Posted by:
WillStill
at Thu Jun 19 09:39:17 2008 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by WillStill ]
Hi,
I just had a female NJ eastern king deliver a second clutch of mostly fertile eggs even though she hadn't been with a male since she began nesting for her first clutch. She laid 21 fertile eggs on May 1 (not bad for a 40" female) and started choking down medium rats immediately (don't know how she does it). Within a couple weeks, it became apparent that she was cycling again, but her male was courting another girl, so she was left alone. Well, low and behold on June 10 she delivered another clutch of 17 eggs, 11 of which are fertile and have been incubating nicely.
When supported, kings will routinely double and triple clutch in a season. I'm sure that the key in this event was the enormous volume of calories that she consumed after delivering her first clutch. she didn't appear as though she could handle a medium rat (she has always consumed small rats, mice and chicks), but she aggressively forced several of them down over a span of two weeks, which caused her to immediately resume egg production. Pretty cool stuff, throw in food, collect eggs. Good luck.
Will
Here she is, she is now about 6 years old.
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RE: Spntaneous second clutching - WillStill, Thu Jun 19 09:39:17 2008