Pre-post warning: This post contains many photographs of corn snakes feeding on (dead) prey items. Cornsnakes feed on small rodents, and due to my snakes’ young age, these are often young mice. Experience tells me that some people find this type of imagery disturbing. It is, however, an inherent part of snake-keeping. If this is not your thing, look no further than the first picture, which is a snake without a prey. Young cornsnakes, especially when not frequently handled, can be rather restless, making photography more challenging (and I have little time to explore other methods). Feeding time is one of those rare moments where they actually sit still. This, combined with the fact that I disturb them at this time anyway, gives me the opportunity to take pictures that represent them well.
Last week I ‘completed’ my cornsnake group, by adding several animals with particular color and pattern mutations. It’s hard to put to words how much satisfaction I get from keeping these fantastic animals. What can I say. Some people breed canary birds. I happen to breed snakes. Here are some of my beauties.
A male homozygous for caramel and striped, heterozygous for diffused, and palmetto, 50% possible heterozygous for hypo.A female homozygous for caramel and striped, heterozygous for diffused, and palmetto, 50% possible heterozygous for hypo.A female, homozygous for lavender and masque, heterozygous for diffused, hypo, motley, and possibly heterozygous for amel and charcoal.A male, homozygous for lavender and masque, heterozygous for diffused, hypo, motley, and possibly heterozygous for amel and charcoal.A female, homozygous for Palmetto, possible heterozygous for diffused, amel and anery.A female, homozygous for sunkissed and caramel, 66% possible heterozygous for cinder and amel.A male, homozygous for sunkissed and cinder, heterozygous for caramel.A female, homozygous for sunkissed and anery, 66% possible heterozygous for hypo and motley, possible heterozygous for cinder.A male, homozygous for amel, diffused, and pied-sided, heterozygous for lava, hypo, and motley.A female, homozygous for diffused, possible heterozygous for hypo, charcoal, striped, pied-sided, possible heterozygous for anery.A male, homozygous for hypo, diffused and pied-sided, heterozygous for charcoal, striped, possible heterozygous for anery.A female, homozygous for diffused, and pied-sided, heterozygous for lava, hypo, and motley, 50% possible heterozygous for amel.A female, homozygous for anery, hypo, diffused, and motley, possible heterozygous for sunkissed, charcoal.A female, homozygous for hypo, diffused, and motley, heterozygous for sunkissed, anery, possible heterozygous for masque.
Robin Heinen 