Sole survivor

So, as I mentioned in Mr. Keenan's thread earlier, my young adult A. nitschei pair copulated for the first time on July 12th '07. They did copulate on several other occasions later that year as well.

Finally something happened this month, on 21st; the female was finally giving birth!
The result was some unfertilized goo (soft, without solid form), 4 stillborn babies and 1 weak, miniscule baby. I was pretty sure this smaller-than-a-pencil baby wouldn't make it, but roughly 12 hours after being born, the little warrior wrestled down a whole pinkie!
It is still alive, and appears to be in a slightly sharper condition than when it was born. It looked like a female to me.

The father.


The mother, filling up several days after giving birth.


The very unfortunate and saddening loss.


The One.

The father and the mother looks very nice. Although it´s very sad that there was only one survivor, i´m glad that there was atleast one. Knowing how you´ve tried and waited with those, if all were dead it could have had a devastating effect on you.

But it/she looks very nice, hopefully all goes well with it/her

And ofcourse you DO have an obligation to put more pics here in the future, there aren´t that many people who have had success breeding A. nitschei (maybe some have got offspring from pregnant WC mothers..?).

Take care!

Cheers
Stefan

Cheer up!
at least you have a young animal, which has a very good impression.
It is sometimes the life, cherish and maintain it.
Cheers
Benjamin

nischei is not that easy to breed! after all, you have done it. i assume it was the second litter for your female? if yes, than well, we all know many snake moms deliver some strange litters the first time.. it is a good chance, you will be successful with breeding this amazing species next time more successful with more survivors. till then, i wish ya all the best with your lonely snake baby!


cheers
Mario

That's a gorgeous site, man! I'm giving props to my nitschei hero! Good job, and it will only get better from here! Maybe she'll drop 14 next year!!!

Thank you so much for all the nice and encouraging words guys, I really appreciate that.

I'll try to get some feeding shots next time she eats, if my presence won't be too disturbing.
She's still alive and seems to have enough character to occasionally threaten me if bothered

Mario, I believe it was a very first breeding for this female. She was imported a year and a half ago, and by my estimation at that time she would've been too small to have given birth yet. Of course I can't say that for sure.
When she arrived, I'd say she was roughly as big as my 2-year-old CBB squamigera females are.

She's grown in length ever since she arrived, so maybe I fed her too little in the early stages of being gravid. Later she'd only accept a hopper mouse every now and then.
Perhaps she'd needed more food/energy for the babies to come out alive? Any thoughts on that theory?

When she was done giving birth, she didn't have that look females sometimes do. She appeared normal and not thin.
Maybe what I fed her was mostly used for her own growth? Am I talking complete nonsense here?

It seems to me that if there was a food issue, the babies would not have fully developed and would have possibly been deposited early as slugs. I think something went wrong in the latter parts of development and you'll never know what happened. Learn from it what you can, but don't keep kicking yourself over it.

Thank you for the input, that does make sense.
Yes sir, will do. I'm not kicking myself as much anymore. In fact, I'm really, really happy about this little gal, and I'm focusing on the living creatures now.

The baby took her second pinkie just moments ago, and here are some shots I took of the process.
She did the nitschei thing in that when I tried to feed her in her enclosure, she'd drop down to the bottom and rasp her scales, so I picked her up and fed her on the floor. Trying to avoid getting any soil in with the food.

This was the smallest pinkie I could find, maybe one day old.


Held on and started to swallow, so I guess my presence wasn't too disturbing.


Almost gone...


And safely back home.

That's adorable! You have to feel good seeing that happen in your own home! And wow, she's taking to big meals easily, so that is very encouraging. Good job, buddy! And the photos came out great, too.

Hi Christian
what temperature do you keep your Nitschei at normally? Just curious as I have kept some for a while now at temperatures a lot higher than recommended. They are still too young to breed but seem to be doing well and always shed in one piece which indicates they are doing ok at the high temperature. Im keeping them between 28 and 31 C.
Cheers
Gavin

Thanks for the positive comments man.
She is cute, isn't she?
I feel really priviledged to have experienced this, I do.
I have started to believe that she might well make it if there's nothing wrong with her, being born so small and weak to begin with.

Even though I initially was disappointed to see dead babies, I have tried to remind myself that I'm grateful that this species have survived for a year and a half. They exceeded my expectations so far.
And I'm really happy about the fact that the gravid female dropped the babies last year; I got to practice how to keep them alive. So hopefully the same methods work with this baby, and I don't have to panic about how to keep her alive

Thanks again Derek for the supportive words & attitude along the way, you helped me believe in myself as far as keeping this species goes.
I think part of this success is due to you

Howdy Gavin.
Normally they are roughly between 25-28 C. There are fluctuations depending on the seasons and the weather. This summer, during the warmest days, the daytime temp didn't get below 26-28C on the cool side, and was mostly 30-31 under the basking light (25W spot). The gravid female was constantly at the warm end and beneath the spotlight during the day.
During the winter I let my snakeroom cool down somewhat, but still the lowest nighttime temps have been around 19C in the nitschei terrarium.
It seems as if this species tolerates warmth, but I've tried to be careful about the warmer temps, as I don't know how much they can take it. I believe it depends on where they were collected from. Mine are from Kasese, Uganda, but I don't know the exact elevation where they came from...
I've tried to follow the weather at the collection area, and I recall that the temp in Kasese wasn't 30C often. And it seems to get below 20 at nights, at least seasonally.
I must admit that for awhile I haven't checked the weather site, so these are based on my memory. Which isn't the best around...

Hi Christian
Ok thanks for the info. I am not so worried now that I know you keep them a bit warmer as well! I have been told all sorts of things, but you are the guy that has bred them so what you are doing is right! Mine also drop to around 20 on cold nights so it is not all year round I keep them so warm!
Congratulations on your breeding success with them and Im sure next litter will be much better!
Cheers
Gavin

Anytime, Christian. You did all the work. I'm just the cheering section.

No problem Gavin, hope that helps. What has worked for me so far is not the ultimate truth, I think, but I hope along those lines some consistency or guideline of sorts can be found. It sure would be nice to know how other people have succeeded with nitschei and what type of setup etc. has produced matings and live babies.
I think 1.5 years is relatively short time with this species, so I hope they can tolerate at least seasonal warmth without that affecting their lifespan negatively. I guess time will tell.
And thanks for the nice words

Thanks Derek. But come on... 'just the cheering section'?

Well, it didn't go that well after all...
On October 13th the only survivor perished, and I'm rather clueless as to what the hell happened and why.

A brighter update on this - at least for the time being

Photo was taken last night;

Very Nice Christian. You know where I Live

Looking damn good!
Hope there is alot alive and healthy babies.

Sami

Better luck this time Christian.

Thumbs up or finger grossed or what ever they needs ... hope everything goes well this time.
Ari

goodluck

Congrats Christian!!
Good luck with them!

You are the Nitschei Master, man! Congratulations on another successful litter! Please show pics of all of the beautiful babies, Papa Nitschei.

Congratz mate!

Finally some good news from you, and when they get good they obviously get really good
But there should be more pictures by now! Hope to see some soon
Many people haven´t obviously succeeded in breeding these? And you´ve done it twice now? Maybe it´s just not luck but something else....

And opposite to PeterMagnusson, i know where YOU live Next time i´ll have to bring my camera with me if it´s okay with you..

Great job done Christian!!! I really hope that it will work out better for you this time...