... well, at least in MY snake room...
Okay, to completely understand this one, I have to start way back at the beginning. Last year I purchased several proven breeder corn snakes from the Roylances, not too long before the hurricanes. Among them was a trio of snow corns. They had already bred for the year, and I was just housing them individually and feeding the snot out of them until brumation. I brumated everyone rather late (last feeding was mid-Dec.) and noticed that one of them had a slight lump the size of a pea near it's vent. At the time, I was under the impression that this snake was one of the two females.
I noticed during brumation (3 mos. @ 58-60*) that the one with the bump seemed to be getting a little thicker around the middle, but nothing to be overly concerned about. When the heat was turned back on, this one plumped up significantly, and I was afraid the lump was some sort of tumor that was preventing her from defecating. I fed her her first meal, a small adult mouse, just like everyone else. She ate just fine, but four or five days had passed and she hadn't defecated. Her abdominal swelling continued to increase, and after soaking her in 95* water for half an hour, she had a normal defecation. SO, at this point I assumed that the lump was not interfering with defecating, and I started to wonder about what on Earth would be causing the abnormal lump.
I kept her separated from the pair, and continued to monitor her condition. Big belly aside, she appeared to be completely normal and healthy. I fed her small meals sparingly since I did not intend to breed her until I could figure out what was going on. The other 1.1 were carrying on as usual, until they laid a clutch of 17 eggs, all infertile. CRAP! I immediately assumed that the one I had kept separated was actually the male. They weren't my only snow breeders, so I wasn't TOO upset about it, but I did feel like a dolt because I figured I messed up and had the two females together.
So, about 4-5 days later, I put the swollen one in with the other two, mainly out of curiosity. I did not observe any breeding behavior. Two days after that (today) I find a clutch of 24 relatively healthy looking eggs, and guess who wasn't fat anymore!!! I was correct that the swollen one was indeed one of the females, but she hadn't been with a male since I got her late last summer! To be sure that I wasn't losing my mind [any more than usual] we probed the one we suspected was the male, and yep... he's the male like I originally thought.
SOMEHOW, she must have ovulated BEFORE going into brumation, and retained sperm from God knows when, and waited until now to finally lay the eggs. Judging from the eggs appearance, I'm under the impression that they are indeed fertile, but I don't know what will come of them in two months.
Below is a picture of the female that just laid the eggs. The pic was taken when I brought them out of brumation, before their first feed. The next is a pic of the 1.1 (the male is the pink one), and the last picture is of the eggs I found this afternoon. They looked a little dry, but not as bad as some that I've still managed to hatch.
Does anyone have any theories as to how the heck this happened? Has something like this happened to anyone else?
Okay, to completely understand this one, I have to start way back at the beginning. Last year I purchased several proven breeder corn snakes from the Roylances, not too long before the hurricanes. Among them was a trio of snow corns. They had already bred for the year, and I was just housing them individually and feeding the snot out of them until brumation. I brumated everyone rather late (last feeding was mid-Dec.) and noticed that one of them had a slight lump the size of a pea near it's vent. At the time, I was under the impression that this snake was one of the two females.
I noticed during brumation (3 mos. @ 58-60*) that the one with the bump seemed to be getting a little thicker around the middle, but nothing to be overly concerned about. When the heat was turned back on, this one plumped up significantly, and I was afraid the lump was some sort of tumor that was preventing her from defecating. I fed her her first meal, a small adult mouse, just like everyone else. She ate just fine, but four or five days had passed and she hadn't defecated. Her abdominal swelling continued to increase, and after soaking her in 95* water for half an hour, she had a normal defecation. SO, at this point I assumed that the lump was not interfering with defecating, and I started to wonder about what on Earth would be causing the abnormal lump.
I kept her separated from the pair, and continued to monitor her condition. Big belly aside, she appeared to be completely normal and healthy. I fed her small meals sparingly since I did not intend to breed her until I could figure out what was going on. The other 1.1 were carrying on as usual, until they laid a clutch of 17 eggs, all infertile. CRAP! I immediately assumed that the one I had kept separated was actually the male. They weren't my only snow breeders, so I wasn't TOO upset about it, but I did feel like a dolt because I figured I messed up and had the two females together.
So, about 4-5 days later, I put the swollen one in with the other two, mainly out of curiosity. I did not observe any breeding behavior. Two days after that (today) I find a clutch of 24 relatively healthy looking eggs, and guess who wasn't fat anymore!!! I was correct that the swollen one was indeed one of the females, but she hadn't been with a male since I got her late last summer! To be sure that I wasn't losing my mind [any more than usual] we probed the one we suspected was the male, and yep... he's the male like I originally thought.
SOMEHOW, she must have ovulated BEFORE going into brumation, and retained sperm from God knows when, and waited until now to finally lay the eggs. Judging from the eggs appearance, I'm under the impression that they are indeed fertile, but I don't know what will come of them in two months.
Below is a picture of the female that just laid the eggs. The pic was taken when I brought them out of brumation, before their first feed. The next is a pic of the 1.1 (the male is the pink one), and the last picture is of the eggs I found this afternoon. They looked a little dry, but not as bad as some that I've still managed to hatch.
Does anyone have any theories as to how the heck this happened? Has something like this happened to anyone else?
