Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My Texas Indigo just layed 4 eggs and she has about 3-4 more in her. She will not lay them, it's been two days now. I tried soaking her and feeding her and still nothing. She has no energy and no desire to lay these eggs. HELP!! I don't want to loose her, what can I do? This is her first clutch. Thanks!!

HI Herb; Get to a good Vet ASAP! I lost my 14 year old female this year because I waited.

Good Luck !

Mark

Dear Herb,

Sorry to hear this. At this point your best bet IS taking her to a qualified Herp vet thats KNOWS snakes well. He/She can inject her with Oxytcoin to induce her to lay eggs, and he/she can ASPIRATE the eggs through the side wall of the body using a syringe, taking the bulk of the yolk out and allowing the egg to pass easier. This is not a procedure that you want to do yourself if you are unfamiliar with it. My FIRST eggbound female went to the vet for the procedure that I outlined, he aspirated a few of the eggs, administered Oxytocin. Turn out that the eggs closest to the vent had to be aspirated by myself and a friend in order to get them to move. After this incident, I took to aspirating them myself and adminstering the oxytocin.

Get your snake to a qualifed vet asap. These things happen with Drys. Dont be dismayed or quit because of it.

Sincerely,

Fredrick Albury

I agree that an emergency trip to a veterinarian well versed in herpetofauna is in order. One thing I would suggest,that a veterinarian well versed on the topic will already be aware of, is Oxytocin is inferior to Vasotocin in stimulating contactions within the oviduct of reptiles. It has actually proven to be over 90% more effective with such.
In teh mean time, I would advise soaking her in luke warm water within a dark and quiet environment...

Best of luck to you and yours,

Jeff
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Jeff Snodgres
University of Arkansas
snodgresjeffreys@uams.edu
501.603.1947

THANKS FOR ALL THE INFO. I WILL LET YOU ALL KNOW HOW IT GOES!

Herb's post prompts a few questions:
What is the safe time window here ? How long does one wait to see if the mom can pass the eggs herself, before going to the vet to have them removed ?

Are easterns more prone to egg-binding than other Drymarchons ? It seems so from the number of posts about this, which makes me wonder if it is evidence of inbreeding.

While a small gene pool may be related to this, poor health, young age/small size, may also be possibilities. Low level dehydration might be an undetectable culprit. Because this species isn't kept as much, the husbandry practices are still in infancy as compared to say, the ball python. Good luck with your snake and the vet visit

Ian

overweight females will also usually have problems as the eggs are quite large as compared to the relative size of the mother. i also 'suspect' too much heat as a possible problem in some instances as a wild gravid dry would ordinarily be underground preparing to lay where it is very cool......

You'll never believe this! I did soak her for a while and with a couple of hours of gentle massage I put a supossatory in her rectum and shortly after out came the egg! The vet I spoke with seemed a bit shocked too! She still has 3 or 4 in her that I have been trying to work down so I still may have to take her in to the vet. The one that came out was pretty big and I'm sure she feels a whole lot better now. I'll keep you posted~

In my opinion the reason for the problem is their maternal instinct is to be very particular about finding just the right spot to drop, especially eastern indigos, and as we try our best to prepare a place I think we still have more to concider, like puting egg dropping boxes on a heating pad that warms for eight hours a day and that the entrance to the box should be conceiled from even the slightist amount of light by making the hole on a low, side of the box and then buring the box in aspin piled 3" over the entrance. and a towel or pad mounted to the lid of the egg box so that when the lid is in place on the box the pad puts very little pressure on the substrate so as the eggs would not be droped in open air,the mother will go inside the first time and ciol up under the pad and nutge up to detect insecure movement in the lid so it too must be locked or weighted down... there is no doubt these are the missing fundimentels of good "drop time" tactics ....JB

This snake is a very aware of its surroundings. Intrusion prior to dropping eggs or she doesn’t like the conditions may directly effect binding.

The egg box I used this year was clear plastic. When my female finished her pre-lay shed I covered all the doors of the enclosure with newspapers (tried to simulate a dark burrow). I cut a small flap in the newspaper directly across from the egg box so I could peek in without opening any cage doors. I put the egg box near the warm side of the cage at 77 degrees. This closely matched my incubator temperature. Just in case she dropped while I was at work. I checked in on her every morning before work with a pen light flashlight. She laid her eggs in the early morning prior to 0500. The eggs were still sticky when I got to them.

Note: Prior to adding the newspapers over the cage windows she would stay in her hide area (dark). After the newspapers she stayed in the egg box area (in and out). She was now sleeping in the egg box instead of the hide. I placed her water bowl next to the egg box and saw her at water several times prior to drop day.

Note: I did not handle her after the last hook up with the male in November.

I have drawers built into the bottom of my enclosures which have 8" sections of PVC leading into them from the floor of the main enclosure compartment, which is filled with moist substrate about one month after a female has successfully mated with a male. the drawer is completely dark, but I still have several females which prefer to deposit their eggs onto the floor of the upper compartment; in plain view and directly onto the newspaper. It appears some prefer a dark, quiet environment while others simply do not care.
Personally, I believe weight, conditioning, fertility and physiology are the primary reasons behind egg binding, as leaner females tend to incur fewer problems with such, as do females harboring a fertile clutch of eggs. We are all aware of the physical toll oviposition can take on a female, so physical conditioning plays a vital role as well and we are all aware of how active these snakes are in the wild. Also, any deformity within the oviduct is sure to cause a problem during oviposition and if an egg is caught up within the tract for any period of time the chances of it adhering to the walls of the oviduct greatly increases. Consideration should also be given to fecal matter, as such can cause the blockage of eggs within the oviduct, which leads me to believe it best not to feed a female after pre-oviposition ecdysis and maintain a maintenance diet only starting approximately one month post copulation…

Best regards,

Jeff
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Jeff Snodgres
University of Arkansas
snodgresjeffreys@uams.edu
501.603.1947

Hey Jeff,
Good to here from you.
Here’s what gets me is even the more experienced breeders have had binding problems with this species. This binding thing was on my mind when I bred her and continued until I checked her after she lay. I was just glad she got all those eggs out of her. If I get one egg to hatch out of this clutch I will be happy, bald but happy.
We need a good Indigo OBGYN.
Bottom Line: This snake is worth every minute.

Dan

I have started running of blood work on my females before, during and after oviposition. While I haven't incurred an egg bound female as of yet, I am hoping the blood work will give me some indication as to what went awry, should I have a female become egg bound in the future.
I'm not sure we can put our finger on a single reason for egg binding, as I believe several factors can be cause for such, but looking at the problem from all angles will certainly help in the long run...

Best regards,

Jeff
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Jeff Snodgres
University of Arkansas
snodgresjeffreys@uams.edu
501.603.1947

I love people who love bloodwork as much as I do

Ian