Herping the Siouxland      

             Western Fox Snake

               (Elaphe vulpina)

Fox Snakes have a unique range distribution. They are a northern variety of the Ratsnake family. In fact, there have been suggestions to rename them 

Northern Ratsnakes.

I have been conducting research on Fox snakes since I was 10 years old.

_____________________________

I currently have two wild caught/rescued adults as long term honored guests in my home. Photos of the adults down below.

_____________________________

I occasionally have a few captive hatched   juveniles that are available for adoption.
I now have several well started 2023's.

_____________________________

I still have a male and female available hatched in August 2022.

Now feeding on 2 fuzzy mice each every 10 days right out of my hand.

These 2 are now close to being classified as sub-adults.

They all have pretty much standard checkered bellies.

_____________________________

$235 each

(Plus shipping)

See shipping details down below.

_____________________________

# 18 (Male)

17 inches long.

                        # 19 (Female)

19 inches long.

On Hold

(Sale Pending)

         _____________________________

           I Now have 5 well started
                  2023's available.
         (One male and four females)
 
       All hatched in August 2023 and
         eating a large frozen thawed
            pink mouse every 5 days.

                $200 each

         _____________________________

                  # 1 (Male)  15.30 inches

         _____________________________

                 # 5 (Female) 15.30 inches

# 6 (Female) 15.30 inches

# 7 (Female) 18 inches

# 8 (Female) 14.35 inches

On Hold

(Sale Pending)

I use PayPal and ship through

Reptiles Express.

(FedEx Priority Overnight)

Shipping price ranges from

$35 - $90

(Send me your zip code for exact amount)

When ordering, please remember to include your phone number, Email address and whether shipping will be to Residential, Business or
Hold at local FedEx location.

--------------------------------------------------
If at all possible... I highly recommend you choose to Hold at your local FedEx location.
If you do choose to pick up
at your local FedEx location, then you MUST send me the address and zip code for that location... NOT your home address.

_________________________________

I usually ship on Tuesday or Wednesday for a pickup/delivery the next day.
However... Occasionally there is a delay, so please be aware that you might have to allow an extra day in your schedule to receive the snakes. It's a rare event, and has only happened a few times, but it does occasionally happen.

_____________________________

             Next estimated ship date is
                    Tuesday, April 23.

_____________________________

The story of how they came to be permanent residents of our household began in 2011, with the installation of some nylon mesh erosion control netting along a bike trail near Mankato, Minnesota.

_____________________________

In May, 2010, I was horrified to see a new a new bike trail was being plowed through some prime snake habitat. It came very close to a rock outcrop hibernacula, but when I saw that the bike trail was going over only a small portion of the outcrop, I relaxed a little, and thought the worst had passed.

All summer, during its construction, I could see them installing what appeared to be fairly small strips of nylon mesh erosion control netting (So I thought) and kept reminding myself to go take a closer look as soon as the work was complete. Four days after its grand opening, I finally got out there to check it out, and was absolutely stunned to see this:

All of the silvery gray area in these photos is nylon mesh netting. On both sides of the trail !!

This newly exposed bedrock, and hopefully future den sites in the side of the hill.

However... They covered the entire remaining outcrop with this stuff!

 I counted a total of 9 dead Fox snakes (2 live ones rescued) and 4 dead adult female Garter snakes (With one live one rescued) The next day I went back and marked the location of each dead Fox snake with a red flag.

    

The old den sites were located along the hiway to the left. (Photo below) All snakes were found on the right side of the trail, indicating they were on their was from the wooded river bottoms to their hibernation dens.

         And now, several ghastly images of
                   what this stuff can do:

       I found two Fox snakes that were still moving.

I actually had to cut into the skin a couple times to get them out.

Along with several lacerations, this one had several broken ribs from twisting and turning around trying to get loose.

I managed to save only two adult females. And as they could barely move upon being freed from the netting, I decided to bring them home with me. I set them up in a temporary enclosure and offered them a drink.
As you can see, one of them was so weak and dehydrated, she didn't even bother to right herself until she had a good long drink.

As soon as I dipped their chins in to the water bowl, they both immediately began drinking and continued non-stop for at least ten minutes.

Sadly, both of them eventually succumbed to their injuries and died a few weeks later.

_____________________________

The following spring, I went back out and found two large adult Fox snakes that had just emerged from their hibernation den. The nylon mesh netting was still in place and still a dangerous death trap, so I decided to bring them home and set up a captive breeding program.

Keep in mind... This was in 2011 and the laws have changed since then.

All reptiles and amphibians in Minnesota have now been officially designated as 'State Protected Species' and can no longer be removed from their natural environment.

__________________________

     For now... I will introduce Rocky: 

(The female)

          And Bullwinkle: (The male)

Bullwinkle hissed at me once when I first picked him up. Since then, he has been as tame as a length of rope.
Rocky... on the other hand... bit me at least a dozen times on the way home, and as I was setting up her enclosure!
(Since then she has tamed down completely,
just like her new mate)





Their heads really aren't that rusty red.
It's a reflection from the red heat bulb.
 

__________________________

Here's the 4 level Grand Palace they currently live in. All 4 levels are connected and they can crawl from top to bottom.



Arboreal habitat on top, small space between the heat lamps, main level and the lower portion where it's always nice and cool.







The lower portion is where they spend the winter.

_________________________________

Every September I gave a Snake Talk at the Harkin Store, a historical country store site in Nicollet County, from 2011 to 2019.

 Bullwinkle was always a big hit with the kids!

_________________________________

By the end of October they are ready for a long winter's nap, and they both crawl down into the lower chambers of the big enclosure. They will stay down there until April, at a steady temp of about 54 degrees with about 40% humidity.  

They seem to prefer to be cool and dry curled up on the bare rocks, but there is a big water bowl and a layer of moss to keep them from getting too dry and dehydrated.

_________________________________

And here's the life history of
Western Fox snakes:

_________________________________

      Western Fox Snake (Elaphe vulpina)

The Fox Snake is a tan and brown spotted snake that can grow up to 5 feet long. They emerge from hibernation during the last week of April. The month of May is the breeding season.
On Memorial Day weekend I had the opportunity to witness (and photograph) some rarely seen courtship and breeding behavior. These photos were taken with a Pentax K1000 35mm camera. Remember...These snakes are all completely wild. (No tame pet actors here.) However...most of them were so intent with courtship and breeding that very few exhibited aggressive behavior. Only one thing on their tiny little minds: Reproduction!          

This photo gives you an idea of how big these are. This one measured about 3 and 1/2 feet. Each snake was caught, measured, photographed and released

again. Most of them stayed around the immediate area and some of them were re-captured several times.

When 2 males meet they size each other up. 

 If they are an even match and neither one backs down... the fight begins.    

 It can get a bit rough and one of them gets in a good bite! I didn't even see this when I took the photo.

            
The confrontation usually involves a wrestling match as one tries to pin the other one's head to the ground.  

They spin around and around like 2 ropes in a Tornado!

It gets pretty tight and nasty towards the end. Below you  can see one of them gets in another bite. That did it! The loser crawled away and the winner gave a brief chase until he was out of sight. A few minutes after the fight ended a female came crawling into view. He picked up her scent on the ground and began following close behind.                                                                                                                  

The lighter colored male was totally oblivious to me as I frantically snapped the photos. The female was an unusually dark colored specimen. She had just emerged from a nearby pond and was still pretty slow and cool to the touch. This was to his advantage ...as I recorded the ground temperature at 103 degrees! He was all warmed up and ready to go.

 Sometimes the mating process is just as rough as the male dominance battle. When the male reaches the female's neck he bites her too! If she's ready to mate she stops crawling and the male begins to wrap his tail around hers.  

                                                                                    
The chase and capture took place right out in the open on a hot sunny day. But soon after he had retained his new mate...he gradually guided her into the shade of a small clump of weeds nearby. There they proceeded to mate. They remained together for about a half hour and paid no attention to me at all. I've seen  all of this before in captive specimens...  but have never before witnessed this in the wild. (I do have even more detailed and graphic pics of the actual mating  but I think we'll stop it here for now.

___________________________________________

About a month later during the last week of June (usually around the Summer Solstice) pregnant females can be found crawling across roads and trails looking for a safe place to lay their eggs. In 1994 I found several females out moving around just before sundown and decided to bring one home. (I already had a nice place all set up for her so I could photograph the procedure)

*Please note: You should NEVER bring home a wild animal of Any kind unless you have done extensive research first and can provide it with adequate care...even if it's only a temporary captive!!!  During the 4th of July weekend she began the nesting procedure. The photos down below show a female in the process of "building" a nest. In the wild they lay their eggs under a hollow log or large flat rock...anywhere the eggs can be warm and moist and safe from predators such as Raccoons and Skunks.              
She began by digging out an area in the moist soil under a small hollow log. (I removed the log when she started for better viewing and to take the photos) She didn't seem to mind and kept right on digging) She's actually turning round and around hollowing out a small depression in the soil. She did this for 10 minutes until she had it just right. 

Then the actual egg laying began.           The eggs come out of the vent near the base of her tail. Each one is over an inch long and is soft and flexible like a marshmallow.   Here comes egg # 3. An egg is laid about every 20 minutes. At the bottom of this photo you can just barely see the snake's head.  It appears as if she becomes unconscious just before egg-laying begins. Her head drops down to her side and does not move through-out the process.   I've noticed this in other species too. No eye movement or tongue flicking occurs during the several hours it takes to lay about a dozen eggs at a time. This female produced 14 eggs. Shortly after the last one was laid...she appeared to regain consciousness and eventually left the eggs to hatch all by themselves.                                                     

I removed them from the big observation cage and put them in a container filled with mulch from an old rotten log. Here you can see the set-up I had to view and photograph the show. Towards the end of August the eggs begin to hatch. These were kept at room temperature.

(Which in My little one-room non air-conditioned apartment was about 85 degrees) The baby snake makes a slit in the soft eggshell with a tiny "egg-tooth" on the tip of it's nose. This looks like a tiny grain of salt and soon falls off after the baby emerges. You can see the sliced up egg-shells to the left. The little snakes literally knife their way out of the egg! (These were hatched out in a 10 gallon aquarium with a nice "Autumn Scene" taped to the back. All these hatchlings are piled up under the light soaking up the heat. The momma snake was released at the spot where I found her shortly after she laid her eggs. And soon after these photos were taken...all of these little ones were released in the same general area where the female was found, too. Young Fox Snakes are about a foot long, eat small mice and can be found from about late August right on up to the first blizzard of the Winter! They spend the winter underground down below the frost line.

Adults will climb up into low trees and bushes and eat hatchling birds and fledglings they can catch on the ground... but they are mostly great consumers of Mice, Rats and Gophers and should be considered a friend of the farmer and gardener!

___________________________________

  I occasionally have a few captive hatched   juveniles that are available for adoption.

         

An average of a dozen eggs are laid around  the 4th of July.

A Tupperware container is filled up half way with Perlite, then soaked in water.

The eggs are placed on the moist Perlite and a digital thermometer is inserted midway into the clutch.

The rest of the container is filled with dry Perlite with a layer of moss over them.
The moss is then sprayed with water and the cover securely attached.

The containers are then placed in an area with a steady 83 degrees.

After about 2 months they begin to hatch. Sometimes over night and very quickly!