Female Albino Corn Snake.

Question
I purchased a male ghost corn snake and a female snow corn snake from a reptile show March 2010. I was told that not to try to breed them for a year. I think my female may be pregnant. I have tried to feed my female for the past two weeks and she will not eat. She normally will eat 2 small rats twice a week. When I hold her up to a light I can see several dark spots throughout her length (every couple of inches). Could these be eggs. I also don't know how to tell how far along she would be either. Last night we seen the male chasing the female and getting on top of her. At one point he bit her to hold on to her! Is this their normal mating ritual? Please respond as soon as you can we have never dealt with hatchlings before.

Thanks alot,
William

Answer
OK, if you didn't want them to breed why are they together???  Remove the male to his own cage.  If she is pregnant she will go off food and she will shed about 10 days before she lays the eggs.  Get yourself a copy of The Corn Snake Manual by Kathy Love, it will tell you EVERYTHING you need to know about corns, eggs, and hatchlings.  




OK then let's dissect this a little further since you didn't like my first answer:

Your first question:  Could these be eggs. (note you used a "." instead of a "?" but I'd guess that's a question anyway...  Of course you also used the phrase "we seen" so... well, let's just say sleeping in English class not such a great idea...

My answer: "If she is pregnant she will go off food and she will shed about 10 days before she lays the eggs."  So since you didn't READ (or perhaps understand) the answer, yes, those could be eggs.  Being off feed is a sign.  I can't see the spots so I can't comment on them-send me a picture and I'll comment.

Your second question:  "Is this their normal mating ritual?"

I'll admit, I'm a little confused here.  You state you purchased them in March of this year, and that you were told NOT TO BREED THEM.  Yet your question leads me to believe you have them together as it would be hard for the male to bite the female if he were not in the cage with her.  Biting is rare but it does occur during mating.

At this point I jumped ahead a little and assumed you didn't realize that keeping them together would pretty much guarantee they were going to breed.  Since that's a pretty basic husbandry point I also assumed you were new to the care of corn snakes.  Otherwise... WHY ARE THEY TOGETHER if you aren't trying to breed them and you know one is male and one is female???  Unless, of course, your snakes are hatchlings (you never told me how big they were) which means they aren't big enough to breed anyway and you didn't know that.  Either way, there are several things you need to read up on and the book I recommended has ALL the information you NEED w/o me having to type 150 pages.  There's even pretty pictures in case you get bored!!!