Into the Archives 65-Baby Snakes

I have an opinion that many people disagree with quite strongly and that is that snakes are really cool. Holding a calm snake makes me calm and happy. Over the years, I've caught several small snakes that were easy to keep for several weeks or months.

In the summer of 2008 we caught this Northern Red Bellied snake, a small species of snake that only grows to be about a foot long that can coil up in the palm of your hand. We names this one Lash. We kept her in a large Rubbermaid tub with dirt, rocks and bark to hid in along with worms and other bugs for her to eat. We kept the tub in the gazebo out of the elements and away from mischievous, hungry critters. We would've kept it inside the house but our mom thought that was less than a good idea.

 One morning I went out to check on the snake when what I thought was a worm caught my eye. I looked closer and did a double take. It was a small snake not much longer than an adult mans finger. Then I saw another. And another. About a half dozen total. Did our snake have babies?

I did some research and, although I never found anything on Red Bellied births in particular, I did find that there are some species of snake that don't lay eggs and do in fact have live births. 

So I deduced, either our snake did have babies or the dirt had eggs in it when we put the dirt in the bin. Because I was worried that the adult snake would mistake the babies as food, I put them in a separate tub and soon released them because I had no idea how to feed them. It was a fun summer with so many snakes!