The Cold Blooded News

The Newsletter of the Colorado Herpetological Society

Volume 28, Number 4; April, 2001

Don't Count Your Snakes Before They Hatch

by Don Herring, Old Town, ME

Reprinted from the Newsletter of the Maine Herpetological Society, Vol.9, No.2, March 2001.

When Doug Kranich introduced me to Art and Missy Hall in 1996, I had no idea that I was about to fall in love. No, not with Art and Missy, but with a snake that Art was going to introduce to me. Until that day, I had never heard of African House Snakes, nor ever laid eyes on one. I can safely say that I was not prepared for the spark that was about to ignite a fire storm of interest in the "Shining Snake," (Lamprophis -- lamp-r-ophis).

On the first visit, Art would take us on a whirlwind tour of his collection, including everything from a leopard tortoise which had free range of their Bangor apartment, to bearded dragons, giant Caledonian geckos, and boa constrictors (both adults and offspring). We also saw the 'necessary evil' to most reptile collections, a mouse colony.

But of all the grand sights I saw that afternoon, it was the smallest that struck me the most. He opened up a shoebox, pulled a little snake out of its water bowl and plopped it into my hands. My first question was "is it going to bite?" He laughed and said "I doubt it."

So, dubiously I began closer inspection of the creature. It was approximately sixteen to eighteen inches long, a rich brown with smooth iridescent scales and a slightly reddish mottling from behind the head to about the mid body. The iridescence was brilliant but the head was another story. A lighter beige color made up an intricate face pattern which consisted of two stripes that met at the nose and extended directly over the eyes to stop at the base of the skull.

The stripe was also mirrored on the upper lip below the eye to the corner of the mouth. The eyes were large, beige, and contained vertical pupils. It was so calm and gentle that I was amazed. Until then my experience with snakes had been limited to garters, ringnecks, and redbellied snakes, which all tend to be rather shy and squirm inconsolably, releasing a foul musk when handled.

This one's behavior wasn't the only thing that set it apart from them; it ate mice. Until that day, I had been reluctant to get anything that ate mice because I was unsure if I could afford mice, much less find someone who sold them. I definitely didn't want to breed them -- but the winds of change were blowing.

Shortly thereafter, I participated in a trip to MARS (1996), the Mid-Atlantic Reptile Show, in Baltimore with a group from the Maine Herp Society. My original intent was to get some trinket snakes, house snakes, and maybe a few corn snakes.

At the show, that soon changed: there were corn snakes everywhere and I soon lost interest in them. My original first love, the trinket snakes, were hard to come by. Only one vendor at that show had any and he only had two, both males. Although disappointed that I could not obtain a sexed pair, I still bought a single male.

I still had some money so I decided to look for house snakes. I settled on one olive house snake for $20, which later turned out to be an olive phase of the common brown house snake.

Art Hall, later gave me the house snake that he first introduced to me and picked up a female 'black' yearling from a breeder in Colorado. Unfortunately, that 'black' later died due to egg binding.

Art and Missy had named the brown they gave me 'Zaphod,' which is an African wanderer, and I soon shortened it to 'Zap' because that was the way he ate. If you're familiar with house snakes (Lamprophis fuliginosis), then you will know what I mean. By outward appearances, they look more like small pythons than colubrids and they resemble them by more than appearance alone. They have a tendency to strike prey items tenaciously, seizing and coiling (constricting) them quickly and efficiently. They are also quite capable of swallowing prey much larger than their heads. If you've seen pictures of African rock pythons after eating an antelope or anacondas after eating a capybara, then you will have a good idea what I am talking about. African house snakes really do seem to have more in common with pythons than colubrids.

On the next annual MHS trip to MARS (1997), Doug referred me to Vince Scheldt of San Diego, CA, who seemed to be the only big breeder out there that really specializes in house snakes. I made a beeline for his table as soon as I got through the door and was greeted by a truly phenomenal sight. He had albino house snakes for sale marked at $900 each. Most of them were bright hunter's orange and were spectacular! If they were a little (OK, a lot!!) cheaper, I would have bought one or two. Other than the price, there was one other thing stopping me from wanting to get and eventually breed them: where would I find anybody to buy the babies from me at $900 a pop?

So, at that time, all I wanted was a Zululand phase pair to go with the other color phases that I wanted to breed. He didn't have any for sale that weren't albino, 'het' for albino, or possible 'het' for albino. I wasn't really interested in 'hets' for $300 and even though I thought the 'possible-hets' were kind of steep at $75, I decided to go with what I could afford. I also bought a pair of cinnamon phase house snakes at $40 each. I did find another vendor that year who had a male black hatchling for sale. I bought that guy too.

An amazing thing occurred that year at the Holiday Inn in which we were staying. One of the most impressive feats of that entire weekend was when Bill Craig proved his mastery of the fine art of snake capture. After an early departure from Saturday's show, I sat down on the floor of my hotel room to inspect all of my purchases. One of the house snakes apparently realized its chance for freedom was nearing. When the lid came off the deli cup, the unhappy captive house snake took off in a streak. After eluding my frantic, fruitless, diving attempt at capture, the snake found quick refuge under the room's air conditioning unit. It immediately moved up to the inside of the unit, out of sight and out of reach.

I wasn't sure what to do next but decided to sit and watch the A/C unit like a hawk for the next few hours, hoping to see the reptile emerge. Later, when everyone returned, I sent word to our other room that one of my newly purchased house snakes was AWOL in the room's A/C unit. I then watched Bill go into action. After a quick inspection of the unit, Bill and Doug Kranich began disassembling the air conditioner. Bill was determined to find that snake in there!

Within minutes, there were A/C parts everywhere. All of a sudden, that terrified house snake made a mad dash out of what was left of the unit for a safer domain. The snake made a bad choice though; he headed to Bill's side and with one stealthy grab. Bill snatched that bad boy and thrust him into a my unexpecting hands. I was speechless; it was a happy end to the snake's misadventure. It was another notch in Bill's belt. My house snake breeding program could still go on as planned!!

The next year, MHS returned to MARS (1998) and I found Vince again. He had normal 'Zulus' in a range that I could afford at $45 each. He made no mention of whether there was any possibility that it was 'het' for albinism, so I assumed that it wasn't.

Over the past few years, I have bred the cinnamons, the blacks and the olives with varying success. I've found that the majority of the hatchling cinnamons and blacks will take pinky mice readily after their first shed, but discovered to my dismay that only one out of about two dozen olives would accept the mice. Many of the hatchlings died before I discovered their fondness for newly metamorphosed frogs.

House snakes in general are 'multiple-clutch' snakes. Needless to say, I didn't breed the olives again the next year. I didn't relish the idea of breeding them and producing six clutches of finicky eaters. It also happens that my olive female is the most prolific producer in my entire colony.

You might be wondering what is happening to all these hatchlings. Ben Cole was successful at selling many of my offspring online on "Herp Auction." The remainder have been marketed by Jason Patterson and me at the help expos that MHS has attended in the past six months.

This year, I was finally able to breed the two 'Zulus' together (now that she was finally old enough to do so safely) and the results were rather bitter-sweet. Her first clutch was a disappointment; only three eggs out of ten were fertile. Of those three, two went bad in about two weeks and the final surviving egg hatched successfully...but as a runt. I'm happy to say that it is now eating well though.

Her second clutch was a total disappointment -- all seven eggs were infertile. The third clutch was an improvement; four out of six were fertile. Her fourth and latest clutch consisted of only three eggs, two of which appear to be fertile and are currently in my incubator.

I am delighted to say that the four fertile eggs from her third clutch have hatched with rather surprising and unexpected results. There were three partial albinos and one normal (possible het for albino)!!!! I must explain that partial albino means they totally lack melanin, but not some other pigments like xanthanin (yellow) and erythrinin (red), so these babies are kind of a peach color.

This female has totally redeemed herself for all those infertile eggs and then some. Not only do the partial albino babies prove that the male 'possible-het' IS a 'het,' but it also proves that the female is a 'het' also!! I could have gained the same results by paying $300 each for guaranteed 'hets.' Instead, I ended up paying $120 for my pair, including one 'normal' that isn't really 'normal' at all. I would have to say that the gamble was well worth it, although it was never my intention to produce albinos at all with the original purchases.

I should add that I have seriously contemplated procuring at least one albino -- until now. Of course, that won't be necessary since I'm producing them myself. What are the chances??? There is still more that I would like to do -- like refining the amount of red and yellow pigment in this strain of albinos, but at least now I have that option at no extra cost.

It must be every breeder's dream to open up that incubator to find something totally new or unexpected, like leucistic, melanistics, albinos, or piebalds peeking out of that egg. Even though I knew that was a possibility, I never fully believed that it would happen. Will miracles never cease??

A new chapter has begun and the outlook looks bright.