Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was looking at buying a very nice male corn snake today, a proven cinder male, and I was wondering if a 10 year old male is too old to breed? Does anyone have expirience breeding 10 year old or older males and is there a lower hatch rate on babies or anything? I just have some projects that I'm working on and need an adult male cinder but I don't want to spend a whole lot of money and he's too old to breed.

As long as he was a good proven-breeder in good health to begin with, as long as you continue to maintain him in optimum conditions with good husbandry practices, he should still have some good breeding years ahead of him. !0 years is not that old at all, and especially for a male that is not being taxed eevery year for egg production as a female would. And even a 10 year old female would normally have a few good years of production under normal circumstances.

Be sure as to not maintain his entire enclosure up into the mid-high 80's so it doesn't kill his sperm, and you should be good to go I would think. Just allow 1/3rd to 1/2 the enclosure to get into the mid 80's. The other portion at comfortable temps in the mid 70's or slightly cooler prior to breeding especially.

~Doug
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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

my website -Serpentine Specialties

Most reptiles, including Corn Snakes, breed their entire adult lives. They may have smaller clutches and less fertility when they get older, but I see no reason why a 10 year old Corn Snake can't be productive.

Were Cinders even around 10 years ago? I thought that they were fairly new.

Tim

Rich Zuchowski started working with this gene around 1994-95 from an anerythristic animal in the lower keys, I didn't pick-up on the time line there at first, but this snake being 10 years old, and said to be a "cinder" doesn't sound real convincing just doing the simple math..LOL!

To the original poster,.......does your snake look like this cinder that Graham Criglow has??.....something doesn't sound right here with the recent age of the gene being known..LOL!

They are also known as "ashy", type "C" anery, and "Z" corns.

~Doug

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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

my website -Serpentine Specialties

She says it is a 2001 Cinder from Serpenco. I don't have a pic but I will have her mail me one. He hasn't been bred for several years now as far as I understand from her. Thanks!

Yeah, I made a HUGE mistake earlier in my haste to leave here when I made the time-frame comment..LOL!. Since Rich Z. started working with the cinder gene around 1994-95, it it VERY probable it is indeed a cinder as you said, and what the person told you coincides perfectly with it being one as well.

Those are some very unique looking corns for sure. Have fun with yours!

~Doug
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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

my website -Serpentine Specialties

I dig the look of Cinders. And I reckon I haven't seen them for sale in the classifieds until recently, but Doug's right - people were working with them long before they were offered to the general public.

If the person has documentation that they got the snake from Serpenco, then it probably is what they say it is.

Tim