Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello. This year is my first year ever in breeding my most favorite snakes, the Northern Pines. I have already succeeded in breeding Corn snakes in previous years and my Female Albino Northern Pine has gotten big enough to breed this season. I Hibernated my Northerns for almost 3 months this past winter. I placed the two together on April 19th and it took about about 45 minutes for them to get down to business. I saw mating behavior in them that I have never seen in Corns, Black Rats, or even Gopher snakes! The sex lasted for well over 2 hours and my male Northern bit my female's neck and held her with his jaw for about 1.5 hours of the mating (Trying to keep her from moving?).

Anyways, it is apparent that my Female Northern is now pregnant. I know this because her feeding behavior has totally changed since they mated on April 19th. And now her stomach seems to be getting kind of puffy.

My main questions:

1) How long is the typical gestation for a Northern Pine?
2) What temp should I set my incubator at for the eggs?
3) How often should I mist the Sphagnum Moss and eggs?
4) How much overall humidity does my nest of eggs need to have?
4) How long do Northern Pine eggs take to hatch?
5) How similar is the whole process to Corn Snake breeding/ gestation/ egg laying/ incubation?

I would very much appreciate any helpful input!

I love Pines and Bulls much more than Corns and other Rat snakes and I want to make my project work and do it again next year if my Female Northern is ready.

1) How long is the typical gestation for a Northern Pine?
About 6 weeks. They typically shed about 10 days prior to egglaying.

2) What temp should I set my incubator at for the eggs?
Low 80s.

3) How often should I mist the Sphagnum Moss and eggs?
Don't. Eggs shouldn't be misted. I've had bad luck with sphagnum as an incubation medium (though it's fine for a nestbox). I use damp perlite.

4) How much overall humidity does my nest of eggs need to have?
This varies, but a damp (not wet) incubation substrate is what you're looking for.

4) How long do Northern Pine eggs take to hatch?
About 60 days when consistantly incubated in the low 80s.

5) How similar is the whole process to Corn Snake breeding/ gestation/ egg laying/ incubation?
Very. Though pines don't always have a post-hibernation shed before breeding, like corns usually do.

Tim

Third Eye

Is sphagnum moss that bad? I've always had good success incubating Corn Snake eggs with sphagnum moss.

That's just my experience with it. I've experimented, taking corn snake clutches, splitting them, and incubating one half in perlite and one half in sphagnum - I had a much better hatch rate with perlite.

15-20 years ago I used sphagnum moss all the time with decent success, but I've switched in recent years due to a low hatch rate with that medium.

Tim

I have seen the higher hatch rate with perlite or vermiculite as well. A fellow breeder has used shpagnum for years. He since switched to vermiculite and has almost doubled his hatch rate with multiple clutches. These two mediums hold much needed humidity better and don't tend to mold as easily. I do however include damp spagnum moss in the lay box, on top of the vermiculite. The females seem to like burrowing in it to lay their eggs. After they're done, I remove the moss.
Other than that,pretty much follow what you do with your corns and you should be good. Good luck! Rich

If you get a low fertility rate, you might try putting your snakes together earlier, say mid March. Mid April seems a little late to me.