Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I always wait till my snakes are 3 years old before I breed them. However this year I have a couple female corns that will only be 2 years old next season but they have really been feeding well and putting on size this summer. One has already even surpassed a proven breeder in size. I am curious as to what others use as a criteria for how old/ large they wait before breeding their corns. Is there a specific weight/ age that you stick to?
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Kevin

Age is meaningless. I'm not sure who started the "the 3 years old" rule, but it's nonsense. In snakes, like most other reptiles, it's size that determines maturity. There have been corn snakes that successfully bred at 9 months of age. If your corn snakes are somewhere in the neighborhood of 3 feet in length, they can successfully breed irregardless of their age. There have been many, many corn snakes that have been sucessfully bred at 18 months of age.

Tim

Third Eye

Agreed, most reptiles are not like mammals, that age with seasons, and maturity is measurable in calander years, for reptiles maybe we should age them in terms of #of meals years. So when someone asks how old is that corn snake the answer would be, " oh, she's about 10 pinkies, ten fuzzies, ten smalls, fifteen mediums old now". Or maybe it should be "well she's 3 feet old now, should breed this spring"
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Jeff Benfer

1.0 pastel Python regius
1.1 mojave Python regius
0.1 normal Python regius
1.3 Terrapene carolina thriunguis
2.3 Terrapene carolina carolina
4.1 Kinosternon baurii
1.1 Malaclemys terrapin terrapin
2.2 double het albino and anerythristicThamnophis sirtalis parietalis
1.0 anerythristic Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis
2.2 Iowa snow Thamnophis radix
0.2 het Christmas albino Thamnophis radix
1.1 double het cherry erythristic, albino Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis
1.1 melanistic Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis
1.1 triple heterozygous for amelanistic,carmel, and stripe Pantherophis guttatus
0.1 anerythristic motley Pantherophis guttatus
0.1 Okeetee Pantherophis guttatus

Thanks,
I like Jeffs idea of how many meals, but not everyone keeps meticulous records so that may be hard to go by. I wish that someone (i.e. book/ faq sheets) had guidelines for weight/ length that would be a good indicator. (I also have a young pair of black milks that I have been debating if they will be big enough.)
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Kevin

I actually do keep meticulous records of every meal, periodic weights of snake, length, plus refusals, sheds, copulations observed, ect, ect for every snake and turtle I own....., can't help it, I am a laboratory scientist by day, I know it's pretty pathetic and I need to get a life, but I actually think it is interesting and useful data for future reference, I would certainly be willing to share any of that if you think it would be helpful, maybe I will make a growth chart with weight of the snake on the y axis and the meals on the x axis with time not even related, perhaps I could give a point system to the different sized mice or actually maybe just relate to average gram weight for the different sized mice and then post it on this forum, however I have the least experience and limited data with corn snakes, although I have already assembled some of that data for garter snakes, I am actually still pretty green with corns and am in fact in the process right now of "cooking" my first two clutches of corn snake eggs, 23 days and counting Can't wait to see pipping!!!
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Jeff Benfer

1.0 pastel Python regius
1.1 mojave Python regius
0.1 normal Python regius
1.3 Terrapene carolina thriunguis
2.3 Terrapene carolina carolina
4.1 Kinosternon baurii
1.1 Malaclemys terrapin terrapin
2.2 double het albino and anerythristicThamnophis sirtalis parietalis
1.0 anerythristic Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis
2.2 Iowa snow Thamnophis radix
0.2 het Christmas albino Thamnophis radix
1.1 double het cherry erythristic, albino Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis
1.1 melanistic Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis
1.1 triple heterozygous for amelanistic,carmel, and stripe Pantherophis guttatus
0.1 anerythristic motley Pantherophis guttatus
0.1 Okeetee Pantherophis guttatus

A good place to keep records of feeding/weight/shed -

www.iherp.com/
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I decided my old sig was too big.

Thanks a lot Funky! I'm serious, had no idea of this website! You really helped me out alot lol! Very excellent website!

~Tony
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Gray-Banded Kingsnake

If they have the size over the age the size will tell when your snake is ready. Beaware of the younger your snake is could possibily take time off their life and their eggs could be really small. my lavender motley het hypo is kinda small was paired up with male creamsicle by accident and she dropped 10 really good eggs for me that just hatched out. they are healthy but kinda small. they are about to shed for first time so we will see how they can take pinkies. but size is ur best indicater that they are breedable. Around 3 ft is good but my lavender female is around 2 and half ft.

I see this question pop up numerous times and it gets rehashed each time and always ends the same way. So I'll save everyone the trouble and pull Don Soderberg's reply to the last post about this topic.

Your poll question implies that something is wrong with breeding sub two-year old corns. Viewers should be aware that age has very little to do with sexual maturity in snakes. Likewise, youth is no indication that there will be problems in corn snake breedings, but corns that are TOO SMALL to breed can be a big problem. Generally speaking, all nine-month old collies are the same size. Corn snakes (like most other serpent species) are not mature by age alone, and therefore can be between 14 and 48 inches by their second birthday. Granted some males over 30" long will not readily breed, indicating that both size AND age can play a role in sexual maturity, but conversely, I have seen four and five-year old female corns whose health was in potential danger if they were gravid.

I think it is wrong to equate maturity with age, unless you make a comment about the role SIZE plays in breeding criteria. EACH time you post about maturity, you should make some statement regarding size Vs age. Otherwise, you send an incorrect message to some of the less-seasoned corn keepers reading this forum. Since corns can safely reach a length of 36 " in ONE year, I think you would facilitate education about breeding corns better if you didn't solely cite age as a pre-requisite to maturity. Sorry to say that three different ways, but I want it to soak in.

It's fine to have an educated opinion about something this important, but I believe it's prudent to include information regarding opposing data. I do not judge you for saying it is your opinion that it's wrong to breed young corns, but I must point out to readers of this forum that age is not THE pre-requisite to safe corn snake breeding.

My general goal for breeding female corns is to do so when they are over 36" long (if heavy and healthy enough). This year, I have two female corns from 2007 that are gravid. Both are over 36" long and I have NO reservations about doing this. Some corns at 40" are not safe to breed. Approximately 60% of my females are ready to breed before their second birthdays. Virtually all of the other 40% are bred before their third b'days, BUT not all of them. Sometimes, four years of maturity is necessary. As it is with everything, no two corns are alike, so I caution everyone to consider size when determining the sexual "maturity", and NOT age.

forums.kingsnake.com/view.php?id=1525708,1525843
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The Reticulated Rattler

1.0.0 Great Plains Ratsnake
1.0.0 Corn, Lavender Aztec het for Amel
0.1.0 Black Ratsnake
0.0.1 Texas Rat (tame)
1.0.0 Broad Banded Water Snake, Hypo
1.0.0 Black Bassador Retriever
2.1.0 Godchildren, 1 Evil, 2 possible hets