All of Cookie’s eggs have at last hatched and we have thirteen busy little snakes. Two are amelanistic! Hmmmm.. What percentage is that? The featured photo above gives you a good look at Sherbet, the healthy Amel that hatched second. Zoom in on those beautiful red eyes. Sadly the Amel that hatched first, Rainbow, has a spinal deformity that is called a “kink”. From what I have researched, as long as she eats, makes waste and sheds properly then she can live a long normal life. If you zoom in on the little Okeetee Corn’s eyes you will see they are getting cloudy. Our corn snake handlers know what that means! 
Notice the babies are out of their incubation shoebox and exploring their new “nursery”. I lined a 10 gallon aquarium with moist paper towels, added two shallow water dishes and added lots of places for them to hide. The heat lamp is on one side. I measured several of the babies and it seems that most are about 25cm long! A good healthy size for newborn snakes. The next big event that we are awaiting is for all 13 babies to shed. After their first shed they will be ready for their first meal, a pinkie mouse. I am hoping for Friday or Saturday for their first feeding!
6/8/16 – A Baker’s Dozen of Baby Snakes
This is LC5 alumni, Nicole. You have all heard me refer to her as the “human snake momma”. She bred her two Corn Snakes (Ray & Ruby) three years ago and Cookie and Brownie were her first offspring. She of course had to come over yesterday afternoon to check out her next generation of baby Corns and have some play time with Brownie. She is now a sophomore at the Academy of Science and Technology at College Park. I learned from Nicole that Cookie and Brownie had a 25% chance of producing an Amelanistic (red albino) offspring since Ruby was a an Amel. Amelanistic is a double recessive trait so both Cookie and Brownie carry the dominant Okeetee trait and the recessive Amelanistic trait.
I am speed reading what to expect when you are expecting CORN SNAKES! Three of Cookie and Brownie’s eggs have little heads peeking in and out of them. A fourth egg has a tiny slit on the top. Nobody has looked out yet. According to Corn Snakes The Comprehensive Owner’s Guide by Kathy & Bill Love most of the babies should emerge from their eggs in the next 24-48 hours. This peeking in and out is called “pipping”. They will do it until they are strong enough to leave the egg completely. The hatchlings make the slit in the egg with something called an “egg tooth” on their snout that they will soon lose. I have looked closely but don’t see that. I wonder what it looks like? Why didn’t I bring home a magnifying glass?! Maybe these babies have lost theirs already. I have one picture to share so far. LOOK CLOSELY. I’m afraid to open their incubator too much. It is at 83°F after me being in there looking around. I had it at a nice toasty 86°F. Mr. Caldwell and I had big plans to go out to dinner tonight to celebrate the start of summer but NOT NOW! Poor Mr. Caldwell… snakes in the laundry room and no night on the town. I will try to capture some video footage. And, “Yes Luke!”… the first two are Rainbow and Sherbet 🙂 What should I call three and four? How many total eggs do you all think will hatch??? I’m sooo excited!! 
Never Stop Questioning! 