Quote Originally Posted by Loren View Post
Lori- if you are still waiting for babies- the females look like they have a golf ball or two in their belly before they give birth- huge! It always seems to take a long time for the first litter, because you check everyday(probably 2 or 3 times a day, if I know you).
I have had breeding groups that didnt produce, too, but not real often.
Make darn sure you do have males and females,too. I am really good at sexing them now, but it takes practice to do it when they are young. I have gotten "males" that were females, and vise versa, from petstores before as they mis-sex them sometimes too.
I like small, basic cages, so they have nothing else to do but, well... you know .
Nexty time you try to feed that kingsnake, rub a live pinky all over a frozen thawed, or feed a live directly followed by a frozen/thawed. See if she'll take it. Or, using a needle nose or hemostat, very gently shake the frozen/thawed even after she strikes at it, let her think she's killing it slowly. Make sure your frozen/thawed are at 95-100 degrees or so, not just thawed. I use warm water.
Thanks Loren!! I have been working very hard on only checking the mice once a day. :-) Trying not to disturb them too much. And yeah, I thought about the fact that they have toys, tunnels, a wheel, lots of chewies, boxes to play in, burrows under the bedding, etc to keep them busy... maybe *ahem* wasn't too much on their mind at the beginning... LOL!!!!

Ok, the kingsnake... I have been doing just what you said!! I warm up a pinkie to feel as warm as the live ones. I let the live ones crawl all over it for at least 30 minutes before I pile them all up together in her tank. As soon as she strikes a live one, I jiggle the f/t with a long pair of tongs. She comes back to nab another live, and I'm jiggling... and usually, she notices it but still grabs a live. Last week, I got her to strike the f/t!!!!! And then she dropped it, with a look of utter disgust! LOL

I'm going to keep trying tho. If I could post the f/t to follow a live, it may work, but right now I can't get quite close enough to make that happen; she is still a little skittish (but getting better).

I think she'll come around. I just need to keep at it. Thank you SO much for all your ideas!!!!! Keep them coming. :-)