#snake breeding

The lighting in this airbnb closet is awful but THE EGGS ARE BEAUTIFUL.

And there are 18!! Her biggest clutch to date.

So I took some advice from my friend Lisa and changed things up. Red Tide is a 2014 animal. First laid in 2019, 10 good 1 infertile Laid again in 2022, 4 good 7 infertile Laid now in 2026, 18 good Usually I do most of my feeding up to breeding weight prior to pairing, then give small meals here and there while paired. This time I fed heavy while pairing. 6 jumbo rats between 9/1/2025 until 12/28/2025, which is a ton for her. Paid off well with 18 beautiful fertile eggs.

Oooohhh this is a good question and it's something I think about A Lot and have somewhat addressed before.

I think it helps to consider how most of the morphs we see in captivity (including domestic animals like dogs and cats!) become widespread. Generally, an animal displaying an unusual mutation will be bred with another animal of that species, and then the offspring will be bred back to the parent that carries the original mutation to see if any of the resulting inbred babies have that mutation.

There are two parts to this.

Part one: Mutations, in general, affect an animal's fitness in the wild. Snow corns, as you've pointed out, probably have impaired vision as do all pink-eyed morphs. Other mutations make snakes more visible to predators, or less able to protect themselves, or could affect growth rates, metabolism, organ development, or fecundity. By keeping these animals in captivity and choosing mutations that could reduce wild fitness, we're bypassing natural selection. Is that ethical? Is breeding a sphinx cat ethical? What about a German shepherd? A horse with a white (easily sunburnt) nose? An albino parakeet? Ethics is largely a matter of how personal beliefs intersect with current societal moral consensus. What is ethical for us today may be seen as wrong in twenty years.

Part two: Until pretty recently, many less-thoughtful breeders of reptiles didn't believe that continued inbreeding had any consequences. Now, of course, we understand that the more homozygous an animal is, the higher the likelihood of them expressing mutations that are harmful such as lower immune response or bone deformities. Unfortunately, some breeders to this day refuse to learn about ethics, inheritance, or coefficients of inbreeding and continue to inbreed generation after generation of animals. I've seen first-hand that Ice corns (Anery + Lava) have reduced fecundity and lower robustness. Outcrossing from different bloodlines was not successful in improving the quality and hatch size of offspring. I no longer work with that morph.

I think it's very likely that the person you encountered has realized the consequences of irresponsible morph breeding combined with weak old-school husbandry practices. Their knee-jerk rejection of the entire practice is totally understandable and a valid stance. Others have instead decided to work to improve husbandry and encourage more ethical breeding practices. Also understandable, also valid. For my part, I am making efforts to ensure that any snake I breed has the exact same potential life span as any wild-origin corn snake.

A few content warnings for snakes, as well as mentions of animal breeding (in a scientific context).

OK with that out of the way, l (as some of you may already be aware) absolutely love snakes, l've wanted to be a snake breeder since I was 5 years old. It's essentially my life goal. I especially love hognose snakes, they're easily one of my favorite species! I've had a big female hog named Petunia for a few years now, and every year she lays an infertile clutch of eggs. I haven't been ready to breed her in previous years for a variety of reasons.

This year however, I noticed during the winter she was staying on the cold end of her tank, sleeping the whole time, refusing food. She had brumated herself without prompting! This was interesting enough as is, but once she woke up a few weeks ago for the spring, I noticed she was... weirdly restless. Constantly surfing glass, exploring every inch of her tank 24/7, just frankly very odd behavior. I checked her temperature, all good. Humidity, all good. She eats great so I know it wasn't a hunger thing.

Then I realized- there wasn't anything wrong with her. She was looking for a male snake for mating season! (Pictured below is her watching me after a meal since she wanted more food... lol)

The problem? I didn't have a male hognose of breeding age + size for her. So she'd spend another year without a boy.

Usually, this would be where this story ends. Uneventful.

But, as you can guess that's not where it ends.

Every day we get closer and closer to Cherche having her babies. My mentor believes we may still be 1-2 months away but it could be longer! I literally can't imagine her getting any bigger!!! My mentor gave me a guess as to how many babies and I thought it would be fun to see if any of you want to place a guess as well! No strings attached, this is just for fun!

New snake! I got a female palmetto corn snake to someday breed with In the Paint, my male palmetto. Bluder might be het for palmetto, and I’ll see if I can prove that out, but I really wanted to make sure I could breed palmettos since they are so pretty and so in demand. This lady is named Paprika because I’m out of basketball themed names and she won’t be ready to breed until at least 2026, but it’s way cheaper to buy a baby than an adult.

She seems to have a curious personality and is very friendly. I’m officially done getting new snakes (still have a few paid for that will arrive later this month but no more corns).

Morelia Viridis, aka Green Tree Python!

Sono stupendi, il mio serpente preferito... Hanno dei colori bellissimi, e vivono avendo caratteristiche uniche, diverse da tutti gli altri serpenti!!! 😍😍😍🐍🐍🐍