Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ive had 22 snake eggs in a chicken incubator for the past few weeks and before i went to bed on saturday night i looked in and they are starting to hatch. I have made a little preperation, but just a 10 gallon tank and a repti-warm pad for underneath it, i figure ill need to get a lamp soon and maybe something to be able to keep the snakes seperate. But it basically comes down to that i have 22 snakes hatching as i type this and i dont quite know what to do (that is the right way) for them, which i know i should have better prepared but now i need to quickly get these things done of course. Any suggestions or comments or anything with be GREATLY appreciated no matter what it is. i just want to care and my rearing of these young snakes to be done right. and the sooner anyone can help me the better.

thanks, ben b.

Go to the deli of your local store and buy some cups.Half pounders work nice...Paul

As he said, get 22 deli cups. I wouldnt try and cram them all in a ten gallon tank. As hatchlings they are more prone to eat one another.

TravisG

they've been in a 20 gallon tank since sunday and so far doing just fine. there are 11 in there right now 1 had died cause it went up into the circut board of the incubator like a few hours before i knew they were hatching. And 1 egg had gone bad like 2 weeks ago. so there are 9 eggs still in the incubator and there are no signs of infertility so i figure i will wait till tomorrow or the next day for them to come out until i have to help them by making tiny slits with a razor in the egg.
Any more suggestions would be helpful especially that concerns more than just there housing.

First of all I am assuming these are baby ratsnakes since they are in this forum. I have never had a problem with babie rat snakes eating eat other when kept together and I have often kept clutches together until their first shed. You will need to eperate them soon so that you can tell who is eating, shedding, [bleep]ting etc. The first thing I would do is find a good source of pinky mice. If you buy frozen, order them now and have them on hand, if you are looking for live and don't breed mice your self (my wife hates rodents and won't even consider it) it can be hard to get 22 of them at once just by popping by the petstore, especially when other peole have clutches hatching out at the same time. After making sure you can feed them I would need to know what you intend to do with them. if you are going to sell them deli cups are good, you can keep track of all the particulars and they are ready to ship when you get ready. If you are keeping them you may want to set up something different, maybe a display cage or two.

well at first i thought they were black rat snakes but now believe they are black racers since they have hatched. And i am not sure whether i am going to be selling some or keeping them all , but i do know that i am going to keep a few if not all. but what should i do for both scenarios? 1.) keeping them and setting up a display
2.) selling them...., how much do you think they could go for?

couple of things to consider, Since you don't know what kind of snakes they are, I am assuming that you found these eggs in the wild. In most places it is illegal to sell wild caught native species and that includes those hatched from eggs you found. So selling them is probably out of the question. Also, unless things have changed a lot since I last kept them Black racers don't bring much money. They do, in my opinion, make cool display pets. They are fast and active and you will see them moving around in the cage more than other snakes that tend to hide. My recomendation would be keep a couple for pets They will need a large cage as they move around a lot and the do seem to like to climb in low bushy branches. I would take the rest of them back to where you found the eggs and let them go. also remember even though the name is (coluber constrictor) racers do not constrict prey, they grab, hold and swallow so they tend to eat smallertuff tahn a rat snake the same size. See f you can post a picture of one and I can help you identify it for sure.