today, but i dont know if it would be good or not. would it be good if i were to catch 2 garter snakes (ready to breed) and make sure their opposite sex, and tryed breeding those first for experiance? now of course, afterwords, i would be letting the adults and the babies free, it would just be for experiance. what ya guys think?

	Boa Constrictor Imperator Boa Constrictor (Boa constrictor imperator). Most common is the Colombian Boa.

[Ptorgeaux]

I don't think breeding garters would be anything comparable to boas. They'd probably breed better in the wild, anyway. That and it brings more lives into your hands that don't need to be because you're not keeping them for the love of the animal.

[lethargiic]

garters = egg layers... boas = live birth.

[Ptorgeaux]

Originally Posted by lethargiic

garters = egg layers... boas = live birth.

=untrue. Hehe I think garters are viviparous.

	Viviparous A viviparous animal is an animal employing vivipary: the embryo develops inside the body of the mother, from which it gains nourishment, as opposed to in an egg (ovipary). The mother then gives live birth. The more advanced form of vivipary is called placental viviparity, and can occur in as different groups as sharks, velvet worms and rattle snakes. Viviparous offspring live independently and require an external food supply from birth. Vivipary is best developed in placental mammals, but also occurs in many reptiles, some amphibians, crustaceans (e.g. Daphnia), scorpions, insects (aphids, the tsetse fly, some cockroaches) and a few fish.

[Rex322]

yea, i thought they give birth to live young

[Rex322]

http://www.geocities.com/stephvern/gart3.html

according to that, it is live birth

[TheOtherAndy]

I've known a lot of people who did this on the road to monitor breeding. You'd be amazed at how many monitor keepers got a pair of leos or beardies to "work their way up". It just doesn't work that way. Some animals require pretty specific things to breed, and some don't. The ones that don't won't really help you with the ones that will. My own experience breeding leos didn't do squat when I went to tackle monitors, and my experience with corns hasn't helped me a bit with pythons. The best thing to do is decide what project you want to take on, and then learn and observe as much as you can about that one. When you gain an understanding about that animal and how it works and what it does, everything will make a lot more sense when it comes time to breed them. Trying to apply stuff from one genus to another usually just ends up confusing you. Me, anyway.

[Rex322]

yea, i dont think im gonna

[JuliusSqueezer]

Besides all that, If you breed anything in captivity and release it into the wild, you are introducing a whole rash of unexpected elements to whatever ecosystem you are releasing to. Other populations will suffer and likely so will the animals you release.