I have had two corn snakes become egg bound this year. I massaged the eggs out of both - but the eggs remained in the oviduct. I had to cut through the oviduct to get the eggs out. I would not advise this.



Concerning your situation, one of my Eastern Kings went almost 20 days from her pre-lay shed until she deposited her eggs and my Hatteras Outer Banks Kingsnake also went over the 2 week mark. In both cases they laid without a hitch.



It is very normal for your snakes to roam and roam before laying, in my experience. As a matter of fact, that is when you know she is ABOUT TO LAY THEM. My Hatteras OBK roamed for days and days and actually rubbed her snout raw. I saw the raw snout last night and immediately made her nesting box more secretive. I had been using an open topped shoe box filled with vermiculite and spaghum moss - but when I saw her raw snout I cut a hole in the lid of the shoe box and put it on top of the shoe box. Then I put a sheet of newspaper on top of the whole thing. This was at 11:30 last night. At 5 AM all eggs (11 total) were neatly arranged in the nesting box.



So, take a new look at your snake's enclosure and the nesting box and try to figure out if you are giving her what she needs to do her job.



Good luck.
-----
Peter Jolles

East Coast Colubrids

www.eastcoastcolubrids.com

peterjolles@eastcoastcolubrids.com

[ Hide Replies ]

• Questions about Egg Binding - Tom Anderson, Mon May 9 12:08:48 2005
• Tom, please read this... - sweet_pickle, Mon May 9 12:55:56 2005
• RE: Tom, please read this... - Tom Anderson, Mon May 9 13:33:18 2005
• RE: Questions about Egg Binding - Aaron, Tue May 10 11:14:08 2005
• Some more experience... - mattcbiker, Tue May 10 18:23:56 2005