Breeding Reptiles in Complex Setups | Chelsea Isdaner

Chelsea Isdaner and her husband, Andrew operate Smoldering Serpents, a small-scale snake breeding project out of North Carolina. In the episode, we discuss their diverse group of snakes, DIY enclosures, and the process of advancing husbandry. Chelsea also talks about how she successfully breeds snakes in complex habitats and we analyze the myth that small snakes fail to thrive in large enclosures.
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ABOUT DILLON:
Welcome to my channel, Animals at Home! Here you will find the reptile videos I have made as well as video versions of The Animals at Home Podcast! The podcast mainly focuses on the pet reptile industry. My mission with Animals at Home is simple: To inspire others to push the limits of their reptile husbandry by promoting the importance of high-level, creative husbandry individualized for each reptile.
• Breeding Reptiles in C...
DISCLAIMER:
Try this at your own risk! I take full responsibility for the safety of this setup for myself but cannot recommend anyone copy what I have done unless you are willing to do the same.

[@AnimalsatHomePodcast]

Thank you for listening to the episode! Make sure you check out the show notes for the links to the Smoldering Serpents FB & Instagram pages!

[@LoriTorrini]

Lovely interview. I agree Chelsea is a great role model for keepers and she SHOULD do a channel to highlight progressive keeping that puts the snakes’ individual needs and preferences first.

[@AnimalsatHomePodcast]

Thanks for listening, Lori! I agree, I really hope she starts a channel 🤞🏼

[@thickerconstrictor9037]

KZbin needs so much more of this. There is soooooo much leeway given to breeders to put MASSIVE snakes in tiny cages for breeding and keeping. There are so many people coming out showing how these big snakes thrive in proper sized enclosures. People care more about money than they do the animals long term well-being. The amount of selfishness in the reptile community is sickening. Keep up the great work.

[@AnimalsatHomePodcast]

Exactly, way too much leeway to the breeders! I will continue to highlight those who are doing it right 👌🏼 Thanks for listening, Nick!

[@zachheisen5022]

its terrible but its not all doom and gloom thankfull, after reading the lizard king it turned me on to how much of a ride the early days of reptile importing and pet trade were

[@LetsTalkHerps]

What a great conversation! Chelsea is a great example of what the hobbyist breeder could be!

[@AnimalsatHomePodcast]

Thanks, Steven! Completely agree!

[@jrborges]

Tremendous episode! Chelsea is fantastic!

[@AnimalsatHomePodcast]

Completely agree! She is awesome 🙂

[@Ascensionadventures]

This is the route I’m going and again! Dillon with the answers! I appreciate you again brother!

[@AnimalsatHomePodcast]

Can’t wait to see what you end up doing!

[@AustinTaOnYoutube]

Hey! It’s the lady from all the colubrid fb pages! This is awesome lol

[@AnimalsatHomePodcast]

It certainly is, enjoy the episode!

[@johnschlesinger2009]

This was very enjoyable. Re breeding: Peter Birch (Crittacam) put up a wonderful video where he left one of his antaresia females (probably more than one, I don't remember) to incubate her clutch, and fed her while she was coiled around them.

[@AnimalsatHomePodcast]

Thank you for listening, John! Oh well, that sounds interesting, I’ll have to go check that video out. I think maternal incubation is incredibly fascinating!

[@harrynewton9045]

Amazing episode yet again, thoroughly enjoyed!

[@AnimalsatHomePodcast]

Glad you enjoyed it, Harry!

[@CricketsMa]

Really an enjoyable episode!! Thank you.

[@AnimalsatHomePodcast]

Thank you, Suzanne!

[@moreliahouse3085]

Great show guys

[@AnimalsatHomePodcast]

Thank you for listening!

[@luwildy]

My first reptile was a leopard gecko and he's incredible totally but when I got my ball python I just fell completely in love they are such a magical species they're so popular for a reason

[@AnimalsatHomePodcast]

Yes they are awesome! 😁

[@snakemannn1744]

Nothing but greatness ,,,, I have enjoyed '

[@AnimalsatHomePodcast]

🙏🏻

[@MOONOVERMIAMI]

Hello great video podcast

[@AnimalsatHomePodcast]

Thank you 🙂

[@HerpHQ]

Supurb episode as always Dillon! I’ll agree with most of the comments here…. A role model of what breeding should be in the hobby!

[@AnimalsatHomePodcast]

Thanks for listening, Sam! 😃

[@speedymadr6]

I have been over to Smoldering Serpents and enclosures really are amazing, well done to Chelsea and Andrew. Nice to see there are ways of breeding without the rack and stack mentality.

[@AnimalsatHomePodcast]

Glad you enjoyed the episode, Dave!

[@6strings735]

Very well done, enjoyed it. However, I have to comment on the mention of the kingsnakes using shelves and such in enclosures. In the wild, kingsnakes live on the ground. You don't find Cal kings in trees, or Florida kings in rafters, etc. At least, not normally. Their habitat is not just on the ground, but more importantly in the ground. So when I hear of a king snake using a shelf in a cage, it just tells me that the king snake likes the micro habitat there. So we must be careful not to assign needs to species when it is not a need in their natural environs. Making a true king snake cage would be tricky - a network of tunnels. We can put a king snake in a 10 ft tall cage, fine. But all it really wants is a hole in the ground where it can prevent water loss from its skin, maintain temps as it needs, etc. Want to find a Cal king? Flat ground with cracks and rodent burrows, some dead looking grass. A piece of plywood. Pretty much there you have it, that is where they occur in numbers. No shelves, no branches, no potted plants.

[@AnimalsatHomePodcast]

Thanks for listening and thanks for adding your thoughts. Great point!

[@6strings735]

And thank you for providing such thought provoking and interesting content on your channel. Keep it up!

[@Jason-fp7vi]

Hello from Ontario. I am new to the channel, this was a really great video... I am torn in that I love some of the colour morphs of reptiles that have appeared from breeding, but I'm also pretty against racks (for the most part) and inbreeding (very against that)... But those amazing colour morphs that I love probably come from a decent amount of inbreeding... 😕 I only own a uromastyx, so I haven't delved into the colour morph craze. I just admire from afar

[@AnimalsatHomePodcast]

Hi Jason, welcome to the channel! I hear ya! Morphs can be incredible fascinating and they certainly drew me into herpetoculture during my early years. However, I have come to find there are many species out there that match morphs with there natural colour patterns. For example, you could get an orange dream BP if you like snakes with a high contrast of black and yellow... or you could go for a wild-type jungle carpet python that naturally has the same contrast. There are literally 100's of species out there that can match the colouration of certain morphs without having to deal with the inbreeding/industrial care issues. I'm thinking over the next few years we will see more species variety in the hobby which will make that more apparent! Thanks for watching 👍

[@nathanrupley]

Was pleasantly surprised that this episode was so good. Always interesting to see how different people can be in an interview, vs. on social media

[@smolderingserpents706]

Or just talking to different people 😊

[@nathanrupley]

@@smolderingserpents706 Oh, no. I saw how you treated Mariah on FB. That was horrid. Glad you treat your snakes better than you treat people who provide experiment enrichment.

[@smolderingserpents706]

I'm not exactly sure how politely but firmly disagreeing with someone on one choice is "horrid" but to each their own.

[@nathanrupley]

@@smolderingserpents706 Oh, sure, disagreeing is fine, and to be expected. That wasn't the issue, it was your acting like she is a terrible keeper, and refusing to actually address the content of her defense of it. Oh well, I can see this will go nowhere.

[@smolderingserpents706]

@@nathanrupley I'd encourage you to go back and re-read the thread. I definitely did not even imply anything bad about her herself, I think she's a fantastic part of our community. That entire thread was way overly heated but I don't appreciate being lumped into the people who were being rude and disrespectful because I certainly was not. I disagreed with letting reptiles interact with snow, I'm not sure how that has caused you to have such a negative opinion of me. If you'd like to discuss this more, I'm happy to do so, feel free to send me a message.

[@Gottalovecarpetpythons]

HAve to say our Carpets tend to breed older then most species, why they maynot be breeding as yet, some need to be about 6 years old. l have only ever bred once and that was in my everyday enclosures and l guess that was because l had my male and females cohabitating together from little ones.

[@AnimalsatHomePodcast]

Ah very interesting insight, that makes sense!

[@k.thomas295]

I would love to watch you do youtube videos on cage building, and cage designing

[@AnimalsatHomePodcast]

I agree! I hope she starts a KZbin channel soon 🤞🏼

[@k.thomas295]

@@AnimalsatHomePodcast in case you hadnt found out yet..... they did make a channel!!!

[@kevinpoe8137]

How about menagerie