Rhino Rat Snake Breeding Journal 2021

In 2021, my Rhino Rat Snake breeding season had challenges, but I managed to produce some healthy babies. The adult pair was paired and separated multiple times, resulting in a mix of fertile eggs and slugs. After a difficult pregnancy, four out of eight eggs hatched in September, bringing a successful end to the season.

Rhino Rat Snake Breeding Journal 2021

My 2021 Rhino Rat Snake breeding season took an unpredicted but pretty horrible turn. I feared for my females health and ended up with a pretty unfertile clutch.

Everything turned out ok and I even got a few healthy babies at the end of it all.

Quick Info

I house my adult pair of rhino rat snakes separately throughout the year. They were close to four years old at the beginning of the 2021 breeding season. This is the pair’s second breeding season together. I decided to pair and separate them multiple times during the season the same way I did the year before. No hibernation period was induced.

Summary

The snakes were paired five times from mid-may to the beginning of June. Out of the five locks there was one confirmed lock, three possible but unconfirmed locks and one no-interest pairing.

Ovulation may have been observed at the beginning of June.

Eggs were laid near the end of June

Quick Numbers

The pairings took place during a 43 day period from April 19 until June 1.

The female went into her pre-lay shed about June 2 and shed her skin 15 days later on June 17.

A mixed clutch of fertile eggs and slugs was laid between June 18 and June 23.

The eggs were first incubated at a stable room temperature and then on a 10-ish day road trip at an unrecorded temperature average for 80 days before the first one pipped on September 11 2021.

Rhino Rat Snake Breeding Journal 2021

Apr 19

Paired with male. Courting behaviour. Possible lock.

Separated pair on April 21

Fed female one mouse on April 24

Apr 27

Paired w/ male. Confirmed lock within an hour.

Separated pair on April 28

Fed female one mouse on May 5

May 8

Paired with male. Nice courting behaviour and possible lock.

Separated pair on May 12

May 20

Possible ovulation —> most likely just building follicles

Fed female one adult mouse on May 24

May 27

Paired w/ male – possible lock

Separated pair on May 28

Early June – Possible ovulation. Female looks like she’s almost in shed. Paired with male one last time. Female uninterested. Separated pair.

Fed female one adult mouse on June 5

June 17

Shed skin

June 18

Prolapse! Fuckkkk! Found one broken egg in the water bowl and one full egg on the substrate. Set up the one egg in a egg box with damp vermiculite.

Took her out of her enclosure and placed her inside a tub with wet paper towel. I applied brown sugar water paste to the exposed tissue to reduce inflammation. Let her sit for over 10 mins. Came back and sprayed the prolapsed tissue with water until fully rinsed. Then I used a Q-tip coated with Polysporin gel to slowly push the tissue back inside her cloaca up towards her head. It took a few gentle attempts. The last push went pretty deep. Almost full Q-tip length but I didn’t want to risk going too deep. I then lightly massaged her belly towards her head for a bit. Put her back in the tub with clean damp paper towels and closed the lid. I then put the tub inside her enclosure.

June 19

Another broken egg was found on the paper towel. Jade is looking ok but clearly uncomfortable. I replaced the damp paper towel with damp sphagnum moss just in case it helps her to view the tub as a suitable location to lay her eggs.

June 23

Laid a clutch of 8 eggs.

They don’t look the greatest and some are definitely slugs but if a few hatch and Jade lives through this shitty pregnancy then that’s a win for us.