>>Sorry guys I'm sill with Jeff, snake eggs are not croc eggs, lab people tend to be young/geeks and wrong allot, sounds like a gimmic, hell just plain silly!



What is silly about it? If it did work, it could be a good way to influence hatchlings to eat a readily-available food item.



And yes, of course snake eggs are not croc eggs. But this phenomenon has been shown to work even with CHICKEN eggs, as well as embryonic animals of all other vertebrate classes (mammals, amphibians, fish, birds, reptiles). Why should it work in all these other species, and then suddenly NOT work for snakes??



I see two major stumbling blocks here: 1. "scenting" the embryos without contaminating the environment (for instance, I can see dirty mouse litter providing lots of nasty bacteria and/or fungi); and 2. the effect (degree of preference created) may not be large enough to make a significant difference.



Somebody needs to go out there and test this. Split some clutches, then expose half the clutch to scent and leave the other half untreated. Then see if there is a difference in diet preferences. It would be very interesting, and if done properly could easily be publishable. Somebody get busy!
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0.1 Peruvian rainbow boa (Amaru)

2.0 Brazilian rainbow boas (Arco, Olho)

1.3.1 Honduran milksnakes (Chicchan, Chanir, Hari)

1.0 Thayeri kingsnake (Coatl)

0.0.1 Mexican black kingsnake (TBA)

2.7 corns (Cetto, Tolosa, Uce, TBA)

1,000,000.1,000,000 other critters

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