I found my missing baby snake!!!

[Ruth]

That's very interesting about how Sam can tell the gender. Have your snakes had babies? If so how big are the eggs?

[Catherine]

I am in my fourth year of producing eggs. Corn snake eggs are small. They are around an inch or less long and 1/2 inch or less wide. The egg is soft and permeable and they take in air and water and get bigger as the baby snake develops. They have to be really clean or they mold and die.

I use damp sphagnum moss for the female to lay her eggs in and then I put the eggs in clean peat moss and cover them with damp sphagnum moss.  If the egg is too wet or too dry it will fail. They are kept in an incubator that has a steady temperature.

It is quite a challenge. Not all eggs hatch and not all hatchlings survive.

In the wild, the survival rate would be low. Still I had to learn to accept that not all the eggs would result in a surviving hatchling.

Sam has always been very sure of himself as a breeding male. He is much smaller than my other males, but he is all male. He knows from scent that another snake is male or female. I am sure the others know too, but Sam reacts in a way I can recognize.
Sam is getting another female for his group before breeding season in the spring. I will let him tell which one is a girl. I have two that would be a good match for him, but I am still guessing at gender. Firefly is a little small, but Lacy might be ready.

Phoenix would be perfect, but she is also his daughter. If Firefly is a boy instead  of a girl then he would be perfect  for Phoenix. If Lacy is a boy then he would be perfect for Phoenix.

I still need a perfect name for my little lost hatchling.