Doug, it's a good point. I love raising baby ratsnakes. It's something that is done best with experience and different folks will have differing opinions on how to best do it. There are lots of variables.
Actually, hatching the eggs is a skill in itself. Once the babies come out, then it's the challenge of getting them to eat something. It depends on the species and sometimes even the individual snake. One of the reasons I like ratsnakes is they can generally be put on mice early on in their lives. None of my species need to start on anything other than mice, but there are some others that need to start on something else and later be tricked to taking mice. I rarely try to feed my new babies until after their first shed. Often they have yolk reserves that need to be used up and some species from northern latitudes even want to go into brumation right away. Once I get them feeding, I then feel that I really have a new snake. Then the question is, "How fast should they grow, and should I brumate them the first winter?"
I have five baby South Korean Dione's ratsnakes right now. The parents bred last Fall and the female produced her clutch in May. Two eggs were bad and one baby died in the egg. Of the five that hatched in June, four have eaten after their first shed, one hasn't eaten, yet. The one that hasn't eaten may never eat and may die. There are a variety of reasons why this could happen. Of the ones that are eating, they will probably double their size in about three or four months. I'm hoping I can keep them going until the middle of October, at least, when we have cool enough temps to brumate snakes. If they still keep eating until Christmas, I'll probably cool them for up to about 8 weeks, to get them acclimated and oriented to the seasons better. These snakes grow fast and my three year olds are almost adult size. I usually don't breed them until after they're 3 yr. olds.
Just thought I'd throw that example out there to give some idea of raising babies. Of course, different species can be raised differently. If you want more accurate pointers, I'd mention the species you're interested in breeding, but most of them, including the "obsoleta" group, are much like the above example. Good luck.
TC
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