Hi, Hmmmmmmmmmmmm it already has been done, as pioneer of many of these kingsnake species, the founders were a pain in the back side.

Once in captivity, there is no other option then to select for captive traits. The individuals that do well in our setups, continue, the individuals that do not, are not selected for future breeders.

I once had this conversation with Tracy Barker, we reflected on how easy some of these species breed now, but were a task in the begining. Some were even hard to keep alive.

It was not entirely behavior but how the individuals were treated before we acquired them.

In my case, I would collect my own founder stock and take care of them from the day I picked them up. I would also limit my time in the field. So I could get the animals back and set up.

I had friends that did a lot of collecting, but would spend months in the field and their animals were very very stressed from being in a bag in the back seat of a car for long periods.

Imported animals are normally on their last legs before we would get them. They are normally treated horribly before getting to decent care.

Couple that with level of care. Its very simple that poor care causes feeding problems. For instance, I rarely have problem feeders with such species as mexicana types and pyros. They normally fed on pinks right off.

As mentioned so many times, poor temps and poor humidity is a real problem.

Dehydration is a widespread and chronic problem. And its so easy to test. All you have to do is take a great feeder and withhold water, in short time it will become finicky, then it will stop feeding, then it will die. It will take a while to die, but it eventually will.

Baby snakes are massively out of balance, they have a huge surface area and little mass. Which means they dehydrate hundreds of times faster then adults of the same species.

All thin skinned species place their neonates in areas that are suitable. Like the conditions that hatch eggs are good for neonates. The adults place their eggs where the neonates CAN SURVIVE, not just hatch.

Yet we as keepers take our hatchlings away from the conditions that allowed them to hatch. Cheers

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