2026 Breeding Season Recap

This season was a total bust unfortunately. I cannot for the life of me figure out where I went wrong, but all animals appear healthy, temps remained normal all through spring/summer, but just nowhere near the production I was hoping for. Last year I managed to get several large clutches.

I did manage to get two clutches. One clutch of easterns from Apollo X Hestia and one small clutch of floridana from Ares X Leto. On the bright side having most of the hatchlings be easterns and not many FL kings I can really focus on getting these eastern babies started. Historically I have had a hard time getting neonate easterns started. But as is typical for kingsnakes, once they're going, they are near bulletproof.

I started pairing about the same time of year as last year, right around Valentine's day. The only thing I can think of is this spring got pretty warm early on. And potentially I stopped pairing too early. The wife had some travel plans set up early in the season which left me scrambling to get meals in everyone while attempting to pair my breeders. 

The good news is I have a small selection of available babies for anyone interested. Another positive note is all females look to be in good health post breeding season. I haven't noticed any egg-binding in my gals and no males lost any significant body weight. Despite the dismal production this year, I am completely optimistic about the future. No one passed away or was eaten during the breeding season or had any issues with egg-binding, etc. So I know mostly the collection is in good health and happy. 

Next year I plan to keep pairing until MUCH later in the season. I am also debating on getting a wine cooler and truly cooling the breeders down to proper brumation temperatures. Though I am still torn on that idea since Florida temperatures can remain fairly warm all through the winter. I'm hopeful just keeping them paired until later in the season will improve the numbers of eggs laid. 

I did hatch some very cool snakes even if less than I had hoped. So for the next 8 months or so I will just keep feeding them and cleaning their poop. Hopefully next year I get enough inventory to make it worth booking a table at a reptile show.

Happy Mother's Day

 Well the 2026 breeding season is well underway. This past weekend (Mother's day) Hestia, my eastern kingsnake laid 16 good eggs. Pretty fitting she chose Mother's day as the day to lay. She was the first female to lay last year too. This year I did the same pairing with her and Apollo. Both Hestia and Apollo are het albino. I still have one of her sons from last year too. He is a good looking albino eastern kingsnake. I'm hoping to produce a few more of them this year. Last year I had a tough time getting many of the babies from that clutch going. But the ones that made it were awesome!

Next to go should either be Asia or Leto. Both of these girls got the same pairings as last year. Asia (hypo, het albino) went to Achilles (Albino, het hypo). So we should see some more killer babies if everything goes well. Leto (hypo, mosaic, whiteside, het lavender) went back to her same boyfriend from last year, Ares (hypo, mosaic, het lavender, het whiteside). Last year this pairing produced an amazing female which is visual for three genes: lavender, mosaic, and hypo. She is still here and not going anywhere because she's just so awesome looking.

Last season I didn't get my het axanthic girls (Clio and Athena) to go. I paired them again this year with my axanthic male, Zeus. Zeus and Clio did produce a clutch back in 2023. The axanthic look has really grown on me over the past few years and I'd like to get a couple baby axanthics again. Plus Zeus, Clio, and Athena are all "possible het albino and hypo". Hopefully one or both of these girls took and we have something cool to check out when they hatch. Stick around for more updates as the season progresses.

2026 Breeding Season has Begun!

 As expected the snakes have awakened from their little "brumation" and are now looking to mate. I don't really brumate mine per se, I just turn off the heat to their enclosures and withhold food from about Christmas until Valentine's day. Those couple months are kind of nice in that I have hardly any poop to clean and I don't feed the adults. I keep the babies warm and continue normal feedings, so it's not like I have nothing to do, far from it actually. 

Around Valentine's day I turn the heat back on in the adult's enclosures and allow them to warm up for a couple days before offering their first meal. They all pretty much devour that first meal as well as a second meal the week after. Eventually the females will shed and once that's done I introduce the males to the female's cage. Hopefully I see some breeding activity and not homicidal or cannibalistic behavior. 

Knock on wood, my animals typically will get down to business without trying to kill or eat each other...so far. That said it is always a little nerve racking when I first start pairing them up. I will be pairing the same animals again this year as I did last year. I had some really great results in my opinion and see no reason to change things up this year. But in a couple years my holdbacks form last season will be of age and I will start to mix and match some stuff. The only drawback to this is I will probably produce a lot of hets and fewer visual animals that way. But in the long run it should set me up with more combinations of traits. Time will tell. 

Repticon Raleigh was a Success!

 Last weekend I setup a table at Repticon in Raleigh NC. I have attended this show many times, but have never vended at it or any reptile expo. Getting a table, payment, and check-in all went off without a hitch. The show ran Saturday 9am-4pm and Sunday 10am-4pm. It was a long weekend being as I am a one-man band. So no bathroom breaks or leaving the table for the duration of the show. My setup/breakdown is very simple being as I am but a small hobbyist breeder. 

The turnout seemed a little bit better than the last one I visited which was several years ago. I am pretty sure I was the only one there with any eastern kingsnakes. Also, probably the only one there with a wide selection of Florida kings. I had a lot of visitors, a lot of tire kickers, and thankfully a lot of paying customers. I am happy that most of what I brought went to a new home. Several of them went to what seemed like very caring homes. 

I will definitely try to get in the show as a vendor next year as well. I was able to talk to so many cool people and showcase these amazing and beautiful animals. I brought one of my adult female Florida kings with me to kind of show people what these can grow into. She is a beast of an ambassador. Many, many kids and adults were able to hold her. She tolerated all this stress quite well. In fact she ate a nice meal a day after returning home to her enclosure. Not that it is any surprise. 

Over the next month I will begin pairing adults again to see if I can hatch out some more cool kings and build up another inventory for the next show I can vend at. It was really fun. To the folks who purchased an animal from me THANK YOU and do not hesitate to reach out with any questions or concerns. 

Going to Repticon Raleigh in March!

Well I have more babies than I want to keep, so I finally got around to booking a table at Repticon in Raleigh, NC for March 7th and 8th. I'm only brining like 17 snakes with me, but they are some great looking and very healthy babies. These kingsnakes are all eating frozen / thawed fuzzies without hesitation. 

Some of what I am bringing are Eastern kings 66% het albino from Apollo bred to Hestia, maybe bring one male visual. I don't really want to sell him, since he is my only visual, but I plan to just price him high and if someone pays it, I will just have to hatch more.

I will also have some interesting Florida kingsnakes. I will have a lot of 100% double het albino/hypos that look awesome from Achilles bred to Asia! I would keep them all to myself, but cannot possibly care for all of them and provide them the attention I feel they all deserve. These were supposed to be all hypos at a minimum since dad is supposed to be hybino and bread to a definitely hypo female. They will be priced very attractively. The visual albino female I'm brining will be priced a bit higher since I don't really want to sell her. I'm also not convinced they're not some kind of hypo. They keep getting more red with each shed. Heck, maybe they're actually Erythristic which would be cool too!

I also have about 6 babies from Ares bred to Leto. All hypo, mosaic, het whitesided, 66% het lavender that look amazing and are growing rapidly. A couple of these are also visual whitesided. I'm really hoping to get most of these into some loving keeper's hands. 

The biggest fear to me is that I end up bringing home some weird snake disease or mites home with me. I will take every precaution I can, and that's all I can do. It will be my first time vending at any Repticon event. I have attended Repticon in Raleigh several times and it has always been a great way to spend a few hours. Wish me and these great animals some luck.

Success!

 Finally some success! Well some success anyway. Most all of the 2025 hatchlings have taken meals so far. Some refused to eat at all and didn't make it. Many have now had over three consecutive meals without any refusals. These really motivated eaters will be made available shortly. 

It is always disheartening to go through the pains of the breeding season, then waiting on eggs to be laid, followed by more waiting while the incubate, and finally the hatching. But then after all of that some of the hatchlings just refuse to thrive. It always amazes me how some individuals are pretty much eating like pigs right out of the gate while others take some time to get started. And still others just never get started even when trying all the tricks.

The most problematic hatchlings this year were definitely the clutch of eastern kingsnakes. Several of them just simply refused to live. This was heartbreaking as I have long since wanted an albino eastern king and when I hatched several out I was stoked. My thinking was to make most of them available and keep one or two for myself. Unfortunately most of the albinos just never started thriving. Several have already passed. I do have a couple that are eating, one of them has eaten several meals without an issue now. I am confident the ones that have made it thus far will be OK. 

The Florida kingsnakes on the other hand pretty much all started eating with gusto right out of the gate. That's part of why their my favorite species to work with. Easy to keep, easy to breed, and easy to get babies started. I'll be keeping only a few of these babies and the rest will be looking for new homes soon.

My breeder females have put almost all of their weight back on in preparation for the winter/2026 breeding season. So I'm sure next year I will have just as many if not more.  

All Done for 2025

 The final two clutches of the year have finally hatched. I didn't crush the odds or produce anything too crazy. But we did get some banger babies this year. I got a couple albinos. I was expecting them to be hybinos, but I'm afraid my "hybino" male may just be albino. Because I bred him to a hypo het albino female, so all of them should be hypo and some hybino. But I got several that look like normals.

I did get some hypo mosaics that look great. Also got a lavender hybino mosaic which is a real stunner! And my male is hypo mosaic, het lavender (which I knew) but he's also het whiteside since I got a couple whitesides as well. Now to get them shed and fed. Some of these will also be available once they've had several meals/sheds so keep an eye out for them.

So 2025 is basically over for me. But it's never too early to plan for next year. I will very likely do repeat breedings since these all kind of went well. But who knows, plans can certainly change. I am still struggling with getting a lot of the baby eastern kingsnakes from clutch #1 eating. Hopefully the baby florida kings from the last two clutches get going without any trouble. 

Feeding Babies

 While there are still a couple holdouts from my first clutch of 2025. Most of the babies are now eating, thankfully. Eastern kingsnakes can be hard to get started, but in my experience, once they get going there is no slowing them down. I may be biased, but these are just some of the coolest animals ever. I just can't get enough of these babies. Some have a lot of red in their chain pattern while others are mostly yellow and black. 

As fun as they are to work with, I have to admit the ones that are refusing food so far frustrate the hell out of me. For them the next steps will be trying to scented pinkies. I will try the age old tricks. One of the easiest scenting methods I know of is to soak the pinks in the water from a can of tuna fish. Don't ask me why it works, but it is often all you need. I suspect it has something to do with the snakes having an innate fear of rodents when they are this size. If you think about it, an adult mouse could easily ruin one of these baby kingsnake's day. 

I have heard many folks like to also drop the pinkies in a cup of boiling water. I have personally never used this method, but I am not above giving it a try if other ways do not work. I also have a large population of skinks running around in my yard. I have contemplated trying to capture one or two to use for scenting purposes as well. At any rate getting these babies going is always an adventure and sometimes you have to get creative.

I'm still awaiting the second clutch of the year to hatch. This one is super exciting too. Hoping we get a couple of lavender hybino mosaics as that is one of the sweetest combos in Florida kingsnakes if you ask me.

First Clutch All Shed

 The first clutch of 2025 are doing fine. All babies have shed out and are looking great. Five of the seventeen have already eaten their first meals. One of the babies even took a second meal already. So I am confident these ones will be doing just fine. One of the albino babies took their sweet time getting into their first shed. It shed almost a week after all the others, but seems to be in good health. I started to worry since everyone else shed. So I put the problematic youngster in a shoebox with moist paper towels and it did the trick. The shed came off perfectly. They have not eaten yet, but I will keep trying.

These albino eastern kings are really awesome looking snakes. I love their pink color they have now. Eventually though that will turn to white. The normals are great looking too. All of them have the typical feisty attitude of a baby lampropeltis getula. They are quite cute when they are looking and acting like little cobras. I will offer them all another meal in the next few days. Hopefully those that have eaten will eat again and those that have not eaten will start. They have to be getting hungry as I am sure they have already absorbed all their yolks. 

We are also a couple weeks away from hatching out some hypo mosaic Florida kings with some of those being lavender hybino mosaics. I am really excited for those snakes to start pipping. So far all the eggs from that clutch look great. After that we will have another clutch of Florida kings which should all be hypo along with about half of them being T- hybino. So stay tuned, as things are getting very busy around here.

Shed, Sex, and Feed

 Now that my baby kingsnakes have all hatched and some have shed it is time to set aside some time to sex them all. I will usually wait until they have had their first shed. Sexing them is exciting, because it will help me determine which ones I may want to keep. For example, an albino female eastern kingsnake would be a super addition to my collection. So if I have any, I am planning on keeping one (maybe two). It also helps any potential new owners decide if these babies may be something they want to get. 

I have sexed hundreds of snakes, both babies and adults of several species. It's not a glamorous event, and can be a little gross if the poop and musk starts flying toward your face. But it has to be done. For babies I will generally opt to use the popping method of sexing them. Its just faster and safer I feel for these little ones. You just need to be careful not to hurt them. They are still a little delicate at this age. If you have never done it, or are unsure how to do it, there are several youtube videos out there covering how its done. 

After they have shed and been sexed I will attempt to get them to eat their first meals. I expect some will just dive right into eating without hesitation and I expect others will be more hesitant. It's just the nature of the beast. One thing is for sure, with kings, once they are started they are generally very hardy animals. I am still awaiting a shipment of frozen rodents which contains some extra small pinkies for these guys. So once its here I hope to post some update photos of some of these babies taking down some food. 

First Clutch of 2025 is out

 Finally my first clutch of the year have all hatched out. Pairing was het albino male (Apollo) eastern kingsnake bred to het albino female (Hestia) eastern kingsnake. I started with 20 eggs laid. A few of those went bad during incubation and did not hatch. Seventeen of them did go all the way. I ended up with twelve normals and five albinos. All of them look pretty healthy. There are a couple of the first ones out which are a little bit on the small side compared to their siblings. But I am hopeful they will do just fine.

I'm debating on sexing them now or after they shed and will update with the results once I do that. I have plenty of pinky mice to feed them, so hopefully they are hungry and eat readily. This was an exciting clutch for me since I have wanted an albino eastern king since at least 2008. Do you know what is better than buying an albino eastern king? Hatching your own.

This clutch has been in the making since 2022 when I acquired the parents as hatchlings. I spent the last few years feeding and watching them grow. I always planned to breed them and hoped they were in fact het albino. Both parents have been great pets. They are good eaters and easily handled. When they are fresh out of a shed, they are absolutely stunning examples of kingsnakes. The last few years of keeping them has been very rewarding. I will likely keep a couple of the albinos since I have wanted one for so long. 

So if you're interested in an albino or 66% het albino eastern kingsnake, stick around. I will likely be making several available for sale in the not too distant future.

I still have two clutches of Florida kings in the incubator. These should produce some killer morphs if you're into that. I am into FL king morphs and I cannot wait to see what emerges from those eggs. Rest assured I will update on them once they start pipping. 

Seven Babies - One Albino

The eastern kingsnakes are still working their way out of the eggs. Seven babies have made it completely out. One of which is an albino. This is great, because now I know my het parents are in fact 100% hets. I bought them as 100% hets, but you never really know for sure, you are trusting the seller that they are what they say they are. Until you breed them or get a genetic test done you cannot be 100% sure. So it was a relief to know I haven't been raising, feeding, and cleaning up after this pair for several years and them not be hets. That would be tragic. This is my first albino eastern kingsnake I have ever hatched.

I see two more normals have pipped, but not out yet. There are still eight more eggs that haven't pipped. I am really hoping for a couple more albinos. But I will take what I can get out of this first time breeding of my het albino pair. Pretty sure I will do this same pairing again next year in an effort to get more albinos. An albino eastern kingsnake has been a dream snake of mine since, well forever

It is reassuring seeing this clutch hatching as I still have two more clutches of Florida kingsnakes in there. Seeing one clutch go to term tells me the incubator is working just fine. I will add some more photos of the babies after they have had their first shed. 

Now that they have hatched comes the work and potential frustration. Baby kings can be a little difficult to get started eating. I have historically had very little if any trouble getting baby floridana to eat. But easterns can be a little finicky. Some will just be almost automatic, while others can be notoriously stubborn. This clutch is composed of some small kingsnakes too. So while I am a little nervous about getting them all to eat, I will just do my best to get them going and thriving on frozen/thawed rodents.

Wish me luck and stay tuned to see how these babies do moving forward. Also be on the lookout for some of my other cool clutches to hatch in mid and late August 2025.

Happy World Snake Day!

 It seems each time I log onto Facebook or other social media there is some sort of "day". Usually I pay them no mind really. There's siblings day, national puppy day, you name it. Like a day for pretty much everything exists. But I never thought about a world snake day until I saw someone post something about it on Facebook. If you think about it, if anything deserves a day it is snakes. 

They were here long before us and snakes will probably be here long after we are gone. Snakes are crucial to the ecosystems in which they live. Without them, the balance of the entire system is thrown out of equilibreum. If you live in the southeastern USA like me and killed off all of your local corn snakes or rat snakes, you would likely be overrun with rodents in a short time. The same can be said of the venomous species as well. Kill or remove all of your pit vipers and again the rodent population in that area will explode. While rodents also have their own place in their respective ecosystems, they can carry dangerous disease. Just check out hentavirus. Which seems to be increasing in popularity. Could it be because we've effectively decimated the rodent's natural predators in those areas?

Snakes in general get a lot of bad press and many folks cannot see any value in any snake. But this is a very ignorant view. Even the most deadly or dangerous snakes deserve a fair chance at living their lives. In the US for example on average there are only five deaths per year due to snake bite. The chances of being killed by a snake in my part of the world are pretty minimal. That said, if you see a venomous snake, just leave it alone. Most bites occur due to individuals trying to capture or kill the snake. 

Considering there are 20-40 cases of hantavirus per year with a 35% fatality rate, I think I would prefer to deal with the snakes.

As a snake keeper for over 25 years I can tell you they make the absolute best pets in my opinion. A pet snake is not likely to chew up your furniture or your homework. They also make very little noise, so your neighbors, HOA, etc will not be complaining about that either.

Snakes are cool, fun, and an important part of the natural world. So let's all try to be a little nicer to our legless, scaly friends on this world snake day, and EVERYDAY. And let's appreciate the important job they do for us. 

Finally! Kingsnakes are Hatching!

 This morning I was stoked when I checked the incubator, as I do about twice a day when something is due to hatch. I was greeted by two normal eastern kingsnakes pipping. While they are only about 6 days late, I have to admit I was starting to get nervous. I honestly expected them on the 5th or 6th of July. But as we know nature has her own clock and there is nothing we can do to speed it up or even slow it down. I am happy to see these two though. I'm looking for some albinos, but only normals so far. 

But there is quite a few eggs left to pip. These were from Apollo x Hestia. Mom and dad are both het albino so we should expect about 25% of the hatchlings to be albino. Nothing beats the excitement of seeing eggs hatch whether they are the target morph or normal animals. All of them are absolutely beautiful. Sure morphs are cool looking, but nature's paint jobs are gorgeous in their own right. 

If you have been following along, I was pretty worried about this clutch due to the small size of the eggs. She seemed to lay these guys a little early since they were still connected by a thread like material. There was like 4 eggs that either were bad from the jump or have went bad during the incubation process. But there is still a dozen or more that look good and will hopefully hatch out some gorgeous babies.

Breeding kingsnakes is not for the impatient. If you start with babies you have about three years of just caring for them until they get to breeding size. Then you have to pair them and hope they make a love connection. Then you have to wait for the female to lay. Once you make it to the laying you feel like you're pretty successful. But after collecting the eggs you still have another two months of just waiting and keeping temps within range.

Even after hatching, the work is not quite complete. Some baby kingsnakes can be slow to start eating. Eastern kingsnakes can be tough, but usually not too much trouble.And once you get them started, you're typically in the clear. So stay tuned as I will continue posting updates on the hatching as well as the hatchlings of this special clutch.  

Still Waiting for Hatclings

 My female eastern kingsnake laid eggs on May 2, 2025. She is het albino and was paired with my het albino male. I've been keeping an eye on the eggs and patiently awaiting them to pip. It has been 66 days so they should be coming out any day now. Some of these eggs have unfortunately went bad. But there is still a good number which appear to be doing just fine. The female I call Hestia, has been putting weight back on and is looking to be in great shape. I am planning on a repeat pairing of Hestia and Apollo in 2026.

She laid 18 eggs. Some I could tell were duds right out of the gate. A couple others have now molded and deflated so appear to have failed as well. But there is still over a dozen that look okay up to this point. I do feel like she laid this clutch a little early. The eggs were quite small, and still had the little filament connecting them similar to a string of pearls. The eggs were more round than I usually see with my Florida kings. For now, all I can do is keep the incubator temperatures consistent and wait. Breeding snakes is not for the impatient. There is a lot of waiting involved. But to say I am eager to see the hatchlings is an understatement. So much time and work has gone into this clutch of eastern kingsnakes. I simply can't wait to see if this clutch beats the odds. Hoping we end up with at least a couple albino eastern kingsnakes out of this one. 

There are two more clutches cooking as well. These two are from Florida kingsnakes. So far all the eggs in both Florida king clutches are looking good. Fingers crossed they all make it to term. Fingers crossed on both hands that we beat the odds and get some killer looking morphs from these. I didn't include any photos in this post because I have already posted photos of these clutches. This was just an update on how things are going so far. 

Putting Weight Back on Females for 2026

 As most of my females have laid their eggs for the 2025 season, I waste zero time in ensuring their body condition bounces back. Actually I aim to give them enough nutrition to bounce back, grow, and start putting on size for next year. Gals who have laid will get double fed for a few weeks, then down to just one large mouse weekly until winter sets in. 

Eastern Kingsnake Hungry After Laying Eggs

I feed aggressively just after laying to give them a little boost in putting weight back on. Once they're back to normal weight I go to more of a maintenance feeding schedule. I feel somewhat rushed in getting the initial weight back on, but I also know these animals are still growing a little each year so I want to make sure I don't stunt their growth. 

Florida kingsnake on her second mouse

The eastern kingsnake in the top photo gave up 18 eggs, so she was looking rather deflated a couple months ago. But as you can see she is already back to decent condition. I don't mind the females getting a tiny bit chunky this time of year either. I feel like their bodies have lost so much nutrition throughout the egg forming and egg laying process. It only seems natural they would go on a food binge if they had a choice anyway.

Florida kingsnake getting double fed

The Florida kingsnakes shown laid smaller clutches of larger eggs. They didn't lose as much weight as the Eastern kingsnake. Nonetheless, I still want to get a couple good meals in them quickly. This will ensure they put any lost weight back on while also preparing for the winter season. I don't brumate them at very low temperatures, but I do turn the heat in their enclosures off for a couple months. 

My room also gets a lot less sunlight during this time which I think helps them cycle. Also I don't withhold food, but I do offer it less frequently and see a lot of the snakes skip the meals I do offer on those warmer winter days. Some of course never skip a meal. I am still waiting on eggs from 2025 to hatch, but it's never too early to start planning for the 2026 season. Hopefully I will have some hatch updates soon so stay tuned. 

How I Incubate Kingsnake Eggs

Once I am certain the female is done laying, I will usually get her out of the laybox if she hasn't come out on her own. I will then gently palpate her to check there is in fact no more eggs. Once I'm confident she has emptied them out I gather the eggs from the laybox. Careful not to change the orientation I found them in. Sometimes I will try to separate them so they're not just a giant blob of eggs. However, sometimes that is not possible and I will just place the whole lump in an incubation box.

For incubation box I use small plastic tubs and use moist perlite for a substrate. I choose locking tubs, because in past years I have had the babies get out of the snap-on top incubation tub and found them just cruising around in the incubator. 

I am a just a small hobbyist breeder so my actual incubator is a very simple design. A cooler, some heat cable, and thermostat is all you really need. The temperatures you're trying to achieve are like 75-80 degrees F. The supplies I listed are very affordable and this setup has hatched hundreds of snakes for me over the years. Plus if I run out of room in one cooler I can just set up another one. This adds some failure domains to the operation so all your eggs aren't literally all in one basket. 

Cooler incubator

Heat cable and thermostat keep temps dialed in

Technically if your room or somewhere in your house is in the high 70's you can just put the incubation box on a shelf or on top of a fridge, etc. Most colubrid snakes are VERY simple to incubate. Granted I have no fans to circulate air or fancy stuff like that in my setup. But again, this is a hobby for me, I love checking on them during the process which allows for some air exchange almost daily. I candle them every couple weeks throughout the process to monitor them.

I have found using the temperature I mentioned above, the incubation time is a little bit shorter opposed to leaving it on a shelf somewhere. The cooler/heat tape combo keeps the temperature stable enough and warm enough for my eggs. If you look at kingsnakes in the wild and where they lay their eggs, you'll see it just needs to be warm enough, but not too warm. The mom just deposits them in a safe enough spot with decent enough temps, and bam they hatch. Another thing to keep in mind is the eggs need high humidity, but you do not want them getting wet or submerged. Believe it or not, but they need to breathe. This is why I use the moist perlite for substrate in the incubation box. The eggs just sit on this substrate. 

The cooler in the photos houses three clutches of kingsnake eggs. Some are getting very near their expected hatch date. This is one of the most exciting times of year for me as a keeper of kingsnakes. You work all year to see what comes out of these eggs. Usually you kind of know what to expect, but there can be a big surprise anytime!

Keeping and interacting with these kingsnakes is a fun and rewarding hobby in and of itself. I can't imagine not having at least one of these guys. But watching them reproduce is on another level altogether.

Hybino FL Kingsnakes Incoming!

I bred my hypo het T- albino female (Asia) to my T- hybino male (Achilles) this spring. I got this pair a few years back from Scott McFarlane with the hopes of raising them up and creating more hybinos. The hybino is a gorgeous looking morph combination. Scott is also a well regarded breeder of Florida kings. I have no buyers remorse. These snakes are beautiful and really easy to care for. There was no issues raising them up. They always ate well and grew rapidly. Kingsnakes are just such great snakes to keep. They are very undemanding if you can manage to meet a few simple parameters. Once you have those parameters dialed in, you are almost guaranteed success.

This pair actually was slow to start the breeding this spring. But eventually I saw several locks. A couple of these locks lasted for hours. So I was pretty confident my gal would be gravid. I fed very well after the pairings to ensure my female had the nutrition required for some healthy eggs. When she shed in early June I had a nice lay box with moist sphagnum moss inside ready for her. I checked her daily for eggs. She really liked the box, but after two weeks went by and no eggs, I was beginning to get a little worried about her. This was her first time breeding and I would have hated to see her fall victim to egg-binding. 

Finally on Thursday June 26th, when performing my daily check on her in the morning I saw her in the process of laying. She already had a few eggs in the box, but was still working on depositing more, so I left her to do her thing while I went to work. When I got home I rushed in to check on her again. She was out of the box and looks to be empty of eggs. So I got the box out and found 8 good eggs and no slugs. SWEET!

I prepared a small tub with moist perlite, a label, and placed them in the incubator. Now we play the waiting game and hope all of them make it to hatching. I will probably give them a week in the incubator and then candle them to ensure they are all good eggs. But they looked pretty good from what I have seen so far. This should be a great looking clutch. I am beyond excited to hatch these ones. Of the eight eggs, we can expect four hybinos. And four hypo, het albino babies per the genetic calculator. I would not mind keeping this entire clutch, but I will probably let a few of them go. I want to have room for other babies from other projects too.

Stay tuned for progress reports on these and other clutches as well.

Snakes From Years Past

 I have been interested in snakes for pretty much my whole life. It is hard to remember a time in my life where snakes were not a huge interest. Like most snake geeks I got my start catching wild snakes near my home. I loved identifying them and researching the various species which a young kid could find in Missouri where I spent a lot of my years as a kid. I caught and kept rat snakes, racers, and garters. My parents were not exactly fans of snakes so I had to keep them in the garage. Generally I would catch them, keep them a week or two to observe them, and then release them where I found them. 

Eventually I got a job and moved out. I bought my own house when I was 20 or 21. At this point no one (parents or landlord) could tell me I couldn't keep snakes. One of my buddies had a brother who owned a large redtail boa and needed it rehomed. I gladly stepped up and in a couple days I had a huge enclosure and one huge snake. She was an awesome snake too. This was way before everyone had camera phones and unfortunately I don't know if any pictures of this snake exist which is unfortunate. She was a beauty. I in turn had to rehome her as well due to joining the military.

I was snakeless for a good number of years until I was working with gal who had a ball python that her kids seemed to have lost interest in. So I took her in and gave her a good home. I really enjoyed keeping this snake. It was very chill and a manageable size. For a ball python it was also a pretty reliable eater too. The ball python morph craze was just kicking into high gear. And I thought I really liked balls so thought I should get some morphs. I had an amazing looking female bamboo, pinstripe, pastel, black pastel, possible yellow belly. I had an albino female. I also had a champagne, het albino male as well. 

After a while I kind of realized ball pythons were not really that interesting to me. Sure they come in some amazing morphs and combos, but they just could not hold my interest. Eventually I started falling in love with kingsnakes. One of the first I acquired was a hybino FL/eastern king cross. He was pretty awesome.

And so the story goes, I rehomed my ball pythons and expanded my kingsnake collection. And there my focus has remained for the last several years. And I don't anticipate that changing anytime soon. Ball pythons are great snakes, just not for me. I have always been the type to do my own thing. Walking around any reptile show it becomes pretty clear Ball Pythons are the main focus and have done great things for our hobby. But I enjoy being the guy who does what interests me.

My "Expensive" Snake Finally Laid Eggs!

 Several years ago I wanted to add some of the lavender gene to my collection. I already had a T- hybino male who is pretty stunning. And I had several of the other available morphs you can find in Florida kingsnakes. But the lavender gene has always been attractive to me. When I came across an ad for a multi-gene female I snapped her up. She is supposed to be 100% het lavender. She is also hypo, mosaic, and whiteside. I named her Leto and began raising her up. 

She is definitely the most expensive kingsnake I ever thought about purchasing. Probably twice the price of any other snakes I currently own. But I have no regrets. When I purchased her I also got a male hypo, mosaic, 100% het lavender to go with her. One of my dream snakes (I have a lot of dream snakes) has been the lavender hybino mosaic. Which if you have ever seen one, its just a mind blowing combination of Florida kingsnake morphs.

After several years of feeding and cleaning up poop, which is like 99% of keeping and breeding these fascinating animals, I finally felt they were old/large enough to try breeding them. This may have been the only time I was truly nervous about pairing some snakes. Obviously as the name dictates, these snakes are known to like to eat other snakes. My male, Ares, achieved a fairly larger size than Leto this pricy female. And Leto my pricey female has a psychotic feeding response. Nonetheless I went for it and paired them this spring. 

I turn the heat off and just let them hang out with an ambient temp from around December to February. My snakes share my home office with me so it doesn't get very cold, probably 68-72F during this time. So there is no real brumation. But they definitely slow down, eat way less, and get a lot less sunlight for these couple months. About Valentine's day I kick the heat back on. In a couple weeks their appetite and normal routines return in full force. 

At this point I make their introductions. Initially there was nothing really happening and they seemed uninterested. So I was second guessing their sexes and thought about re-sexing them using probes. But I'm lazy and just kept pairing them every few days. Then one day when I went to seperate them I noticed Ares was firmly locked onto Leto. YES!!!! I continued pairing them every couple days for a few weeks. There were several good locks observed. So I was confident my male, Ares had done his job dutifully. 

After a couple months of feeding her very well I was starting to think Leto didn't take. But she definitely looked gravid. She was not interested in food during last week's feeding which is really odd for her. It had been over 2 weeks since her "pre-lay shed" so I was starting to get worried thinking she may be egg-bound. Then last week she dropped one dozen nice looking eggs. None appeared to be slugs while I moved them from lay box to incubation box. 

So now it is just another waiting game to find out if they hatch and if in fact Leto/Ares are both 100% het lavender. At a minimum I am confident the whole clutch will be hypo mosaics, so that's cool in and of itself. 

After Leto laid her eggs I gave her a day to rest up. Then I checked to see if she was hungry. Big surprise, she was super hungry! One good thing is she eats so well I feel pretty confident about getting her up to condition for next year.