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Old 06-28-2006, 09:47 PM   #4
Dennis Hultman
Housing

Adult house snakes can be housed in any appropriately sized enclosure to provide them approx. 175 – 225 sq. inches of floor area. We utilize Rubbermaid boxes in a rack system to provide housing for a number of individual in a smaller area. With neonates as soon as they have shed once they are housed in large deli cups. It should be noted that in neonates we have had instances of cannibalism occur on more than several occasions. It seems that they are adept at feeding on other snakes and are very willing to do so as neonates.

Breeding

Breeding house snakes is probably the easiest thing to instruct people about. All you really need is a mature male and female and place them together. Over the years we have had more trouble keeping our females from laying themselves to death than producing offspring. This is a common problem with captive house snakes which will continue to lay eggs approx. every 75 – 90 days if allowed. In recent years we have cycled our breeders exactly as we do our corns or kings. We believe this stimulates maximum sperm production in the males, resulting in higher percentage of viable eggs out of the clutches. But it is definitely not required to get them to breed. In our opinion females should be removed from the males after one session of breeding for three days to discourage multiple clutches. Even with this measure being applied most females will lay at least two clutches during any given year, this is more than enough stress for the females to have to endure and still maintain proper weight/health in our opinion.

Sexual maturity/Growth

A word needs to be said about this subject so as to make potential keepers aware of the pitfalls of early breeding of these animals. House Snakes when hatched normally are around 6” in length and very small, they nearly always feed on live newborn pink mice as a first feeding without any scenting etc. If fed properly they will attain rapid growth and at a year old will be approximately 2’ on the females and 11 – 14” on the males. They can and will breed at this size and age.

With that said though keepers should be aware that the many rigors placed on the females bred at this age and size will have long term negative consequences if allowed. We suggest that you wait until the animals are at least 24 months old and at least 28 – 30” on the females before breeding. Males can be bred at any age they are inclined to. This will minimize but not eliminate the potential problems related to the breeding of any snake, especially house snakes. All the normal risks associated with breeding and laying such as egg binding, death etc. are to be considered by a prudent keeper prior to attempting to breed any animal as the risks are real and fairly common even among experienced keepers.

It should also be noted here that large females that are robust and healthy will produce larger eggs than their smaller counterparts. These eggs will hatch into larger and easier to feed neonates that will be more viable over the short and long run.