possible interesting colors?

[st0386]

i thought i had 2 boy corn snakes together, but a few days ago 17 eggs appeared! i had previously seperated the two, because obviously, the mommy was acting funny. i thought he/she was just getting stressed out by the other, so i gave her a seperate cage. turns out she was pregnant! they had previously lived together for over a year, and neither ever showed evidence of being "interested" in the other. so i had no idea!
i never had her sexed officially, but she had a bulge near her tail end- i presumed this was due to the male parts. apparently this isnt an accurate way of sexing....
Anyways- now i have 17 unexpected eggs. my question is... is there any way its possible to get morphs from a wild-caught female? the male is a candy cane and caramel mix. i assume both the candy cane and the caramel are recessive genes, so all babies should appear wild-type. is it possible to get any other phenotype in the offspring? if not, what would their geneotype be??
yay babies!

 

[foolishcactus]

your only chance is if the wild caught snakes has some het trait hidden. It is possible but unlikely.

 

[bitsy]

the male is a candy cane and caramel mix

I think you might need to clarify the make-up of the male. The above description is essentially of a Butter, which is Amel (CandyCane is a selectively-bred Amel) x Caramel. Unless your male is shades of yellow, then he may not be what you think he is and we can't really give accurate opinions. Can you describe his colours, and preferably post a pic? How was he described by the person you bought him from?

Certainly it's unlikely that a wild-caught Normal female would be carrying other traits. That would be more likely in a captive-bred Normal.

 

[bitsy]

And just as a side-thought - are you going to be able to rehome 17 Normals in the current economic climate? If you're able to sell them, they'll get you very little cash. You might not cover the costs of setting them up (enclosures, heating etc) and then getting them feeding before selling them on.

Sorry to be a damp squib, but it's best to consider this aspect while you can do something about it, and before you're landed with 17 hungry mouths that you might be stuck with for some time.

 

[Cornsnake124]

i thought i had 2 boy corn snakes together, but a few days ago 17 eggs appeared! i had previously seperated the two, because obviously, the mommy was acting funny. i thought he/she was just getting stressed out by the other, so i gave her a seperate cage. turns out she was pregnant! they had previously lived together for over a year, and neither ever showed evidence of being "interested" in the other. so i had no idea!

You should not co-hab. This is what happens when snakes get put together. And two males should never be housed together.. They will fight when they become adults, and of course, you should not house 2 snakes of the opposite sex together or this will happen.

i never had her sexed officially, but she had a bulge near her tail end- i presumed this was due to the male parts. apparently this isnt an accurate way of sexing....

That is the worst way of sexing, and it is inaccurate. Corns need to be probed.

Anyways- now i have 17 unexpected eggs. my question is... is there any way its possible to get morphs from a wild-caught female? the male is a candy cane and caramel mix. i assume both the candy cane and the caramel are recessive genes, so all babies should appear wild-type. is it possible to get any other phenotype in the offspring? if not, what would their geneotype be??

Unless your female has any hidden hets, they should all be normal poss. het candy cane and carmel.

yay babies!

Are you sure you are READY for 17 hatchlings? With the inexperience you show in your post, I perceive that you don't know enough to raise 17 baby corns. Do you have an incubator? Do you have 17 deli cups? do you have enough pinkys? You need to either give the eggs to someone who can do it, or you need to start doing the research so you can care for these eggs. I don't think you are ready. If you are going to go through with caring for these eggs you will need to be committed to spend all the time and money to make sure these eggs make it through and hatch. Then you care for 17 little hatchlings all needing to be fed every 5 days. I just don't think your ready. plain as that :shrugs:

 

[st0386]

thats what they said he was when i bought him (caramel x candy cane). he wasnt as pretty when i got him, hes lightened up alot. to be honest, i didnt know much about color morphs at the time. i bought him because they said he was 3 years old and he was really scrawny for being three. ive had a few types of snakes in my life, but after catching the wild one, i liked her so much i wanted another one. plus, he has such a cute face. hes not good at holding still for pictures, but i tried...

 

[st0386]

no, i didnt expect babies. but ive done the research. theyre in a deep tupperware tub with wet spagnum moss. i covered them with a moist paper towel because it took me a day to find them and they started to dehydrate. theyre on a heat pad, and the temp is at 80 inside the tupperware, humidity is between 85 and 90 (i cant get it to stay above 90. i dont think the tupperware has a good seal, so i need to go buy another one). do i have experiance with this, no. but im about to graduate with a bachelor of science in Biology in may, and i plan to spend the rest ot my life helping animals. the guy who lives below me does have alot of experiance with snakes, and ive talked to him about it alot. he says i should be fine. corn snakes are supposedly not that difficult to hatch. do i plan on selling them? no. i dont care about money, i just want to take care of my snakes. my reptile friend knows a guy who breeds snakes, and he said if all else fails i could give him some of the babies to take to the reptile expo with him. any other ideas?

 

[st0386]

oh ps, i already order mice in bulk to cut down on costs. so im sure i can get plenty of pinkies.

 

[st0386]

oh, and heres an old picture of the mommy. taken last year. it isnt the best, but as she hasnt had her post-egg shed yet, its the best i could do.

 

[Cornsnake124]

no, i didnt expect babies. but ive done the research. theyre in a deep tupperware tub with wet spagnum moss. i covered them with a moist paper towel because it took me a day to find them and they started to dehydrate. theyre on a heat pad, and the temp is at 80 inside the tupperware, humidity is between 85 and 90 (i cant get it to stay above 90. i dont think the tupperware has a good seal, so i need to go buy another one).

90 F is to hot. You want to cook the eggs!?! 80-85 would be good. I recommend you get Kathy Love's book "Corn Snakes: the comprehensive owners guide". it will give you good info about breeding and eggs. Your tupperware design will not work for an incubator. If you are going to do a DIY incubator, your going to need a different design, I might be able to find the design I used for mine. Tested it, and it works great.

but ive done the research.

Not to be mean, but even in your most recent post It doesn't really seem that you have.

 

[st0386]

the HUMIDITY is 85-90%. the TEMP is at 80.

 

[st0386]

the HUMIDITY is 85-90%. the TEMP is 80 (as previously stated).

 

[Cornsnake124]

ok, than your ok. No need to get all mad. i'm just stating my opinion from the information you have given about yourself and your methods in your posts.

 

[st0386]

well i followed instructions that i found online about how to make a DIY incubator. it seems that as long as the temp and moisture are correct, they should be fine. however, i do only want the best for the babies, so short of buying an incubator.. what do you recommend? i actually read about a few people having problems with their eggs being cooked when in an incubator. they seem fine now, theyre gaining water weight back.. but i still would like to keep the humidity higher... which i cant seem to do without damp paper towels on top of the eggs. so im open to suggestions. when i bought the snake, the breeder who sold it to me said that as long as i watched them for a few days and they got along, they could be kept together. and he was a breeder, so i guess everyone has their own opinion on how to keep corn snakes. its not that im not asking questions, perhaps im getting the wrong information!

 

[st0386]

learning is a process, which sometimes can only happen once mistakes are made.

 

[Cornsnake124]

I will dig the instructions for the incubator up in my email. Co-habbing is a VERY controversial subject and everyone has a different opinion. Will post the instructions soon

 

[starsevol]

well i followed instructions that i found online about how to make a DIY incubator. it seems that as long as the temp and moisture are correct, they should be fine. however, i do only want the best for the babies, so short of buying an incubator.. what do you recommend? i actually read about a few people having problems with their eggs being cooked when in an incubator. they seem fine now, theyre gaining water weight back.. but i still would like to keep the humidity higher... which i cant seem to do without damp paper towels on top of the eggs. so im open to suggestions. when i bought the snake, the breeder who sold it to me said that as long as i watched them for a few days and they got along, they could be kept together. and he was a breeder, so i guess everyone has their own opinion on how to keep corn snakes. its not that im not asking questions, perhaps im getting the wrong information!

Well, cohabbing 2 "males" ended up killing one of the most beautiful snakes I've ever seen. She became eggbound. I had ALWAYS been against co-habbing but was forced to 4 years ago when one of my racks burnt up.

Snakes are solitary animals. They do not travel in herds like deer in the wild. They are not social. It is my belief that forcing two solitary animals to share the same space exposes them to stress that they can never escape, and is akin to cruelty.

 

[Shiari]

Your male is, I'm afraid to say, a normal. He may be *het* for caramel and amel, but he is certainly not displaying any of those traits himself.

 

[Em Wright]

ok, than your ok. No need to get all mad. i'm just stating my opinion from the information you have given about yourself and your methods in your posts.

Not to ruffle any feathers or anything... but he DID provide the correct information and you misread it. He clearly stated that the humidity was between 85-90 degrees, NOT the temperature. So it was clearly your misunderstanding of his information and personally I would have been irritated by it as well. Not every new member around lacks experience and is a total knob.

And I've known an experienced breeder (nobody on this website) to tell someone purchasing their first snake(s) that it's okay to cohab. My friend purchased a pair of snakes from a breeder who said they would be fine, even though it was a juvenile male and female! Thankfully I sent her here and learned how risky it was and changed her ways. Can you really blame her though? I wouldn't.

And from reading his posts it sounds like the OP has since given the female her own living space, which shows me he's willing to make changes for the well-being of his animals.

 

[bitsy]

i still would like to keep the humidity higher... which i cant seem to do without damp paper towels on top of the eggs

The incubator setup sounds fine (as long as it's on a thermostat) - it's pretty much like my own home-made outfits. You really don't need humidity any higher than about 80-90%. Eggs being too wet can be as dangerous as being too dry. And I do cover mine with a damp paper towel to keep humidity up, when I run out of sphagnum moss. It works just as well.

learning is a process, which sometimes can only happen once mistakes are made.

I agree, but when the mistakes could lead to harming animals, you maybe need to be a little more cautious.

the breeder who sold it to me said that as long as i watched them for a few days and they got along, they could be kept together. and he was a breeder, so i guess everyone has their own opinion on how to keep corn snakes. its not that im not asking questions, perhaps im getting the wrong information!

As this is the breeder who sold you a Candycane x Caramel and led you to believe it was something other than a Normal, I think you may have hit the nail on the head with the last bit! Hopefully we can help.

do i plan on selling them? no. i dont care about money, i just want to take care of my snakes. my reptile friend knows a guy who breeds snakes, and he said if all else fails i could give him some of the babies to take to the reptile expo with him.

If you're even considering keeping 17 Corns, that's a major undertaking. When adult, that's 17 x 3 foot long tanks. Or a hefty rack system. That's a lot of space and an awful lot of food. I still think you need to further consider what you'll do with the babes – an expo is certainly one idea, or maybe selling in bulk to a reputable reptile shop if you have one locally (although it doesn’t sound like it). Going from 2 to 19 Corns in the space of 8 weeks is quite a major step. After 18 years of keeping, I can just about manage 14.