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.