Reptile Forum, Reptile Classifieds - CaptiveBred

[Al Stotton]

just found my oldest male albino san diego gopher has passed away

The old boy was imported from the U.S in 1995 as a well started hatch/juve along with a female.

He'd been fine and even bred with the female this year and she produced a nice lookin clutch of eggs.

However in the last 4 or 5 days he's seemed somewhat listless and yesteday refused a meal (very out of character).

I look on the bright side of this though because he has produced some superb offspring for me over the years,many being far nicer visually than the parents.

Obviously i have kept some nice examples back from his bloodline so his genes live on in my collection in some absolute stunning lookin snakes. These i feel are testament to his vigour and my efforts as a snake breeder over the years.

The lesson here a guess is to always think about the future and never rush to sell the whole clutch every season even if the moneys good and/or needed.
Also kind of reaffirms the old 'keep the best back for myself' mentality certainly

Thanks for lookin...........RGDS...AL
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if you like something buy it,if you don't then don't

[MJ]

Sorry to hear that Al but you're certainly looking on the bright side of it and I fully agree with what you think
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Paul

For all your Tropical plant and Naturalistic Vivarium needs please enjoy Urban Bromeliad

[Stuart]

Sorry to hear that mate..lets hope his offspring do him proud!
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[Al Stotton]

[Al Stotton]

[Stuart]

Good to hear that Al..all the best with them mate.
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[Maureen C.]

Hi Al,

Sorry to hear your sad news. Having said goodbye to a favourite albino sonoran gopher about a month ago to old age, plus a stomach tumor, I know how you will be feeling. Without looking it up, I can't remember his exact age, but it was near to yours,so alot of years together. I brought a pair of sonoran's, and a member from here came round to see them and the male sonoran took an instant dislike to him and struck out, and broke his jaw. Made the member jump too, I can tell you. This happened years back, and I parted with the female to another member on here, but decided to give the male a chance of survival, so tied his jaw up with a make shift bonnet which tied on underneath the lower jaw , allowing just enough room for him to be able to open to sip water. I removed his bonnet at feeding time and hand fed him small food items, thus keeping his jaw in the correct position, and I used to remove his bonnet again at sloughing time to help with removal of the shed skin. The jaw healed after about a year, but I had to keep him away from any other humans or animals. I really miss him.

I would also love to think that other people have a pure sonoran gopher out there, as the trend seemed to be to mix sonorans with Applegates back then, And before long, all I was seeing was Applegates, and Applegate crosses, which I found sad. Same with the black pines I have here. They seem to also be a rarity out there now. Another fab species, taking a back seat.

Sorry for the ramble on your thread. I just truly adore the gophers, pines and bull snakes I have had/have still. Fab snakes.

Mo.

[lol93]

So sorry to hear this, Al.

Nice to hear you still have some of his offspring to remember him by, though.
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[Scott W]

Hi Al,
sorry to hear that mate, glad you kept some offspring back

Those baja pics you sent are STUNNING when are WE ordering some??????????
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Please DO NOT pm orders for reptiles, send email instead scott@captivebred.co.uk

[Al Stotton]

Thanks Mo,

As i mentioned previously i have some outstanding offspring kept back from that male and he lives on in at least 100 offspring outthere

Sounds like you did your best by that sonoran and you should defo be proud of yourself for doin so.

Its always a bit sad when you lose an adult animal,in fact i lost my albino sonoran around the same time last year (14yrs old) and was quite upset.

Funny you should mention annectans/affinis hybrids cos im now left with a F annectans and a M affinis,but NEVER in my wildest dreams would i ever attempt to cross them.I personally feel that this is a really Stupid path to take with any species of snakes especially my beloved pituophis.

Black pines do seem to be very scarce here in the U.K these days I remember when they were 'flavour of the month' and lots of keepers had them.Richard Allen (RLA) used to breed some superb examples,solid black and very robust indeed.
Mo have you bred the black pines this year? would be interested in some Blacks i rkn.

no need to apologise your welcome to ramble as much as you like on this thread.

RGDS.................AL
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if you like something buy it,if you don't then don't