:: CORNSNAKE ... Elaphe guttata guttata

Having previously looked at the requirements and aspirations of both male and female corn snakes I'd like us to take a look at breeding, egg-laying and colour types of these quite undemanding yet wholly satisfying snakes.

Having hibernated your corns in order to give you seasonal reference points to refer to, after hibernation they should feed well for a couple or three weeks and then enter a slough cycle. Once the old skin is discarded we are in prime mating time and possibly looking at intermittent feeding, particularly with males.
When the females enter their second slough cycle of the year this will typically be a pre-lay slough. About a week or so after this second skin has been discarded provide a moss box. (An ice cream tub big enough for the snake to comfortably coil up in generously filled with damp sphagnum moss). As a precaution it may be wise to remove the water bowl for a few days as some females will prefer to drown their eggs as opposed to safely laying them in the meticulously provided moss box!

After laying the female will straightaway enter another slough cycle.

As for the eggs…. The optimum aim is to provide them with around 85 degrees F. and keep them slightly humid, not dripping wet. Depending on how accurate your temperature control is they should be looking at hatching at around 2-3 months. Vermiculite or Perlite are the stuff to use, again in an ice cream tub. Don't turn the eggs, just sit them in the box, give them a spray from time to time and provide the right temperature. Corn eggs will usually tolerate fairly wide parameters; a slight puckering of the eggs is normal.

The best place for the newly hatched snakes is the box they hatched in. Corns will hatch and then go straight into a slough cycle, so aim to continue keeping them warm and damp. Feeding should start at some point after this first slough.

Corns are available in a whole host of different colours, though do bear in mind that a lot of colour types are the result of recessive genes and therefore a lot of breeding results can end up in a clutch of Carolinas (or normals). To gain the colour type a second-generation breeding must be undertaken in order to see the colour difference.

Colour types are many and varied and are given a whole host of different names to describe them.
Most, if not all, of the corn snake colours are based on a few basics that can be combined to produce more complex results.

Anerythristic gives you a basically black and white snake with in between shades of grey. Youngsters often have attractive pink cheeks; yellow around the sides of the neck will typically show as the snake ages.
Also occasionally seen as a "type B" or second form of anerythrism in which the yellow doesn't develop.

Amelanistic gives you an overall orange, yellow and white snake that has pink eyes with faded out ventral chequering.

A snow is the combination of these two traits and involves a generation lag as they both are known as single recessive genes. Snows are predominately pink and white.

For further information on corn snake colour-types there are a couple of good books that you will have to seek out and read. (Should be in our club library collection)