Posted by:
Rextiles
at Sat Dec 8 23:13:18 2012 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by Rextiles ]
As always, thanks for sharing your vast knowledge and interesting stories Kevin!
As I haven't brumated my snakes in many years, I have no experience with sperm retention and the possible laying of eggs during brumation.
However, I have experienced sperm retention and subsequent viable egg laying in several of my females for up to 6-7 months after copulation with males.
One recent case was with my Superconda Twix. This was her first year being bred and her initial clutch was 6 very very large eggs. Due to the size of the eggs, she became physically tired after 3 eggs were laid and after 48 hours, I decided to perform a paracentesis (the insertion of a hypodermic needle through the abdomen into the egg in order to syphon out the yolk) to prevent her from becoming eggbound and dying. I drained the 3 eggs inside of her and the next day she was able to pass them, all deflated and dead of course. After that experience, I decided not to reintroduce a male because I wanted her to spend the rest of the year recovering from her traumatic experience, however, she had different plans and within a month, she quickly became gravid again and laid 11 viable (much more normal sized) eggs without any problems and all from sperm retention from her previous pairing.
However, I did have one female that I bred (visually witnessed copulation) and after several months of no indication of her becoming gravid, I gave up and decided not to breed her the next year. Well, about 6 months later she unexpectedly laid a nice healthy clutch of eggs. That snake was kept in a consistent environment, so there was no fluctuation of temps or light that might have caused this. When I originally bred her, her weight was no different than it was just previous to her laying, so I doubt it was a body weight/fat issue, but who knows.
It's definitely a fascinating topic and worthy of more attention!
Thanks to the OP for bringing his question to the forum and all the wonderful and insightful replies! 
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Troy Rexroth
Rextiles
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Sperm Retention - Rextiles, Sat Dec 8 23:13:18 2012