Posted by:
zach_whitman
at Tue May 30 21:34:14 2006 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by zach_whitman ]
Personally, I feel that egg binding is a result of two major things (and of course there are exceptions) both of which have already been mentioned in this thread. I think that most of our snakes are overweight/out of shape. And I think that people frequently miss the boat on the conditions that a female needs to feel secure while laying.
I have done a fair share of herping, and I have asked this question to MANY MANY other herpers. "have you ever found a dead female in the wild, with eggs in her, and no other obvious cause of death?" The answer has always been NOPE. Considering how common of a problem it is I would say its safe to say that it is caused by something we as keepers are doing. (I'm like you and tend to blame myself for my animals failures)
Years ago (in my third year producing colubrids) I had two 1st time female kings become eggbound at once. One of them passed the remaining eggs after a week. The other I aspirated the only egg left and she passed it that night. After this I did two things.
First of all I started swimming my snakes (swim not soak). When ever I clean cages I fill up a large (about 4x2) rubbermaid with luke warm water and I let the snakes swim for 10 or 20 minutes. Excersize is important but I wouldn't do it with a gravid snake like you said. Your snakes should be in shape before they get gravid so that you can leave them alone while they are gravid.
The other thing was that I changed my laying boxes. They should be SOLID colored not clear (duct tape over clear boxes works great) and they should be filled to the top with laying media.
I'm not saying that these are definite miracle cures but I have never had an eggbound female since. I gues it could be luck but thats just my .02
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A little venting on egg binding - zach_whitman, Tue May 30 21:34:14 2006