Breed Snakes Successfully: the Complete Guide With Pictures and Tips (2024)

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Have you ever considered breeding snakes? It’s an exciting endeavor that lets you fully immerse in the miracle of life.

We’ll walk you step-by-step through:

• Selecting healthy snakes
• Prepping their environment
• Introducing them for mating
• Identifying successful breeding
• Caring for expectant mothers
• Assisting with birthing
• Raising hatchlings
• Proper feeding techniques
• Monitoring health/growth
• Troubleshooting any challenges that may arise.

Equipped with this complete guide and pictures, you’ll breed snakes successfully.

Preparing Your Snakes to Breed

Before pairing up your snakes, you’ll need to make sure they’re healthy and ready for breeding.

Once those key elements are in place, your snakes stand the best chance of breeding successfully.

Choosing Healthy Snakes

To successfully breed snakes, you’ll want to start by choosing healthy snakes with ideal temperaments and genetics for breeding.

An experienced breeder can help pick snakes with appropriate traits at the right age for breeding.

Avoid aggressive or sick snakes.

Housing Requirements

Before you set up your snakes’ breeding enclosure, ensure it meets their specific housing needs for optimal health and reproductive success.

• Provide an enclosure of adequate size with proper temperature, humidity, and substrate selected for the species.
• Ensure the enclosure offers areas for privacy and security while allowing room for breeding activity.
• Situate it in a location away from high traffic areas like the yard, garage, or basement, and avoid temperature fluctuations from air conditioning, heaters, or pools.

Carefully attending to their housing needs helps set up your snakes for successful breeding.

Setting Up Ambient Conditions

You’ll need to dial in the proper ambient conditions before attempting to breed your snakes.

Provide an ambient temperature between 75-85°F with a basking spot reaching 90°F.

Use under tank heat mats, ceramic heat emitters, and incandescent bulbs to create temperature gradients allowing your snakes to thermoregulate.

Offer a humidity level around 60% using damp substrate, moss boxes, and water bowls.

Ensure adequate airflow and access to fresh, clean water at all times.

Monitoring ambient conditions closely prevents health issues when breeding snakes.

Introducing Snakes and Mating

Now that your snakes are healthy and housed properly, it’s time to introduce them for mating.

Carefully move the female into the male’s enclosure, providing ample space for courtship behaviors. Monitor temperatures to ensure optimal gradients for breeding, around 75-85°F on the cool end and 85-92°F on the warm end.

Watch for the male snake showing interest by tongue flicking, bobbing, and crawling over the female. If receptive, she’ll lift her tail and gape her cloaca. Copulation may last over an hour.

The number of eggs, or clutch size, varies by species. Provide multiple suitable nesting areas in the enclosure as the gestation period can span two to three months before she’s ready to lay her eggs.

Signs Your Snakes Have Mated Successfully

Once your snakes wrap up mating, you’ll pick up on signs like noticeable weight gain indicating successful conception.

A gravid female snake will develop a swollen belly as embryos grow over the next few months.

You may also notice the mated pair still coiled together even outside of the mating season, lacking the aggression seen in solitary snakes.

The male may refuse food while attending to his mate.

Females show physical signs too – an enlarged vent and stretched belly skin in preparation for birthing.

If you spotted your snakes in a mating ball, copulating for long periods, it likely resulted in conception.

Monitor your potentially gravid snake closely through any pregnancies to ensure health and successful births of baby snakes (squamates).

Caring for the Pregnant Snake

As the pregnant snake approaches her due date, focus on providing proper housing and an appropriate diet.

• Offer extra hiding places.
• Increase the size of meals to support her changing needs.

Monitoring humidity levels and temperature gradients will also help ensure a healthy environment for gestation.

Providing Proper Housing

The expecting snake requires an incubator or a nesting box for safe gestation once you’ve confirmed mating occurred successfully.

• Minimum dimensions of 18 x 18 x 12
• Multiple hides for thermoregulation
• Fresh water bowl changed daily
• Substrate like aspen shavings to absorb ammonia

Offering Appropriate Food

When caring for the pregnant snake, you’re ensuring she gets increased calories by offering rodents that are 15-20% larger than her normal meals of gut loaded, vitamin enriched, thawed frozen mice or rats.

Offer live prey only if required.

Carefully monitor your snake’s body condition, adjusting prey size and frequency as needed to support a healthy pregnancy.

Identifying When the Snake Will Give Birth

To identify when your snake will give birth, you can observe changes in its behavior and physical appearance.

1. Swollen Belly: As the pregnancy progresses, you may notice that your snake’s belly becomes noticeably larger and more rounded.
2. Lump on Abdomen: Another indicator of an impending birth is the presence of a lump or bulge on the abdomen of your snake. This could be a sign that eggs or live young are developing inside.
3. Nesting Behavior: In preparation for giving birth, snakes often exhibit nesting behaviors such as seeking out secluded areas or creating nests by rearranging their bedding materials.

Additionally, you might notice other changes like decreased appetite and increased frequency of urination in pregnant snakes. By keeping an eye out for these signs, you’ll be better prepared to assist with the birthing process when it occurs.

Helping With the Birthing Process

You’ll need to prepare the birthing enclosure by adding nesting boxes and moisture-retaining substrates when it’s time for your snake to give birth.

• Box Size: 1.5-2 times snake length
• Box Location: On warm side of enclosure
• Substrate: Sphagnum moss, cypress mulch
• Humidity: 70-80%
• Temperature: 80-85°F

The box should allow the female to fully coil inside with room for birthing. Place it on the warm side so babies can thermoregulate after birth. Humidity-retaining substrates help ensure stuck eyecaps come off properly. Maintain ambient temperatures and humidity levels for healthy births.

Gently assist if babies emerge encased in membranes. Ultimately, refrain from intervention unless vital signs decline or labor stalls over 6 hours.

Caring for Baby Snakes

Frequently, you’re setting up an enclosure to house the newborn snakes properly after a successful birth.

• Appropriate humidity levels
• Suitable temperatures
• Places for the snakes to hide and explore

It’s key to allow the baby snakes time to settle before attempting to handle them. When they seem strong and healthy, you can begin the process of weaning them onto appropriate foods.

As the snakes grow, monitor their development closely. Adjust the enclosure size as needed, continuing to provide proper humidity and temperatures. The health and comfort of these young snakes is paramount, so observe them closely and make adjustments promptly to support their growth.

With attentive, thoughtful care in these early days, you’ll set up the babies for a healthy life ahead.

Feeding Baby Snakes Properly

Feeding your baby snakes properly is important for their health and growth.

To start, feed baby snakes every 5-7 days. Offer pre-killed pinky mice that are equal to the width of the snake’s head. As the snakes grow, gradually increase food size. By 5-6 months, switch from mice to adult mice or rat pups.

Monitor if babies seems lethargic or regurgitate, which may signal overfeeding. Adjust frequency and portions as needed.

Here is a helpful feeding guide:

Age	Food	Frequency
Birth-1 month	Pinky mice	Every 5 days
1-3 months	Fuzzy mice	Every 5 days
3-5 months	Hopper mice	Every 6 days
5-8 months	Weaned mice	Every 7 days
8+ months	Adult mice, rat pups	7-10 days

This covers the key points on properly feeding baby snakes as they grow. Be observant and flexible to meet each snake’s needs.

Monitoring Health and Growth

After feeding the babies properly, you’ll want to keep close tabs on their health and growth by closely observing them daily for any issues and regularly measuring weight and length.

1. Observe babies daily for normal behavior and activity levels. Watch for issues like lethargy, lack of appetite, or abnormal skin.
2. Weigh babies regularly to ensure they’re gaining weight at an expected pace. Rapid weight loss could signal health problems.
3. Measure length periodically to track growth over time. Consider noting measurements on a chart.
4. Monitor shedding cycles, which should occur fairly regularly. Shedding difficulties could suggest dehydration or other problems.

Look for steady weight gain, normal skin and shedding, and expected activity levels and behavior. Watch closely for signs of poor health requiring intervention or treatment. Thorough monitoring ensures healthy development.

Troubleshooting Challenges

When monitoring reveals health or growth issues in your baby snakes, swiftly consult an experienced herpetologist for guidance addressing these challenges.

Infertile eggs, lack of appetite, early birth, retained eggs, and egg binding may indicate underlying problems requiring intervention.

An expert can help troubleshoot root causes, whether incorrect temperatures, insufficient humidity, malnutrition, birth defects, or disease.

They can advise on correcting conditions and diet to support development.

For lack of appetite, utilize scenting techniques.

Retained eggs may need gentle massage or surgery.

Open communication with a seasoned mentor helps sidestep pitfalls and nurture healthy snakes, empowering your mastery.

Continually fine-tune husbandry as you gain experience.

Partnering with specialists turns obstacles into opportunities for deeper wisdom.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)