How to Breed a Pet Snake

Pet snake breeding varies slightly between each type of snake, but there are basic precautions that you should take to ensure your pet snake’s health both before and after breeding. Keep in mind that you can often breed your snake with the male twice in a succession to rear even more young!

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• Temperature-controlled snake quarters
• Hibernation chamber

Prepare Your Pet Snake for Breeding

1. Give your snake the proper amount of heat. Pet snakes are happiest at temperatures of 85 to 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Try not to handle your snake after feeding. This may cause them to regurgitate their meals.
3. Feed your pet snake properly. Snakes that measure less than three feet should be fed an adult mouse one or two times per week. Larger snakes will eat larger prey less frequently.

Research Your Breed of Snake for Optimal Breeding

4. Verify the native region or country of your snake.
5. Know that snakes from North America need induced hibernation.
6. Keep in mind that tropical snakes do not need to hibernate prior to breeding.

Create a Hibernation Chamber

7. Create a hibernation chamber by first finding a box slightly smaller than the snake’s cage.
8. Fill the chamber with five to ten inches of corncob bedding or similar bedding, in which the snake will burrow.
9. Maintain the chamber at an even temperature of 55 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit.

Prepare Your Snake for Hibernation

10. Evaluate your female snake’s health with the help of your snake’s specialist veterinarian. Your veterinarian can help determine the optimal time for breeding.
11. Give your snake warm baths daily in the week preceding hibernation. This will help to remove wastes from your snake’s body.
12. Lower the temperature slowly in the snake’s cage. Lower it a few degrees every day until you reach the desired temperature of the hibernation temperature.
13. Introduce your snake to the hibernation chamber. Add a bowl of water to the chamber, and leave your snake in the chamber for eight weeks. Replenish the water as needed in the chamber.
14. Begin to increase the temperature of the chamber after eight weeks until it gets to the normal temperature of the living quarters.
15. Return the snake to its regular cage.

Breed Your Pet Snakes

16. Introduce the female to the male’s cage.
17. Gauge your snake’s willingness to breed by her body language. If she lies down looking relaxed near the male snake, she is ready.
18. Reintroduce the snakes for a few days in succession until the female seems to have lost interest in the male snake. She will be producing eggs at this point.
19. Wait for your snake to lay eggs or birth live babies. The gestation period will be 28 to 45 days.

Tips & Warnings

• Skip this section if you have a tropical snake.
• Skip this section if you have a tropical snake.
• It is very important to flush out the snake’s waste, which can actually kill it during hibernation.
• If your snake has hibernated, you will need to keep the pair separated until after they have eaten and the female has shed her skin.