# Does anyone know what breed of snake I have?



## Medusa Sparrow-Winchester (Feb 26, 2009)

This is my snake Sephiroth, she's two and a half years old, and I've had her since she was a week old. The problem is, I have no idea what breed she is. I was told my the people that sold her to me that she was a boy (hence the male name), and that she was a Blizzard Corn Snake, but when I got her sexed at a year old (I already knew she was female, I just wanted confirmation), I was told that she's a Leusictic Texas Rat Snake, but the eyes are wrong. Then I looked up pictures and found one that looked _exactly_ like mine, but was called a Snopal. Does anyone actually know what breed of snake I have? Here's her pic, along with the Leusictic Texas Rat Snake and the Snopal:

This is Sephiroth, my snake:










This is the Leusictic Texas Rat Snake, it has blue eyes.










And this is the Snopal:










My snake has red eyes. So...does anyone know what she is? Please help.
:help: :banghead: :2wallbang:


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## Ssthisto (Aug 31, 2006)

If she has red eyes, is solid white and was bought as a Blizzard corn snake, she's probably a Blizzard corn snake.

Has she lost weight since you took the photograph? She looks a little bit pudgy there


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## Medusa Sparrow-Winchester (Feb 26, 2009)

Nope, that's the fatness she is. She gets fed a rat pup once every week. Umm, she's about 4 foot something, have to mesure her the next time she sheds.

The rats make her very energetic. When I fed her adult mice, she wouldn't shed, and ate the mouse within about two minutes, now it takes her 5 minutes to eat the rat pup and has shed once since she started them.

I always thought cuz she's long and skinny, that she was a Rat Snake.


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## Ssthisto (Aug 31, 2006)

Rat pups are actually pretty high in fat - she does look a bit overweight if I'm honest. You shouldn't be able to see skin between her scales.

And corn snakes are a type of rat snake, so they will be long and lanky


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## Kustom (Jan 28, 2009)

id say a corn snake prob a blizzard


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## pied pythons (Jan 18, 2008)

Pretty much what Ssthisto said really...

So many people seem to class corn snakes as ''Corn Snakes'' and rat snakes as ''Rat Snakes'' as if they're a completely different thing. (like pythons and boas...categorized completely seperately)

A corn snake IS a rat snake species... Also known as the ''Red Ratsnake''. It's purely that they're more commonly known as corn snakes. But they're still rat snakes.


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## The Roach Hut (Mar 29, 2008)

not lucestic they have blue/black eyes.


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## Medusa Sparrow-Winchester (Feb 26, 2009)

Ahh, so...she _is _a Blizzard Corn Snake? Oh good, I was just wondering. :notworthy::2thumb:

I feed her on rat pups because she ate her mice really quickly, and hadn't shed since August.

Another question: are females more aggressive than males? Cuz my friend has the Common Corn, and you and poke him all day without him so much as hissing at you. I go to pet my snake and not only does she hiss, she also strikes. I've lost count how many times she's bitten me, and I found out the hard way that snakes have more then two teeth! :blush:


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## SnakeBreeder (Mar 11, 2007)

I have to agree with Blizzard ID.
No way is it a rat snake.
It also does not have the look of a snopal.
Stephen


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## Ssthisto (Aug 31, 2006)

Medusa Sparrow-Winchester said:


> I feed her on rat pups because she ate her mice really quickly, and hadn't shed since August.


At four feet long, I wouldn't expect her to shed very often or regularly any more - she's adult sized. Being overweight will make her shed as she grows fatter, but it probably won't make her grow significantly longer!



> Another question: are females more aggressive than males? Cuz my friend has the Common Corn, and you and poke him all day without him so much as hissing at you. I go to pet my snake and not only does she hiss, she also strikes.


It's more likely that she's more "aggressive" (and "defensive" is the more accurate term - she's scared of you, so she strikes to try to get you away from her) because of her morph and specifically because she has red eyes. The lack of black pigment in the eye usually means that they have quite poor vision - it's possible she doesn't know you're there until you're touching her, and then she reacts to you as though you were trying to eat her.

What happens if you touch her first with something that isn't your hand, then go to pick her up?


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## johndavidwoods (Nov 18, 2008)

Might we suggest that you revert to feeding her mice, 1 every 10 days or so? Not only are rat pups quite high in fat, they're also less nutritious than adult mice, and also a difficult size for an adult corn snake. I know this from experience - I used to have a troublesome female corn who would only take rats, and I was unable to get hold of weaners small enough for her locally. I had to resort to giving her 5 rat pups at a time to come up with an appropriate sized meal for her - far from ideal for her, or for me.
Adults don't shed terribly often, and it shouldn't concern you.


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## snickers (Aug 15, 2007)

corn snakes love rat pups ime. Looks like you let her loose in a sweet shop and she's been taking advantage of you :lol2:

Lovely snake :flrt:


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## Medusa Sparrow-Winchester (Feb 26, 2009)

Ah. 

She strikes at anything I touch her with. I have a pair of plastic tweezers that I give her her rats with, and she hates those, she ignores the rat, and attacks the tweezers instead. The only time she seems to let me touch her, and take her out of her tank, is when she's ready to shed, when her eyes have gone all milky. She seems to trust me more, which is weird, I thought she wouldn't trust me at all when she's like that.

Usually, I put my hand in the tank, close to her, and let her take a sniff at me, and if she crawls onto my hand, I can pick her up, but if she backs away into striking position, I take my hand out of the tank. Last time she bit me, I had ten holes in my hand! Of course, she hasn't bitten me in a while (touch wood), but she still hisses and strikes at me, I just move my hand away from her when she goes into striking position.

It's not like I lift her up without giving her any warning that I'm there. I gently stroke her back, and wake her up, than I put my hand in the tank for her to sniff at.

Thanks Snickers. Yeah, she goes nuts when she's ate a rat pup. Usually with mice, she sleeps for a few days, but with rat pups, she sleeps for a few hours, then goes nuts. She's trying to find a way out of her tank, so I need to get a lock. Then again, corn snakes are escape artists.

Yeah, I think I should go back to giving her mice. My friend (with the common corn) was told that if she continued to feed her snake rats, he die within 2 years! Is that true? She now gives him 2 adult mice every 2 weeks.


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## snickers (Aug 15, 2007)

> My friend (with the
> common corn) was told that if she continued to feed her snake rats, he
> die within 2 years! Is that true? She now gives him 2 adult mice every 2
> weeks. 

Not true. Ratsnakes will do nicely on appropriately sized rats. 2 mice a fortnight sounds OK too, just more expensive. Watch it doesn't get too fat though :lol2:


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## quilson_mc_spike (Dec 27, 2008)

im no expert on snakes but is it nothing to do with the heat as in she can feal the heat of you hand and thinks its food.....


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## Medusa Sparrow-Winchester (Feb 26, 2009)

It probably is to do with that quilson_mc_spike. I try to let her sniff at my hand first before picking her up.

Ssthisto says she looks fat, but I don't see it. I don't see the skin between her scales. I'll have to upload a more recent pic and see. 

That's a nice python Snickers. What kind is it? Do you have tarantulas? Eek! I'm aracnaphobic, so no spiders or scorpions for me! I kill spiders. I found a huge one on my curtain about two weeks ago, and had to get my dad to kill it. I don't kill big ones, they scare me even more than the little ones. :gasp:


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## Ssthisto (Aug 31, 2006)

Medusa Sparrow-Winchester said:


> Ssthisto says she looks fat, but I don't see it. I don't see the skin between her scales. I'll have to upload a more recent pic and see.


Here's another test for you:

If you were to cut her in half (and please don't think I'm suggesting you do!) would the cut end look:

1. Triangular like a Toblerone 
2. Square like a slice of bread (even if it's got a dip in the top)
3. Round like a sausage
4. Flattened-round like a sausage cut lengthways

If she is triangular in cross-section with a clearly visible spine she is too thin (for a corn snake - some snakes you ARE supposed to see the ridge of their spine, like keelback rats).

If she is flattened-round like a sausage cut lengthways, she's seriously overweight and unhealthy.

If she's round like a sausage she's still overweight - it means she's packing on extra weight on her sides and around her organs.

The correct body shape for a corn snake is square like a loaf of bread, with a slight dip where the spine is. They are meant to be slender, sleek snakes, not heavy or hefty like pythons. She should also taper smoothly with no lumps or bulges, particularly near the tail - her body shouldn't be visibly wider where her vent is.

The reason I've said she looks overweight is because the photo shows she's going more towards round-like-a-sausage and because there's a clear bulge where her tail starts. In addition, the photo you posted, particularly on that part of her closest to the camera, shows her scales are not overlapping - they're individual diamonds separated by skin.


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## Medusa Sparrow-Winchester (Feb 26, 2009)

Ah...ummm, no I'm not gonna chop her in half! :gasp: lol!

Hmmm, well, you can see the bump were her bum is, but I thought you were supposed to see that. 

Well, she's getting ready to shed...hopefully today, so I'll take a few pictures of her afterwards from different angles. You can see and feel her spine, maybe she's just packing on the weight at the sides, and not anywhere else.

Ok, I know that Corn snakes reach sexual maturity at 2 years old, but how do you know when the females are in heat? Do they, um...bleed like a human? :blush: I know they give off pheramones to attract males, but how does a person know? I'd like to bred her, but I was told that breeding females could shorten their life by half. Is this true? If it is, then, I'll rethink the breeding her thing, and just let her live her life without babies!

Ok, I was told that females have short tails and males have long tails, but Sephiroth has a long tail and she's been sexed as female. Is it not the males that have short tails, or does it depend on the breed?

You know, for someone who's owned a snake for 2 and a half years, I don't really know that much about them...:blush:


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## Ssthisto (Aug 31, 2006)

No, you shouldn't see a bump where her bum is - it should be a smooth, even taper all the way down. If there's fat stores near the bum, it's the equivalent of a human having a "spare tyre". That's where snakes put weight on at first, and a corn snake with "hips" is not the best choice to breed - they run a slightly higher risk of egg binding.

Corns do not have a set age at which they reach maturity and the ability to breed. The general rule is 3/3/3 - three feet long, three years old, 300 grams for a female, minimum. Females don't go "into heat" as such - the only way to tell if they're ready to breed is to introduce a male to them in late winter/early spring after she has shed and see if they mate successfully. You're probably too late to breed her this year, if you don't already own a male; you'd need to quarantine a new arrival for at least three months in a separate cage without introducing them *at all*, and by the time the quarantine is up, she's probably not going to be willing to mate.

Yes, breeding can shorten a female's life. It's hard work making and laying eggs, and there is the possibility that doing so can cause egg binding, which can be fatal. A female who's bred year after year after year will have a harder - and shorter - life than a female who is never bred or who is only bred once. 

But if your Sephiroth is female, I wouldn't breed her until she has lost enough weight that she doesn't have "hips" any more! I'd exercise her more - swimming is particularly good, in water that is just barely lukewarm to the touch, as is climbing stairs.

Males have tails of a different proportion to females. It's no good saying "long" or "short" though, unless you have more than one snake to compare to each other. What might look like a "long" tail to you, if you held it up next to another animal of the same size, might turn out to be pretty short.

Generally the males do have longer tails, because the hemipenes, in the base of the tail, take up space. What they also have is tails that are *thicker* than a female's for more of the length - if you counted eleven belly scales from the vent, is the tail still about the same width or just a little narrower than at the vent - or is it more like half the width it was at the vent?

It is quite easy to sex a male as a "female" if he clamps down and doesn't let the person sexing him "pop" out his hemipenes or put the probe down into them. It's much less likely to sex a female as a male without damaging her. I typically say "Probes as female, but until you see it lay eggs, it's only _probably_ a female."

Out of curiosity, the rat "pups" she is eating, how big are they? Do they have fur, or are they completely naked? I'm just confused, as what I know as a rat pup is about the size of a mouse fluff, completely naked with eyes still shut; I can't imagine how an adult corn would take longer to eat one of those than it takes to eat an adult mouse three times the size. That said, I still only feed my adult male corns every second to third week on one adult mouse - otherwise they wind up fat. Females I feed a bit more if they're being conditioned for breeding.


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## Medusa Sparrow-Winchester (Feb 26, 2009)

What's egg binding? Doesn't sound good. And she's always had that bump where her bum is, even when she was just a week old when I bought her, and she was being feed 1 pinky twice a week. Maybe it was the pet shop I got her from that started the weight gain?

I have no idea how much Sephiroth weighs. I take it I'd have to buy scales to weigh her with?

I've just taken loads of pictures of her, so you can tell me if you think she's fat, and what I should do, apart from swimming which she's doesn't like, what else I can so to help her loose the weight.

Yeah, Sephiroth's female, I had her "probed" and was told she's a girl. That doesn't sound right, it's like she's been abducted by aliens or something. :blush:

Nope, don't have any males, my mum won't let me have another snake. :cussing: *cries*

The rat pups she eats are only _slightly_ larger than adult mice, and they have fur, their eyes are shut...then again, they're frozen so their eyes would be shut anyways. You kow something, I'll take a picture of her rat pups and let you see them. Wow, two of them are practically naked, while the other two have fur. Seeing as I've taken loads of pics, I'll direct link them from Photobucket.

Here they are:

http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn134/lucifersangel16/001-4.jpg
http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn134/lucifersangel16/002-2.jpg
http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn134/lucifersangel16/003-2.jpg
http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn134/lucifersangel16/004-2.jpg
http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn134/lucifersangel16/005-2.jpg
http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn134/lucifersangel16/006-1.jpg
http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn134/lucifersangel16/007-1.jpg
http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn134/lucifersangel16/008-1.jpg
http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn134/lucifersangel16/009-2.jpg
http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn134/lucifersangel16/010-2.jpg
http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn134/lucifersangel16/011-2.jpg
http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn134/lucifersangel16/012-2.jpg
http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn134/lucifersangel16/013-2.jpg
http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn134/lucifersangel16/014.jpg
http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn134/lucifersangel16/015-1.jpg

Here are the rat pups she eats:

http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn134/lucifersangel16/016-2.jpg
http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn134/lucifersangel16/017-2.jpg


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## Ssthisto (Aug 31, 2006)

Medusa Sparrow-Winchester said:


> What's egg binding? Doesn't sound good.


It's what happens if a snake can't lay the eggs she's got in her, whether that's because she's out of shape, because the eggs are too large, etc...



> And she's always had that bump where her bum is, even when she was just a week old when I bought her, and she was being feed 1 pinky twice a week. Maybe it was the pet shop I got her from that started the weight gain?


I think that's a big yes. I feed my babies one pink every five to seven days, and feeding twice a week sounds excessive. Feeding a snake like a lizard - or indeed like a mammal - will just result in a fat snake.



> I have no idea how much Sephiroth weighs. I take it I'd have to buy scales to weigh her with?


It'd be a good idea to know what she does weigh, yes - and for that matter it'll also help you work out how much she needs to eat on a weekly basis for maintenance and general activity. A good guideline is four to six percent of their weight per week - so, for example, a 300-gram snake needs a 12 to 18-gram rodent each week (one adult mouse is around this weight).



> I've just taken loads of pictures of her, so you can tell me if you think she's fat, and what I should do, apart from swimming which she's doesn't like, what else I can so to help her loose the weight.


She won't like swimming, but it's good for her. Even hand-over-hand climbing will be good.

She does look a bit overweight to me - not hugely so, but enough that I would cut down on the food a bit AND try additional exercise.



> Yeah, Sephiroth's female, I had her "probed" and was told she's a girl.


Probing is not 100% certain. If a male clamps down on the probe, he will probe as a female. 



> The rat pups she eats are only _slightly_ larger than adult mice, and they have fur, their eyes are shut


Fairly big "pups" - I'd guess they're more like coming up to "Rat Fluff/small weaner" size (the photos make them look like two to two and a half weeks old), and it'd probably be worth weighing them too. They're more fatty and less nutritious than mice at that age.


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## pied pythons (Jan 18, 2008)

Woah...and you need a bulb guard over that spot bulb!!!


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## Pieluvspooh (May 11, 2008)

Ssthisto said:


> Here's another test for you:
> 
> If you were to cut her in half (and please don't think I'm suggesting you do!) would the cut end look:
> 
> ...


SSthisto, I don't suppose you could tell me a similar kinda thing for a Royal could you? I don't think my baby is overweight or anything but it would be interesting to know body shapes! : victory:


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## Medusa Sparrow-Winchester (Feb 26, 2009)

Ummm, where would I get a bulb guard pied pythons? And wouldn't it be made out of metal, and still retain heat for her to burn herself? She doesn't go near her light anyways, only when it's off and cooled.

Egg binding really doesn't sound good. Like the equivilent of trying to give birth to a very large baby naturally!

So...it's the pet shop's fault she's a bit overweight then? They told me to feed her two pinkies a week when I bought her.

Well, after reading up about rat snakes, I decided to feed her every 10 days to 2 weeks. This was about a month ago.

Yeah, she hates swimming. I put her in the sink (with luke warm water), and she went nuts. I think it might've been too cold for her! But I'll try her in a basin and she what she does.

Ah, well I did the "popping technique" when she was a few months old, and nothing popped out. Then, when she was a year old, I got her probed and was told she's female. I'd think she was female anyways, she certainly has the temperment of a woman! :lol2:

She loves her rats. Before I got her rats, she would only reluctantly eat her mice. I felt like opening her mouth and shoving the mice down her throat! Then again, last year, she didn't eat a thing for about 2 months, I think it was the warm weather that was making her not eat.



http://www.reptileforums.co.uk/members/pied-pythons.html


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## Ssthisto (Aug 31, 2006)

Pieluvspooh said:


> SSthisto, I don't suppose you could tell me a similar kinda thing for a Royal could you? I don't think my baby is overweight or anything but it would be interesting to know body shapes! : victory:


To be honest, the body shape guide for triangular - square - round - flattened is pretty good across most of the common species - I might be inclined to say that a royal can do with being a *little* on the triangular side, but not so much so that you can see their spine as a ridge - and they shouldn't have "hollow" bellies.



Medusa Sparrow-Winchester said:


> Ummm, where would I get a bulb guard pied pythons? And wouldn't it be made out of metal, and still retain heat for her to burn herself? She doesn't go near her light anyways, only when it's off and cooled.


I got mine from Livefoods UK - ordered twelve of them in one go and they arrived next working day. 

Because they're made of metal, the metal dissipates heat quickly into the air - it doesn't hold heat like glass or ceramic will, and not like the snake would either. 

The fact that she goes near it when it's shut off and cool is an accident waiting to happen - I lost a snake some years ago who decided to get himself around the bulb when it was shut off overnight; he broke his neck trying to get away from it when it switched on in the morning and was very, very ... cooked when I found him.



> Egg binding really doesn't sound good. Like the equivilent of trying to give birth to a very large baby naturally!


Precisely - but imagine not having the muscle strength to push the baby out either. I lost my favourite pet leopard gecko to egg binding (before you start thinking "Gee, she's had a lot of pets die" please do remember I have more than seventy reptiles right now, I do breed various species and unfortunately breeding is the riskiest thing you can do with any reptile that's housed alone.) and it's horrible - even surgery to try to remove the eggs doesn't always work.



> So...it's the pet shop's fault she's a bit overweight then? They told me to feed her two pinkies a week when I bought her.


It's a little excessive, to be honest - I think I only fed one pink a week to my babies for six to eight weeks, then upped it to two a week for a while; some of my 08 babies are still on double pinks once a week.



> Well, after reading up about rat snakes, I decided to feed her every 10 days to 2 weeks. This was about a month ago.


And that might explain why she's a little nippy - if she'd been used to being fed every week, it might be that she is trying to say "Hey, where's my supper?" Being on a diet myself I can empathise - I want to know where the rest of my dinner is too, and I might bite someone who waved something food-shaped near me.



> Yeah, she hates swimming. I put her in the sink (with luke warm water), and she went nuts. I think it might've been too cold for her! But I'll try her in a basin and she what she does.


Mine all go ballistic when I put them in water at first, too (that can mean it's too warm for them - remember it should only barely just feel warm to you or it could feel scalding hot to them) - and that burst of initial energy is GREAT exercise. I put mine in plastic tubs with locking lids, though, so they HAVE to swim/soak, and don't have the option to go flying off under the toilet or something.


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## Skyespirit86 (Feb 23, 2008)

Medusa Sparrow-Winchester said:


> It probably is to do with that quilson_mc_spike. I try to let her sniff at my hand first before picking her up.
> 
> Ssthisto says she looks fat, but I don't see it. I don't see the skin between her scales. I'll have to upload a more recent pic and see.
> 
> That's a nice python Snickers. What kind is it? Do you have tarantulas? Eek! I'm aracnaphobic, so no spiders or scorpions for me! I kill spiders. I found a huge one on my curtain about two weeks ago, and had to get my dad to kill it. I don't kill big ones, they scare me even more than the little ones. :gasp:


Ok...so put your hand in front of a snake that always strikes at you? They're not dogs...as in they need to sniff you first. If it's likely to strike at you you keep hands, faces etc out the way, unless you want to make it nervous, because animals generally don't understand hands, and will find them indimtidating. They make shadows, they grab, they make your outline look bigger when you raise them, they move about, they're _warm_, which a snake will pick up. At college the guy told us if a snake looks nervous or aggressive bring your hand in from behind them to pick them up so their bitey part is facing the other way. If they turn round or are in a corner, use an object to distract their eyes first, or shift them along. Or you can use a stick/pair of tongs to gently pin their neck long enough to take hold of them. Usually once in your hands they're fine. I'm not sure if blizzards really_ are_ more aggressive. There was a poll on here a while ago asking people if they found their blizzard aggressive and it was 50% yes and 50% no. Mine is one of the calmest of all the 08 babies I got so I voted no. I mean some corns are going to turn out more aggressive and others will turn out more calm. It's just chance- until someone does proper research and prooves it. Although I do believe that pigment can affect temperament, I am not thoroughly convinced it is true with blizzards. The only proof there is is some people's opinions and it's very easy for people to see patterns where there aren't really any.

I had trouble with stuck eggs last year. It was because they were infertile. It is not uncommon for corn snakes to produce eggs without a mate, and mine did- over 20 of them first time, then a second clutch. Loads of them got stuck because they were all dry, and not as plump as fertile eggs giving them funny shapes. They all came out though in the end luckily. I asked Kathy Love on cornsnake forums and this is what she said: 

_'I don't know that anyone has ever done any kind of scientific experiment to really know if it is much easier or more difficult for a female to deliver an infertile as opposed to a fertile clutch. On one hand, it seems logical that the fertile eggs are bigger, take longer to develop, and so will take more resources from the female, and more time fasting. OTOH, every egg I have ever heard of being "stuck" (when it was retrieved whole so fertility could be judged) has been infertile. So that would indicate fertile eggs are easier to pass. So I am not sure there is a good answer to your question.'_

My snake wasn't in poor condition prior to laying eggs. She was given a laying box although she didn't like it, and I had trouble getting it right for her. I dunno- she was just really funny when it came to that.

O yeah- and I DO think your snake is a blizzard corn. It has a corn's head shape. I expect the person who told you it was a leucistic texas rat thought was just guessing. Leucistic texas rats aren't the only leucistic rat snake going, and you can get blizzard corns (the whitest ones). Even some opals turn out nearly totally white, and snopals (snow+opal) which can be hard to tell apart in pics. What inexperienced people fail to do is look past the fact it's an all white snake. They don't look at size, head shape, eye colour, or whether it's got faint markings which a blizzard will do unlike a leucistic animal.


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## alcamee (Feb 15, 2009)

Either way, whatever it is, that is one lovely looking "healthy" snake. Well done and enjoy!


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