Thanks Brad! This photo was taken this morning and her clutch of eggs were layed on 17 May. There are two schools of thought on how to maintain pine snakes with one preferring to maintenance feed and "grow them slow". I do not subscribe to this rationale but rather prefer to feed my pine snakes well. My opinion is that these are high metabolism animals with good appetites that prey on large food items and often. I'm not one to pass judgement since others profess to have success by the alternate method of feeding less and with smaller meals. I will say this however, my snakes successfully reproduce each year, have complete hatch rates resulting in strong viable offspring and my snakes do not suffer from mysterious winter death. My pine snakes never see a mouse. I start them on pink rats and increase the size of the rats they feed upon until as adults they are feeding upon large rats. IMO this more closely mirrows what wild pine snakes are feeding on in nature (pocket gophers, wood rats, cotton rats, etc..). Our adults are large and impressive and reflect the full potential that these snakes are capable of having.

Phil

[ Show Entire Thread ]