Stage #1- Eggs After mating, the female snake stores the sperms in the oviduct for about 1 - 2 months. Then the female produces large eggs. It lays the about 10-15 fertilized eggs in shallow holes or under the rocks. The outer covering of snake's egg is not hard instead it is like a soft leather. The female snake guards and looks after the eggs till they hatch.
Stage #2- Juvenile snakes Some snake species warm the eggs by twitching their muscles, in order to speed up the hatching process. The juvenile snake comes out of the egg, by biting the egg cover. Prior to birth, it obtains all its nutrition from the egg yolk. However, it is found that about 20 percent of the total snake species, even those adapted in cold regions, give birth. Some female snakes lay eggs even without fertilization, which is known as parthenogenesis.
Stage #3- Adult snakes After the juvenile snakes emerge, they mature within 2 - 4 years. One of the major distinguishing features between a juvenile snake and an adult snake is the frequency of molting per year. A juvenile snake sheds its skin about four times a year, in contrast to an adult snake that sheds only once a year, at the most, two times per year. However, unlike insects in which molting allows the growth of the organism, renewal of skin in snakes does not have a significant role in their growth.