• Posted 12/19/2024.
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    I am still waiting on my developer to finish up on the Classifieds Control Panel so I can use it to encourage members into becoming paying members. Google Adsense has become a real burden on the viewing of this site, but honestly it is the ONLY source of income now that keeps it afloat. I tried offering disabling the ads being viewed by paying members, but apparently that is not enough incentive. Quite frankly, Google Adsense has dropped down to where it barely brings in enough daily to match even a single paid member per day. But it still gets the bills paid. But at what cost?

    So even without the classifieds control panel being complete, I believe I am going to have to disable those Google ads completely and likely disable some options here that have been free since going to the new platform. Like classified ad bumping, member name changes, and anything else I can use to encourage this site to be supported by the members instead of the Google Adsense ads.

    But there is risk involved. I will not pay out of pocket for very long during this last ditch experimental effort. If I find that the membership does not want to support this site with memberships, then I cannot support your being able to post your classified ads here for free. No, I am not intending to start charging for your posting ads here. I will just shut the site down and that will be it. I will be done with FaunaClassifieds. I certainly don't need this, and can live the rest of my life just fine without it. If I see that no one else really wants it to survive neither, then so be it. It goes away and you all can just go elsewhere to advertise your animals and merchandise.

    Not sure when this will take place, and I don't intend to give any further warning concerning the disabling of the Google Adsense. Just as there probably won't be any warning if I decide to close down this site. You will just come here and there will be some sort of message that the site is gone, and you have a nice day.

    I have been trying to make a go of this site for a very long time. And quite frankly, I am just tired of trying. I had hoped that enough people would be willing to help me help you all have a free outlet to offer your stuff for sale. But every year I see less and less people coming to this site, much less supporting it financially. That is fine. I tried. I retired the SerpenCo business about 14 years ago, so retiring out of this business completely is not that big if a step for me, nor will it be especially painful to do. When I was in Thailand, I did not check in here for three weeks. I didn't miss it even a little bit. So if you all want it to remain, it will be in your hands. I really don't care either way.

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    Some people have indicated that finding the method to contribute is rather difficult. And I have to admit, that it is not all that obvious. So to help, here is a thread to help as a quide. How to become a contributing member of FaunaClassifieds.

    And for the record, I will be shutting down the Google Adsense ads on January 1, 2025.
  • Responding to email notices you receive.
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    In short, DON'T! Email notices are to ONLY alert you of a reply to your private message or your ad on this site. Replying to the email just wastes your time as it goes NOWHERE, and probably pisses off the person you thought you replied to when they think you just ignored them. So instead of complaining to me about your messages not being replied to from this site via email, please READ that email notice that plainly states what you need to do in order to reply to who you are trying to converse with.

Maternal Incubation

I've tried maternal incubation a few times with poor results. I haven't done it with balls but have tried with carpets. I think cage humidity is an issue for me, 2-4 weeks in the eggs start to collapse. I've misted, even soaked a towel and put it in the cage near the female. I just can't get something right I guess.

I know a few people that use that method with carpets and really like it. I don't know how prevalent it is with balls though.
Apparently if you can make it work for you the results are very good and it's a fascinating process to witness.

I'd say you should at least try it just for the experience. The first time or two you should do it with a clutch you are willing to risk losing, not one of your important projects for that season.
 
It's definitely possible with ball pythons. Not so much with colubrids though. I have no experience with gopher snakes specifically, but I don't know of any colubrids that can control the temperature.
Most colubrid species just lay them and leave them, but a few will coil around the clutch given the chance.

Pythons have the ability to control the incubation temperature to a surprising degree by means of muscle twitching. It's very interesting to observe. I don't know of any colubrids that can do that, so the chances of success with those species is slim to none in a cage environment.

I was talking to a friend of mine once and he was describing how his carpet pythons took care of their eggs. In addition to the rhythmic twitching, he said they would periodically "walk" the entire clutch to a different area of the cage. Whether that was for temperature or humidity concerns I don't know. You see the twitching all the time, but I've never witnessed a female actually relocating the clutch, something I would like to watch as well.
 
ya that would be pretty neat to observe a clutch being moved around . another question i would like to know is if you did maternal incubation would the babies feed better than your incubator babies??
 
I have heard of it working but I agree with craig I wouldnt risk it and thats a lot of time the female could be back on feed instead of sitting on eggs.
 
I did it last season with two females. They did fantastic. Each one laid six eggs and all hatched on time with no issues. The first clutch hatched on 06/20/10. Prior to laying her weight was 1850 gm. After the eggs hatched her weight was 1240 gm. She is now back up to 1800 gm. I plan to do it again this year. My second female started at a weight of 1750 gm, got down to 1260 gm and is now at approximately 1400 gm with the eggs having hatched 08/31/10. I do think I have an advantage in that I work from home and so I was able to constantly monitor temps/humidity. Not sure if I would feel as comfortable with it if I couldn't be home to keep an eye on the eggs.
 
This was my first year producing babies so I have never done artificial incubation. However, out of my first clutch of 6 four ate on their one; one of those immediately after shed, and two had to be assist fed. Out of my second clutch of 6 three ate on their own; one of those immediately after shed, and three are still needing assist fed after two months. I can tell you the second clutch did have more temperature fluctuations than the first clutch. Again, I'm new at this and not sure if the temperature fluctuations are relevant.
 
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