Reptile & Amphibian Forums

These are miracle babies. I say miracle babies because it was a miracle I did not throw the eggs out. Shortly after the eggs were laid, less than 2 months ago (57 days), they all went bad - they collapsed and turned brownish. I tried a moist incubation and a dry incubation and neither seemed to help the eggs and professional advice was sought to no avail, so I just let them be. The Mom seemed to lay them a week earlier than she should have as they were kinda an odd yellow and really never whitened or filled out like most eggs. Almost every day since a week after they were laid, I wanted to just throw them away, but I still kept the faith that something may become of them. Actually, I gave up on them and thought a couple days ago to cut one open and see how far if they did indeed develop. I thought I might learn something from studying what developed? Well today I found this little cutie hatchling and others are moving in the eggs.

Dan

Oh, I forgot to tell you that those other eggs around the snake are mud snake eggs. The longnose snake eggs are those bad looking eggs.

Dan

I am interested to hear how they do so please keep us posted.
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Randy Hallman

....thats very odd indeed & reminds me of a batch of caliking eggs that I had that also were dented & moldy brown...shoulda never hatched...but they did!

Ill send ja a jpg you can post if ya like...how healthy eggs otta look....eggs w/ elaps in them....
heres how they look't at deposition...

Great looking. Looks like a CA king. What do they eat as babies?
This is a snake you dont see many keep or dont seem popular yet real nice looking.

congrats! they look like healthy eggs to me, they must have gotten better.

Hi,

I was curious, do Long-Nose Snakes hatch without red coloration, or are your adults pure White and blacks? I always see them with some amount of red when I hunt. Looks like an awesome hatchling though. good luck with the little fellow.

-Phil Clevinger

Here is the momma. Its the western species not the texas species. Another is poking through an egg today. I will perhaps post a pic soon of it. They will take baby anoles for their first food items and be scented over to rodents in a years time.

Dan

I wonder if other snakes think they are CA kings. How are the adults tempermeant wise?
Thanks

That is a good way to think of it. It seems the western species lacks the red that the Texas species has, therefore the western species does look like a California kingsnake. Now the Texas species looks like a tricolor, so it may be using it colors to imitate a coral snake to thwart enemies? I will see if I have a pic of my Texas specimen. Here is a pic baby peeking out of an egg today. I know the pic is blurry but I can only get so close with my camera before all blurs. Oh, and they are quite nervous at first but do not mistake fingers as food like a cal king often does. They are a bit shy also but I guess they would get used to handling after a while. I don't hold them so I would not know. And some experts consider the texas and western and even the mexican species to be the same species of snake, and just explain that there is only a color difference between the different species? Does not matter to me as I like them all.

Dan

I have some friends that used to work in Arizona and they would regularly run across black and white, tricolors, and black and white with traces of red all in the same area. It has been suggested that rather than mimicking another snake (corals or kings) these bands simply break up the out line of the snake and make it harder to determine which end has the head. I find this more plausible tham mimicry especially when you consider snakes like CA mt kings who exist in areas where corals don't.

Congrats on the hatchlings! I'll have to get myself a pair of these someday. I wa also admiring your mudsnake photos on the indigo forum. It's great that they'll take scented (I guess I'll have to get some of them someday too and an amphiuma).

-Alice

You should check out the watersnake forum for pics of mud snake eating rodents and the anery eating a siren. Here is a photo of the texas species. I never held this guy much at all before except to clean his cage, but he just sat there in my hand tonight and did not move much? He used his nose to try and dig in between my fingers to bury. I like these because they take up very little space and eat very little, about a fuzzy or two every two weeks. Also, as adults they are active during the day and you can see miling about their house them vice how kings and rat snakes hide most of the day.

Dan

Do you find the Texas type more active than the western ? Its nice to have a snake you actually get to see. I agree about kings hiding most of the time.

Actually the western adults seem to be out and about above their mulch crawling about all the time and the texas is usually in its hide box. But my westerns are larger so they may not feel the need to hide like the texas?

Dan

As a whole the westerns get larger than the Texans and which of the two types do you prefer as far as tempermeant, hardiness goes,etc?
Thanks

I like the western species better overall.

Dan

Thanks. I dont mean to bombard you with questions this is the last one. Its just not many keep these snakes and I am looking into one.
What temps do you keep your westerns at ? Have you gotten all your adults to take unscented mice,pinkies without problems?
Thanks a lot

Temps range in the mid 80's during the day to the mid 70's in the evening. The mom has remained on lizards although I have a male that will eat hoppers. And I have tried scented rodents for the mother but she has not taken them yet, and perhaps they are a bit difficult to transition to rodents once they are adults still feeding on rodents. It's just that some snakes associate a rodent's scent with an enemy and some get over it and some don't. Some small wild caught rat snakes will devour a mouse but if they smell a rat, they are a bit anxious as they know the rat is a larger predator. I would just be sure to try and get a rodent feeder as converting one to rodents might not be worth the savings of obtaining a lizard eater. And it seems that about 30 percent of the wild caught specimens immediately take rodents. And offering nestling rodents works, so I am gonna try that next time. Just form a small impression in the mulch and put in a few pinks in the hole and I will see how the mom responds to it. And taking some dirt and grass from outside puts a wild scent on the rodents and that works also, especially if you can permit nestling rodents to live in wild grasses.

Dan

Oh yes I will certainly get a rodent eater or wont get one at all if not eating rodents.
My snakes like a temp drop to my temp is mid to high 80s (88 I Put on AC for them) in snake room and high 70s to 81 at night.
Tho we have had a killer summer so I use Ac in there alot.

thanks for all the help

Jeanin

>>That is a good way to think of it. It seems the western species lacks the red that the Texas species has

That is not correct. The western subspecies of longnose snake
most often has red in its pattern. The snakes you have are atypical of
western longnose snakes. They are just missing red.
Still they are very nice snakes.
I think I like those lacking red better.

The westerns I have and the dozens I have seen all have had some red to a certain extent, even the mother, however it does not show in the photo, but it is there. The wording of lack was meant as a reduction of red as seen as from the Texas to Western species, but not a complete depletion of red, so perhaps it was worded wrong. I am sure the babies will eventually develop some red like their mother, although I would like to obtain a specimen clear of any red.

Dan

....me thinks youve got your spam filter set a bit to tite...tried to email ya but it kicked back...loosn up laddie