Technically, they -are- of age, they have just been severely underfed.



Well, they might be in the age range that other females fully mature at, but there are some females that just never grow to a breedable size. Case in point, we have a female albino who is about 5 years old now that has never past 150 grams due to digestion problems, mainly semi-frequent regurgitation for unknown reasons. I have females that are younger than her that are now 300 grams and breeding. Perhaps your animals came from someone who was deliberately underfeeding these animals for whatever reason, but then again, some animals are genetically inept at attaining breedable status. Just something to consider...



I had no idea about the egg sizes. ...I never considered the fact that snakes of the same species could lay different sized eggs.



Sure, it's not really any different than any other species just like with us humans. We've all heard stories of 300 lb women having babies at 4-5 lbs while women weighing 120 lbs giving birth to 8-9 lb babies.



We had an egg-bound snake in the collection and ...simply put pressure and squeezed downward on the snake until the egg came out. Could this method be used instead of a syringe, or is it dangerous?



Pushing eggs out, a form of palpation, is far more recommended if it can be done safely. Sometimes females just become tired and can't push out the remaining eggs. Palpation then is a viable and preferred option. If the eggs are too large, palpation is not always a possibly. One risk with palpating eggs is that you are applying pressure to internal organs and veins/arteries. If you are too aggressive with the procedure, you can cause internal damage.



I was curious about that you mentioned was using the syringe to drain the egg yolk. ...Did the hatchling of the egg who's yolk you drained survive?



Performing a paracentesis is risky and destroys the egg. It is only performed as a last ditch effort to save the female.
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Troy Rexroth

Rextiles

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