I am not going to respond to Will or FR, because while it was entertaining, it's a waste of time.



I would like to share some of my views on egg binding, with others.

While I might not be saying anything new to the open minded thinkers, I think it's important to put this other viewpoint out there.

I have included two pictures of very contrasting clutches.

The first is what I view as a nice healthy clutch. The eggs are large, plump and consistent in size (the one that appears smaller is attached to the adjoining egg and turned at an angle; it's actually the same size as the others). I don't view it as a negative that the veins are showing on a couple.

The female popped them out effortlessly, 5 days after shedding, with no slugs and no hiccups, typical of most of the clutches I received this year.

In stark contrast, the second pic shows eggs of all different sizes with some looking horrible. There were some slugs, a couple of eggs turned bad and some appear ok.

These were laid by my ONLY FEMALE that got egg bound this year.

SHE LAID 4 DAYS AFTER SHED!! and was my quickest to lay this year!!

Of course, I will not build a theory on one incident, but it does prove that there are other issues that cause egg binding.

I believe that there are several factors relating to the physiological and psychological wellbeing of the snake that cause or compound the issue of egg binding in the same way that incidents of difficult labor of all animal species are caused by a variety of factors.



I also have some differences of opinion, due to my observations and conversations with other breeders, with regards to some of the ideas that have been stated.

Like I said, I have no interest in prolonging the debate with those who disagree with me - it's completely pointless.

I am just presenting my ideas to others who are then able to draw their own conclusions.



I have seen NO difference in size between eggs laid 4 days after shed and eggs laid 10 days after shed.

I have had females lay large clutches of LARGE eggs 10 days after shed, both on the shavings and in "deep nesting" with no problems.

Any females that got egg bound nearly always usually retained only one egg, sometimes two.

I have never had a female stop half way through, because the eggs were too big.

Through conversations with other breeders I have determined that this is usually the case.

I have never seen any female that got egg bound even attempt to expel the retained egg - it's as though she could care less.

Simple logic tells me that a female doesn't expel 15 eggs methodically and effortlessly (admittedly slowly and then give up on the 16th because it's too big!!

They are not giving up on the last one because it's too big!



To be continued....

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