Bull Snakes and Room Dynamics with Travis Johnson

Released Wednesday, 25th March 2020

Good episode? Give it some love!

Bull Snakes and Room Dynamics with Travis Johnson

Wednesday, 25th March 2020

Good episode? Give it some love!

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Meat & Potatoes:

Tell us about your connection to Bull Snakes
The care for Bull snakes (40 min +)
All other fascinating info about bulls etc
How do you feel they are best kept?
- Average keeper vs. breeder (39:40 min)
- Pet style or breeder efficient style
What climate do they prefer? (40:45)
How do you achieve that in consideration with the various other species you keep?
- Ambient
- 85 in peak summer (43:00)
- 80 regularly
Genetics & Locality (52:00)
- Double hets (54:00)
- Simple recessive exclusively (57:00) - Inbreeding
- Wild type multi hets (58:00)
- Locality phenotypes - color & size (59:00)
Pros
- Great pets
- Setup nice in naturalistic enclosures
- Humidity is not normally an issue
- Don’t need a lot of heat
- They are good eaters
- Active during the morning and early evening (crepuscular)
- Can be very handleable with patience
- Awesome personalities
Cons
- Generally can be high strung/nervous
- Too much heat can make that nervousness worse
- They don’t like a lot of activity or movement (visual stimuli)
- Poop! They can be messy
Etc.
- Wild type win (55:40)
- Coachwhips (1:12:00)
- Snake size and maximum sizes versus adult sizes
- Freedom breeder tubs
Breeding (1:30:00)
- Stop feeding in November and then start brumation on Black Friday
- Pull them out of brumation in 12 weeks - wait 5 days for 1st feeding
- Keep feeding until the first shed out of brumation (a couple of weeks) - Pre-ovulation shed and then pair them up
- 2nd shed after is the pre-lay shed
- 10-14 days they lay eggs - they almost never use a nest box
  PRO TIP! Pull the water bowl before the 10th day
- Pull eggs and place into egg boxes - 6qt tote with 2 air holes - perlite (drier than you would expect) - 80°
- Hatch date is typically 56-60 days (depends on temp)
  - Too hot can cause deformities
What's coming down the pipe for your bulls and the rest of your projects?
- Prove out poss hets
- Stillwater Hypo Patternless het Miami Axanthic poss het albino x Trumbower Hibino (Hypo Albino) het Patternless and Bullum Axanthic !!!
- Whitesided, albino, patternless, hypos, axanthics
What do you see for the future of bull snakes and do you think more people should be keeping them?
- The future is bright for bullsnakes! More morphs...more localities
- Plan ahead and contact bullsnakes breeders now! Don’t wait!
- Their popularity is on the rise!