Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a pair of rat snakes that have been together for quite some time now. They have tried to produce before, but no offspring resulted. Do you have any tips on how to breed them.
Thanks,
Kris..
One is a red rat, the male is a gray rat.

-----
DON'T TREAD ON ME

your "gray" rat snake looks like a Great Plains Ratsnake (Elaphe guttata emoryi) which is just a western subspecies/sister species of the red rat/cornsnake.

Secondly, your red rat looks so skinny that it may not be big enough to produce offspring. It could be too young, or undernourished (hard to tell from pic).

These two taxa should readily interbreed.
-----
Chris Harrison

...he was beginning to realize he was the creature of a god that appreciated the discomfort of his worshippers - W. Somerset Maugham

The red rat is actually pretty big. she looks skinny in the picture though. The person that gave them to me told me that they were a gray and red couple. Its possible he was wrong. Do i have to "hibernate" rat snakes for breeding?

Thanks,
Kris
-----
DON'T TREAD ON ME

Yes, you should "hibernate" them if you plan to breed them. The preferred term is "brumate," which is just a cooling-off period of about 3 months or so at an ambient temperature around 55-60F. There are numerous resources (books, articles, care sheets, including elsewhere on this website) with details on how to brumate your snakes. They should be able to answer any questions you have.
-----
MichaelB

That's no grey rat, it's a great plains rat.

And the corn looks a little underweight.
If I were you, I'd keep them warm and feed them well until next fall, then "hibernate" them for a few months next winter.

About 60F should be fine.
You need to make sure you don't feed them for at least 2 weeks prior to "hibernation" or you are very high risk of losing them.

Upon their spring emergance...feed them a couple times and start putting them together...if they are truely a pair, they should readily breed.

The red rat is actually not underweight. The picture does not do her justice. It was taken on my cell phone. She is the right weight, and size. Its not a corn. I have bred snakes before, just not rat snakes. The person I got them from has seen them copopulating, but once again no off spring has been produced. The only explanation i could come up with was perhaps temperatures.

Kris
-----
DON'T TREAD ON ME

Arent red rat snakes Elaphe guttata guttata, and i know corn snakes are Elaphe guttata guttata. That would mean red rats are in fact corn snakes. Right? Then the great plains rat is Elaphe Guttata emoryi, making that pretty closeley related to a corn snake. If my taxonomy is correct, which i think it is that would make breeding them just like breeding cornsnakes. Probing depth def indicates that the corn snake is a female, and the great plains is a male. Also, the female is not undernourished. She does look that way in the picture, however the picture was taken with the camera on my cell phone and it does not do her justice.

Thanks,
KRis

-----
DON'T TREAD ON ME

Red Rat and Corn snake are just 2 different common names for the same species / subspieces.

People usually refer to the western race as the great plains rat...not corn snake...but I've heard them called corns too.

In any rate, you have basically the same snake from different locality.

Your taxonomy is correct. Great Plains Rat snakes might be referred to as corns in some areas, but as far as I know they are not called that here (Oklahoma). Corn snakes and Red Rat snakes are indeed the same thing; the names are interchangeable.

Since you have two different guttata subspecies, breeding them won't exactly be "just like breeding cornsnakes." You'll end up with guttata/emoryi intergrades. It can and probably will happen, rest assured - it (intergrading) happens naturally between the two in parts of TX/LA/AR.

One other thought: The gray one in the first pic does look like a Great Plains Rat, but is there any chance it might be some kind of ghost or anery corn?

BTW, your most recent pic is a Western Hognose snake.
-----
MichaelB

I will have to look at some books to be sure, but i do agree that it looks like a great plains rat. The only reason i did not know what they were at first was becuase they were given to me, and the kid told me that it was a gray rat. I did not really look into it much. Thanks for the ID on my western hognose snake. I am pretty sure i knew what he was. I have only been breeding them for about 4 years now.
BTW- I am a herpetology major. Dont sit here and treat me like i have no idea what i am talking about because i messed up one ID of an Elaphe species.

KRis

-----
DON'T TREAD ON ME

And this is one of my copperheads

-----
DON'T TREAD ON ME