Learn About Baby Snakes

       Young snakes are not often regarded as attractive, and most people do not have a desire to fondle and play with these little wriggly babies as they do with kittens and puppies.

Baby snakes emerging from the eggs. Snake eggs hatch out slowly,
 sometimes several days apart. Each little snake cuts the soft,
 leathery shell with his egg tooth, sometimes sticking his nose out
 and then retreating again.

       This feeling has been learned from older people; should you be fortunate enough to be brought up in a family where snakes are looked upon with interest, no doubt you would be just as anxious to pick up one of these tiny babies and rub its glistening scales as to rub the fur on your kitten.

       Think for a minute how helpless most babies are; the most helpless of all is the human baby, or you and I, at birth. We spend about one-fourth of our lives learning how to take care of ourselves and getting educated. For a short time the young rabbits, puppies, kittens, chickens, and birds are all dependent on their mothers and fathers for food, protection from enemies, and transportation, and their parents also teach them how to take care of themselves. Some learn more quickly than others.

       But what about a baby snake? He is independent from the very first instant of his life. He is fully equipped to take care of himself, to get food, to move about, and to defend himself against his enemies; he is even born with about as much intelligence as he ever acquires. And he is the exact miniature of his mother. He matures very quickly and is entirely grown up in two years.

       Some snakes hatch from eggs and some are born alive. Among the snakes that bring forth their young alive, you are probably most familiar with the garter and water snakes, rattlesnakes and copperheads. Among the snakes that hatch from eggs are the racers, hog-nosed, bull, and green snakes.

       Take one of these egg-laying snakes, for instance the blue racer, the fastest snake in the Chicago region. The mother snake finds a rather protected spot, under a log, or a pile of leaves or rocks and there she lays her eggs. She leaves them immediately and has nothing more to do with them, as is the case with most snakes; the eggs take several weeks to hatch, depending somewhat upon the temperature. The egg shells are not brittle like hens eggs but are tough, leathery, and flexible. When the young snake is ready to come out of his egg, he may have a little difficulty when he tries to pierce this tough covering. However, he has one tool to assist him a little protuberance on one of the skull bones; this bump is best described as a special tooth, an egg tooth or egg cutter, and it sticks out through the snake's mouth. With this the baby snake can cut or slit the shell in several places until he can get his nose through. He may stop and rest thus, half born, for several hours before pushing all the way out.

       Early in life, the time varying from a few hours to a few days after birth or hatching, the young snake sheds his first skin. He has nobody to help him disrobe; he has to wriggle out of that skin alone. He will shed his skin many times during his life, the number of times depending upon how fast he grows, the amount of food he eats, and the temperature and humidity.

       Snakes can go for months or even a year, if necessary, without food. This is as true of the baby snakes as the adults; and since most snakes are born in the fall of the year, they sometimes do not find any food before they go into their winter hibernation. It may therefore be late spring or even summer before the young snakes get their first meal‚ many months late. Each snake, young or old, looks after itself. Wood

Review Vocabulary from freedictionary.com:

• hibernation - The act or state of hibernating. To hibernate is to winter; to pass the season of winter in close quarters, in a torpid or lethargic state, as certain mammals, reptiles, and insects.
• protuberance - That which is protuberant swelled or pushed beyond the surrounding or adjacent surface; a swelling or tumor on the body; a prominence; a bunch or knob; an elevation.
• shed(s) - To let fall; to throw off, as a natural covering of hair, feathers, shell; to cast; as, fowls shed their feathers; serpents shed their skins; trees shed leaves.

After you read about baby snakes, Watch videos about them here:

• Baby Bullsnakes Hatching! Results of Vermiculite vs Perlite
• Our wild snake eggs hatched! So many babies!

Craft Projects That Enhance The Learning:

• A slithering fox snake can be fun to color
• Identify and color parts of a rattlesnake
• Sculpt a paper mache snake doll