Tiny snakes

Earlier this summer, my coworker Azmyth brought in a brown snake that she caught in her yard on her day off when she was moving boxes. She had read that they do well in captivity, and this one did. Not all snakes do. She was not much bigger than a pencil, and that’s as big as they get – one of those things that produces the tiny rustle when you’re out hiking and then you can’t see anything. They eat worms, slugs, things like that.

We suspected she was pregnant, but didn’t know for sure. Then, on August 6, I went to show her to a visitor and realized she was not alone! There were several baby snakes in there!

So tiny!!!

Mama snake was a lot slimmer after having seven babies. You can see the ridges of scales where she had been sticking out a lot farther! She also had a lot more energy, just because she could move again. We had always kept a rock on top of the tank’s lid, but she hadn’t really tried to get up there after the first week; now I came in and she was completely wedged under it.

Azmyth decided to take her home and release her back in the yard, now that she was getting restless – before, she was content to hide in a safe place and wait to have her babies. Azmyth was going to keep the babies but ended up letting them go, too, after the cat almost got them out!

Such an amazing experience. I doubt I will ever hold a tinier snake than that!