Great post Mike, thank you so much. Let me whine for a minute. In the time I have been here, that's one of the very few posts with actual details. Thanks so much for sharing.

About your eggs, all but one look good. One has blood on it? if so, that can be caused by oviduct issues. Where the egg adheres to the membrane. Sometimes theres no harm, others there is. Key an eye on that.

About nesting, what was the time from shedding to deposition of the eggs. This measurement is very telling and is a good gauge as to how well your substrate is working. Since I started posting deep nesting pics here and other places, most that have tried deep to not even that deep, have received eggs the day after shedding. Once you observe that, you will see a difference in the eggs.

The point is, snakes have a window in which to deposit the eggs, after a certain amount of time, the eggs enlarge and that makes it hard to pass. The embryo grows and requires more support, then at some point, dies. Again, there is a window.

Eggs deposited as soon as they are ready, have little to no embryo development, eggs held longer, of course have more embryo development. Also weight loss by the female is measurable. That you already measure, so you will have something to compare.

Please understand, your nesting is the opposite of what I often see here or in a couple of hog books where eggs are scattered around a cage. That's what I call aborting. That is, where the female cannot hold them any longer, so she stops any nesting behavior and drops the eggs.

The Model is wild females, they move to the nesting areas in the fall and overwinter at or near the nesting sites. So they do not have to find suitable areas, they are there well before they copulate. Its rare a female has to find a place to drop eggs.

Great work and thanks, great report.

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