Breeding Corns

[BHReptiles]

With corns, the rule of 3 is what I follow for girls: 3 years, 3 feet, 300 grams minimum of ALL 3. The biggest risk you run with breeding lower is them double clutching and then they lose too much to bounce back. Honestly, I've never bred a smaller boy like that but I would be careful about it if he's noticeably smaller. There is a reason that most cannibalistic snake pictures are of corns. They will eat anything they can get in their mouth unlike BP's.

As for time, it doesn't take long if they are ready. Pop them together for a few hours and see what you've got. If the male is interested, he'll move quickly. I will pair until I know for sure she's gravid and with my original pair, my male has been in with her more than once when she's laid as she never really showed much (even when laying 18-24 eggs at a shot). They don't ovy the way that BP's do so you don't have that to go on. Mainly, I go by behavior. The second she skips a meal, I put the laying tub in with her. It's the only time she'll skip and within a week, I have eggs. Just be sure to watch for a possible double clutch as they sometimes will do. You'll see her looking for a good laying spot and possibly skipping a meal. It doesn't take a second breeding to cause this as they can retain sperm the same way other snakes do.

You also mentioned brumating. Just a heads up, that's not needed to induce corns to breed. I've never brumated any of my snakes and have had clutches (mostly doubles) since 2004 or so. I always have natural light cycles though so that may be what's triggering it. I prefer to feed consistently instead of letting them lose weight during brumation.

Corns are pretty simple and easy to breed. Incubation is also pretty simple. I incubate on the highest shelf on my rack, mark the calendar once they're laid, and watch for pips. It's just that simple. Hardest part is having tubs for all the babies. Good luck and enjoy!

The only reason I'm considering breeding her at two and a half instead of a year later is because she's so big! I have another female who's about a month younger than she is and that female is only 170g (not to mention my slowest grower). My male is actually pretty good size for 100g. He's long but slowly filling out. He's also hitting a growth spurt so I expect him to be 150-200g by the time it's breeding time. Also...I like to watch when my snakes are together. This female has been housed with the smaller female (at the time they were only 20g apart) before I invested in my racks and she's never shown any aggression to the other snake. Now everyone lives in their own tubs.

Also, I'm familiar with double clutching and already have enough baby tubs for about 50 hatchlings (both ball pythons and corns) and I plan on purchasing at least another 30-40 more. I'd rather have extra tubs laying around than not having enough. This summer I'll be building a corn hatchling rack (my ball python hatchlings will be in a separate rack) to house about 30-40 tubs.

As for brumating, I know it's not necessary, but I don't keep them on a dependable light cycle. They are housed in my bedroom so they have natural and artificial light during the day and the lights go off when I sleep. Because the cycle varies, I figured a little bit of a brumation process couldn't hurt.

As for incubating, I'll probably create a small incubator for them. Even though my room is usually 78-82 degrees, I don't like thought of incubating in unstable temps. I would much rather control the environment and the humidity from an incubator versus somewhere just laying out.