Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Look what I found yesterday morning! There are 14 of them! Both of the parents are red phase. This is my first time breeding these snakes and I was surprised to see the variation in color and pattern. Three of them are even black. Is this normal?
Thanks,
Lindsey

np

Her red is much more vibrant in person but here she is.

wow, nice. I sure wish I could get soem from you, but I have to much i have got to get done. I need to ge me a baby retic, female albino burm, pay shipping for a snake trade, and then order from rodent pro. Luckily the guy at the pet store in my are went down o the mice/rat prices just for me. rats there for a regular customer are $1.75 I get them for 1.25. rats are 4.00 dallars and I get them for a little ove 3. If I ever win the lotery or something i will give an e-mail.
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Justin

Mangrove Watersnakes are amazing animals, aren't they? I bred them for the first time last year. I didn't breed any Mangroves this year but I'm expecting some Gulf Salt Marsh babies any day now.

As far as their colors, there really is no good way to predict what colors the babies will be. For instance, I received 12 red phase babies from an red female X black/red male. I would have expected at least one black baby. Where did you get your adults, if I may ask?

I really like that black and red neonate in your picture too. I don't see too many of those.
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Pierson Hill

Herpetology and Herpetoculture

Thanks!

The adults came from Glades Herp in '99 or'00 as neonates. We gave them small guppies yesterday, and it is clear that the babies have the same insane eating response that their parents have. Sorry for the bad picture, but they're too fast to focus on!

Great website and good luck with your upcoming litter!

.... on 0.5 to have theirs. 4 are red and one is green/black. Should pop out a wide variety. Do you have any with striped bellies in there?
:Mark

..just hours after posting above, I went to check and 2 of my red females had given birth. I don't know what it is about them or the number 14, but last year 4 of 5 had 14 babies. This year, you guessed, the first 2 have had 14 babies each! Anyway, here's a quick pic of a few.
:Mark

... I was talking about. Did you get any like this? The red ones are killer. I have to get better pics later.
:Mark

a little more red.
:Mark

Congratulations!
What beautiful little snakes! All of these have plain bellys *sigh*.

Here is my favorite, he seems a little more patterned that the others.

Mark - I suspect your babies have striped ventral patterns due to the fact they come from Tampa Bay where they receive an appreciable gene flow from N. clarkii clarkii. All my clarkii clarkii have that same ventral pattern of half moons on each ventral scale.

Most other Mangroves in the hobby are descended from John Decker's stock which were collected in Key West.
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Pierson Hill

Herpetology and Herpetoculture

WC Nerodia clarkii clarkii from Franklin Co., FL.

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Pierson Hill

Herpetology and Herpetoculture

and "pure" compressicauda cannot have the stripe? Either on the dorsum or the belly?
:Mark

I think all three ssp. of clarkii have some degree of striping on the venter and the dorsum. Even my Key West compressicaudas have the half-moon patterning for the first 5 or 6 ventral scales and striping on the neck. I guess the ventral striping simply becomes stronger as you move NW along the coast. Even taeniata has dorsal significant dorsal striping (I've never seen thei venters).
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Pierson Hill

Herpetology and Herpetoculture

ha ha! then what about spots?? Hey, just goofin'. Seriously I may keep some spotted ones and some very light ones this year, I dunno. From really nice red parents today I got only a few more red babies. I stumbled in on the female as she was giving birth to the last one and didn't have a camera with me. Watching the little guy wiggle out of the clear "sac" was kinda cool and gross at the same time.lol!
:Mark