Kingsnake.com - Herpforum - RE: Breeding underweight females?

Posted by: H_nasicus at Thu Mar 22 16:02:21 2012 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by H_nasicus ]

"I wouldn't even call 100 grams underweight, those are underage!"

Technically, they -are- of age, they have just been severely underfed. *shakes head* I know that overfeeding is bad, but for people to be so concerned that they end up starving their snakes really disturbs me.

I had no idea about the egg sizes. Maybe it's ignorant of me, but I never considered the fact that snakes of the same species could lay different sized eggs.

You're right though. I don't want to risk my snakes getting egg-bound or dying. They're my pets as well as breeders, and I would be really upset if they died. Not only that but, as you said, it would set my ability to breed back by a lot too.

The only other thing I was curious about that you mentioned was using the syringe to drain the egg yolk. We had an egg-bound snake in the collection I worked with (a dud as the snake had never been with a male) and when I alerted my boss to the fact, he simply put pressure and squeezed downward on the snake (oddly like milking a cow) until the egg came out. Could this method be used instead of a syringe, or is it dangerous? Did the hatchling of the egg who's yolk you drained survive?
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3.3 Western Hognose
1.1 Ball Pythons