A 17 year old pet with a clutch of 17 eggs

The same snake in October, 2002

One heck of a bunch of eggs


Would you believe another 1780 gram clutch? Unlike this one from 2 weeks ago with 14 eggs, the clutch deposited yesterday had 17 fertile eggs. I really like to record individual weights and dimensions, and usually have no difficulty prying the eggs apart. Nor have I found this practice to have any detrimental effect on hatching success. But these eggs were strongly adherent and I was able to separate only two before I tore a hole in one, so I left the rest of them together the way nature/evolution intended.

When I weighed the clutch on a more accurate triple beam balance, the total mass was 1778.1 grams, giving a mean egg mass of 104.6 grams. The female weighed 3.51 kg after egg deposition. She has a ways to go to regain her November, 2002 weight of 5.59 kg. As close as I can measure, she’s an inch and a half shy of six feet long. She hatched in 1986. The largest clutch she’s produced in the past was 16 eggs. A superior pet, indeed!

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