Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey guys, I was wondering if anyone could help me out. I just recieved 2 snakes from a friend, and one seems to be laying eggs. She has never been exposed to a male snake and I am wondering if there is such a thing as a fake pregnancy in snakes (where they will lay unfertilized eggs). The other question I have for you is how to tell if it gets egg bound.

Thanks!

it happens all the time-she's producing eggs,and since they were not fertilized,she hopefully will either resorb them,or pass them ('slugs')....are you sure she's never been with a male?there have been documentated cases of snakes laying 'good' eggs at least 2 or 3 years since they last were in contact with any male(sperm retention).....you'll know a slug from a good egg by it's yellowish appearence,and is usually a little smaller than a good egg,appears almost like a little stone,at least the ones i've seen laid by my females looked like that....now you know she is of age to be cooled next winter,and placed with a male after gradually warming her back up in early spring...btw it can take quite a while for them to resorb the eggs,don't panic...i have had girls show as gravid for about 2 months or so before finally resorging them.keep us posted.

ok...

egg-bound = has an egg but won't/can't lay it, right?

They'll just absorb it? or was I reading that wrong?

Kevin

yes you read that right.last year i had an 'egg-bound' (or so i thought) female that eventually yes resorbed the eggs.not uncommon at all.the uncertainty lies in figuring when a female is past the point of resorbing the eggs,and has to have them removed,via one of the following methods-like the post below says,trying a warm soak...next i would say gently trying to massage them down to the vent...or having to gently/carefully pull them(with tweezers,etc.) from the cloaca if you are lucky enough to have the egg protrude a little from the vent....another option is (having a vet) hypodermically puncture each egg,letting the contents drain,and the shells only are resorbed....last resort of course would be having them surgically removed while she's anaesthetized...true egg-binding that requires these latter,more extreme methods of removal leads to increased chances of future egg-binding,or egg-laying problems,especially the surgical removals...but i know of several people that have claimed to have females undergo this surgery,and they had no problems in the subsequent years.

Egg bound is when one of your females fails to deliver some or all of the eggs that she has produced. From my experiance it is usually the last one or two eggs and they seem to get stuck down near the vent and remain there 24 hours after the other eggs have been deposited. I don't believe that these eggs will be reabsorbed but someone else may have had experiance with that.. i have removed eggs from a bound females in the past, but i really think it is a job best suited for a vet with reptile experiance. If this is not a option i have read that soaking the female in warm water will help her to relax and pass the egg/s.

Your post leaves room for guessing what is going on. Can you give more info like if the female has laid eggs or not. If she has laid some but not all then you have a problem and a vet is a good course of action. If no eggs have been laid then you will need to determine if the lumps in the snake are eggs (hard or firm), ova (soft but large), or follicles ( soft and small). There is a lot of room for error of judgment on this. Again a vet is a good option.

With that said I am in the minority in thinking some snakes carry ova over winter. When I say minority it seems to be me and no one else. I think they do this because of the high fat content in the rodents we use and the overfeeding of the snakes. This would be with no egg laying though and you would need to give more info if that is the case. What I have seen most frequently that seems to qualify is in young females that where just shy of being breedable or in females that laid one clutch and seemed to be ready for another but nothing ever came.

I am talking to vets in my area to see if i can get one to CAT scan or x-ray or whatever they think will show ova but it is not going well. Anyway...

Later Jason