Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a female queen snake that I rescued from a bunch of kids that were determined to kill her. Luckily not much damage was done. I am 99% sure she is pregnant, because about a quarter of the way done her body she looks like she has swallowed a roll of sausage. I don't want to release her until she has completely recovered. My question is about feeding her and her soon to be possible babies. I have done what research I could, and I know their main diet is freshly molted crayfish. Finding them right now isn't much of a problem, but winter will be different. Since they look for food by scent, what if I froze some of the crayfish I catch, with some pinkies. When I thaw the pinkies, they will have the same smell as the crayfish, so would the queen snake eat them?

Scenting pinks with freshly molted crayfish would probably get a feeding response out of the baby Queens. I would be cautious however because Regina digestive systems may not be able to handle rodent tissues. This could be avoided by scenting fish with molted crayfish as fish are closer to their natural and ancestral diet. Good luck and I'd love to hear how the babies do for you. Not many people are keeping Regina in captivity so any information you could provide would be great.

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Pierson Hill

Herpetology and Herpetoculture

If you have access to the book(Snakes of the United Sates and Canada keeping them healthy in captivity V1 Eastern Area) Defanitely check it out, it should answer most of your questions.
As far as feeding Regina dead Crayfish I don't know if it would work as the movement from the crayfish typically triggers a feeding response. Be carefull of using regular tap water as it can cause skin blisters. If you need more info send me an email.........Scott Wahlberg

I have had success getting neonate Grahams to eat frozen/thawed small cocktail shrimp. I don't see why it wouldn't work for queens.

Randal Berry

Thanks for all the advice. I will let you know what happens. On my morning rounds, I discovered a new little snake in my queen's enclosure. Couldn't have been over a couple mins old. I removed it, and now patiently waiting for the rest. I will post later and let everyone know how many I end up with.

Never had anymore babies. Still very fat, and has a little bit of an attitude now. Instead of trying to hide from me, she coils like she wants to strike, but never does. Any ideas?

Well, she wasn't finished having babies. Found 15-16 live, 1 stillborn, and 2 underdeveloped babies. She finished having them either yesterday or today. That puts one 6 days older than the rest. I knew she was too big to only have one.