Post-brumation slugs?

Had a weird experience with one of my corn girls this week.

A little after 2 weeks of being warmed up after being brumated for ~2 months, she dropped a small clutch of 10 small slugs. She never looked gravid (she usually gets huge), was eating like a pig after being warmed up, wasn't nesting or digging, just overnight she dropped the eggs overnight.

Everything seems fine, just wanted to make sure this wasn't abnormal and there's nothing I need to worry about.

Were the slugs soft and pliable throughout like freshly laid slugs you might get in July, or were they partially hardened or otherwise abnormal?

Originally Posted by Clay Davenport

Were the slugs soft and pliable throughout like freshly laid slugs you might get in July, or were they partially hardened or otherwise abnormal?

About 50/50. I'm frankly not sure if I caught them the day they were laid or if they'd sat in her tub a couple days. They were properly calcified although clearly infertile with candling, -- some were starting to get hard and yellow in parts, some were still very soft and malleable like fresh slugs.

It's hard to say for sure but they may be eggs retained from a late clutch last season. I've only had it happen once with a gray band I bought one fall. After brumation she laid a clutch that was obviously retained from the year before.
they were very hardened though and I was surprised she didn't die from it while she was being cooled.

Watch her closely if you breed her. The gray band I had the problem with turned out to have a problem with egg binding and later died from complications from it.

Originally Posted by Clay Davenport

It's hard to say for sure but they may be eggs retained from a late clutch last season. I've only had it happen once with a gray band I bought one fall. After brumation she laid a clutch that was obviously retained from the year before.
they were very hardened though and I was surprised she didn't die from it while she was being cooled.

Watch her closely if you breed her. The gray band I had the problem with turned out to have a problem with egg binding and later died from complications from it.

She double clutched last year, both normal sized clutches for her (22 eggs, and 18, respectively). Her last clutch was in August she wasn't re-bred, and didn't lay all fall or winter. I put them down to cool in early December,, brought them out in late February.

I'll just keep an eye on her and watch things, I guess.

The main thing that makes me think they were retained from before brumation is the time table. She laid the slugs two weeks after being warmed up.
Two weeks isn't long enough to form the eggs, and I would think it unlikely that anything like that would occur at brumation temperatures.

My opinion is that is was an unexpected triple clutch from last season. Not being bred after the second clutch wouldn't necessarily prevent a third clutch from developing.
Since she laid two successful clutches with no problems, I wouldn't expect her to have any issues with being bred again.
However, since she has apparently demonstrated the ability to triple clutch, you should remember to palpate her well before cooling this fall just in case it happens again.