Well, I debated on posting this since it involves an intergrade and two snakes "living together in sin", but here goes. This little female was bred by my one and only corn snake. **DUCKS** It was not really a planned breeding, but I did nothing to avoid it either.

Here's the story behind the pairing - both are "pet" snakes with the corn being a road rescue I've had for over 5 years. He's also my only corn. The yellow was produced by me about three years ago. Her mother is the snake at the top of this forum . The eggs from that clutch got overheated during incubation and some of the babies showed varying degrees of spinal deformities ranging from none at all, to so bad, two babies were euthanized immediately. This little girl was at the bad end of the spectrum but still had that little spark and will to survive, even though she could barely crawl around on her own. I decided to give her a shot and see how she did despite her "handicaps". Needless to say, she has done just fine even though she is a little small for her age and still has spinal bumps (no kinks), a pudgy body and fat, slightly misshapen head. She also has a fantastic personality to boot! They had always lived alone, but recently I decided to put these two together in a 55 gal. aquarium that was sitting empty and they both did fine together (obviously a litte too fine!). Within a month of introducing them I was a bit surprised to see them breeding aggressively and things progressed normally from there and the eggs are now cooking at 80*-82* in the incubator. I was actually very nervous about egg binding due to her spinal bumps but she had zero problems.

So before I post pics, there are two lessons here:
1. Keeping snakes together can be a bad thing for many different reasons, including unplanned breedings (although I am happy about this particular one)
2. Even a fairly severely deformed baby can go on to live a healthy, productive life if given the chance and proper support early.

So here are the pics:
The yellow as a baby - notice the fat head and pudgy body, not exactly what most think of when it comes to baby rat snakes


Recent picture of the yellow - she still has the fat head and pudgy watersnake body, but she has that gorgeous S. FL lemon yellow coloration


Proud momma with her eggs


Dad, Lucky the road rescue corn snake, from Delray Beach, Palm Beach County, FL



So there you have it. With a little luck, I will be posting pics of the kids in a couple of months.

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