Eggs Eggs & More Eggs!!!

I thought I would give a progress report on how my critters are doing this year!

So far I've had overall good results.

So far I've had 3 cal king clutches laid, and I expect the next two in the next few days.

Clutch #1 was from Tigris by Bishop. She laid three beautiful eggs, then got egg bound. After a couple of days she laid another egg, a slug, and then continued to be egg-bound, until she laid the next egg and prolapsed her oviduct! I took out her egg-laying container and substrate and put her on sugar-water soaked paper towels, within an hour her oviduct was pulled back in (thank goodness)... she laid the final three eggs (one a day) without any further prolapsing of her oviduct.... Those eggs are incubating, but I've heard that few if any eggs that are laid after a snake is egg-bound will end up being viable. So out of 8 eggs, I have 7 currently incubating.

Here's Bishop:


Here's Tigris:

Hubby and I had to go away for the weekend, so I left sufficiently moist substrate in the laying containers so that the snakes who were due could lay and me not worry about the viability of the eggs while away for three days.

We got back last night and the first thing I saw was this humongous mass of eggs in Licorice's cage. (The picture I took didn't turn out, so I have to take new pictures of all the clutches)

Licorice was bred to Jester. She and Tigris were both bred one day when hubby was home sick from school, felt we should breed the snakes, so he crossed a number of them without regards to my plan, so of course he ended up choosing the exact opposite pairings for these two clutches.

The clutch, all in one huge clump, is SIXTEEN eggs! Amazing! Last year Licorice took nearly 20 days after her pre-lay shed before she laid her eggs, they were nearly the size of goose eggs, and all died when the embryo was barely the size of two peas. (AC failure blamed on this)... she double clutched but alas, escaped right when she was due to lay, and returned to my mouse house after she laid. Those eggs, while never discovered, were considered to be viable, as 60 days following her escape, the neighborhood cat brought me half a hatchling kingsnake. I have high hopes for this clutch of eggs. They were a little bit shriveled but not terribly so and are responding to the heightened moisture in the incubation container. They'll never be pretty, but I don't care so long as they actually hatch viable eggs.

Here's a picture of the daddy: Jester


And here's a picture of the mommy: Licorice

The third clutch, also laid while we were on vacation, was laid by a snake who hadn't bred before. Pegasus is an albino, and I crossed her to Bishop, in hopes of proving him as heterozygous for albino. She laid a beautiful 7 eggs.. a nice sized clutch for a first time breeder. You can see the picture of Jester two posts up, but here's a picture of Pegasus (fondly referred to by my husband as "the white worm".)

Clutch #4 is still anticipated. The female is a full sibling to Tigris (who became egg-bound)... She appears to be carrying 8 eggs as well and while I tried to cross her to Bishop, he appeared disinterested in her, and she appeared to want nothing more fondly than to eat him. I introduced her to Jester, and it was love at first slither!

Euphrates:

This is probably my last clutch (I still have one more female I might try to breed one more time for a late year clutch, but she seemed incredibly disinclined to breed!)...

Queenie was bred to Jester. For the last two years she was bred to Bishop. She is likely to lay her eggs very soon. She laid 8 eggs her first year, and 12 her second year.

Queenie:

You're off to a great start. Beautiful snakes. My favorites are Bishop and Licorice. Can't wait to see pictures of all the little babies popping out of the eggs.

The results are finally in...

Kingsnake Clutches:

Tigris x Bishop - 3 good eggs, 2 questionable ones, 2 bad eggs, 1 slug

Licorice x Jester - 15 eggs showing veins, 1 other that probably also has veins, but is too hidden among the other eggs to tell.

Pegasus x Bishop - 7 eggs (6 showing good veins, 1 doubtful)

Euphrates x Jester - 7 eggs (haven't been candled yet)

Queenie x Jester - 11 eggs (haven't been candled yet)

All the eggs are due to hatch within a two week period. From July 24th to August 4th.

Well, I try to check egg progress once a week or so. Yesterday I did so. Tigris 3 good and 2 questionable turned into 4 good and one definately bad. One of the ones laid after she was egg-bound is actually QUITE gorgeous and full up with beautiful veins. I was very pleased for that egg. The other egg was all ooey gooey and I threw it away.

Earlier When I candled Licorice's 16 eggs, I found veins in 15 eggs.... yesterday when I opened up the container, the one vein-less egg was looking like a robin's egg (blue spots)... definately bad. It's in a clump so I will have to leave it. Hopefully the goo won't infect the nearest eggs. Last year I covered up a gooey egg like that with vermiculite and that seemed to at least take care of some of the problem, I think I'll do that. I did successfully remove two eggs from a clump last year when they got maggots, but this year with only mold I think I won't bother. (The maggots were because I hadn't yet decided to have egg-boxes with no vent holes AND I had to keep the egg boxes in my mouse house for several days while the house AC was repaired)

The rest of the eggs look great. 44 kingsnake eggs, 28 cornsnake eggs.

It will be interesting to see what happens! The waiting is the hardest part!

Here are pictures of the eggs.

First due is Tigris. Her clutch of 8 eggs is down to 4. The one that is sitting solo was laid after she was egg-bound but it has a very strong and vibrant network of veins, so I have high hopes for it.



Next after Tigris is Licorice. She has 15 viable eggs. I've buried the one egg that is going bad in hopes of staving off some of the "grodiness" of the one bad egg.



Laid around the same time as Licorice's clutch is Pegasus seven babies:



Next up was Euphrates. Her eggs are positively HUGE. One is nearly 3 inches long!



And finally, Queenie's 11 eggs, in two egg-boxes.

Looking pretty good this year.

I wouldn't worry to much about bad eggs in the center of a clutch. I've both left them and removed them over the years and spoken with many breeders about them and the general consensus is they do no harm.

Afterall, in the wild if one goes bad and that one had an affect on the others there would soon be no more viable offspring. I think the anerobic bacteria from a rotting egg have to have suitable food sources, ie dead eggs, to propogate and if your other eggs are healthy there will be no problem.

I've got a clutch of false water cobra eggs now that are into week six and one of the eggs is REAL bad and has been since the beginning of week to, it is in direct contact with one other viable egg and there are no problems with any of the other eggs in the clutch. I've seen the same scenario in kings, corns, milks and hognoses.

Looking forward to pics of your babies.