Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I had been seeking a nice group of the reddish phase of the Florida Brown Snake and just came into a nice bunch. Now to see if they will breed and reproduce, although the larger one is gravid already.

Dan

Hi Dan,

Those are pretty brown snakes, and I'm curious to see how the breeding goes. I feel kind of defeated after this summer's failed attempt to feed neonate browns. How successful have you been getting the little guys to eat?

Cheers,
Billy

Phillyherping

Billy, yea, new born browns are seemingly difficult feeders. I believe it may be why mothers are picky feeders and usually do not feed while still with the babies. Perhaps moms are associating the worm with something looking similiar to a baby, and every mom I tried to feed worms after giving birth was reluctant to eat until she was separated for a few days away from the babies. And perhaps the babies react the same and need to be totally separated and then offered small pieces of tiny worms. I did eventually get a few to eat worms but released most if not all of the babies back where the mother was found. It was not worth risking their health. With these reds, I will take the time to separate the babies and try again and also try with mini slugs I find in the yard.

Dan

Hi Billy,

I have had three litters of brown snakes this year and I have had no problems feeding them, actually. Some of them ate the day after they were born.
I keep them in small plastic boxes with moist paper towel and a small water dish. I feed them tiny pieces of tiny worms for the first week or two, and then they start taking larger pieces.

The picture is of a week-old baby and one that is a month and a half

Kind regards, Asser
Denmark

Hi Asser,

I am impressed by your success. I guess what I (and I assume Dan) worry about is that we've got a bunch of little snakes that seem like they'll never eat, and we want to release them before they're so skinny that they don't have any chance to survive.

I don't mean to be annoying, but I'd like to ask you to post more info - (not that I feel a little embarrassed that we're being outclassed by a European on one of our most common native snakes! ), what's the longest yours have taken to eat for the first time? Which subspecies are you working with? At what temperature do you keep them? Do you keep them individually? How often (or rarely) do you disturb them - on the one hand I worry about letting moisture levels get too high or low, but then I don't want to touch the containers for fear of disturbing them so much they won't eat.

Thanks a bunch,
Billy
Phillyherping

Hi Billy,

Well, as for the success thing, I don't really know about that. Things have worked out great for me, yes, but I can't excactly say that I am in any way an expert. This is the first year I breed this species, and there have just not been any problems, so I can't say that I have cracked a code or been really cunning to get the snakes eating...... I actually always assumed that they would be really easy. Since they are so geographically widespread and in some places apparently very numerous, I just thought they would thrive under most conditions. And from what I have experienced, I seem to have been right.

Therefore it actually surprises me a bit to hear of trouble with getting them to eat. I may just have been lucky, but all the babies I have gotten have eaten right away. It may have to do with litter size? From what I have read, this species can produce quite a few babies in a litter, up to 31 according to some source that i can't remember right now. That will probably mean that the babies are extremely small, and probably harder to get to eat. I got 10 in one litter, 6 in the next and 6 in the most recent litter. All faily small litters, and maybe that has left the individual babies with more resources?

Maybe Danish earthworms are just more appealing to baby browns than North American earthworms? What species do you have there? The ones I dig up here are Lumbricus terrestris, and it might well be what you have over there too.

Your questions;
-All my babies have eaten within at most a week.
-I keep them at room temperature, which has varied between approximately 19 and 27 degrees this summer (Celsius, that is, you do the translation to Fahrenheit).
-My first babies are of Midland Brownsnakes, S.d. wrightorum, second of MidlandxNorthern, and the last one was Florida Brownsnakes, S.d. victa.
-I have kept two or three individuals together in a small plastic box.
-I have not worried one bit about disturbing them too much. Some of them have even eaten right out of my hand.

I hope you get yours to eat. I am really happy that mine do, because I can't just release them and find some new ones. It is near impossible to get a hold of this species here in Europe! I am looking high and low, but i can't find them for sale anywhere. Do you by any chance know of any dealers that send them to Europe?

Kind regards, Asser

I do...

I'll email you.
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Mike
KingPin Reptiles Inc.
www.freewebs.com/mikesnake
www.captivebredforum.com

Hi,
Really cool looking browns.Hey, Dan I am new to these cool little brown snakes and I was wandering if you could give me some info on this species?I am looking for a pair of them to try to breed them for fun.thanks
Paul M.