For those that have had eggbound snakes this year, here's a story that may give you some hope.

I had three snakes last year that were egg bound - two Hondos and one black milk. For the life of me I can't figure out what went wrong since they were in the exact same cages as other snakes that laid fine. Anyway, I opted for surgery to remove the stuck eggs last year. It cost me a bundle (almost $2K) but all three snakes recovered fine, ate well after surgery and were cooled this winter.

For the record, snake #1 (a tricolor hypo het anery) had one large egg stuck very far up in her oviduct. She laid seven perfect eggs but #8 apparently never moved down.)
Snake #2 was a tangerine hypo het anery that laid five eggs, two of which were fertile and two infertile eggs were stuck far up in the oviduct. Snake #3 was a black milk that passed 8 eggs and the ninth was stuck just above the vent. I think she simply did not like her egg box as she did not lay until 18 days after her pre-egg lay shed.

I was going to give them, the year off from breeding but another breeder reasoned that if they haven't healed in 8-10 months it won't be much different in another year. They were all eating well so I placed them with males and so far the results have been less than tragic.

Snake #1 had some difficulties. She laid two slugs four days after her pre-egg lay shed. Then two infertile egs and one good egg 9 days after her shed. One egg was palpably stuck above the vent. I left her alone for two days and it was still stuck. So then I tried applying some gently manual pressure to move the egg and placed a large dish of water in her cage. The next day the egg (infertile) was out.

snake #2 laid two infertile eggs and three good eggs 9 days after her pre-egg lay shed and then dropped one last infertile egg two days later.

Both #1 and #2 have since eaten fine after their clutches were laid.

snake #3 is gravid and it has been 7 days since her pre-egg layd shed. I palpated her tonight and she has eggs in her. I changed her egg box set up to be a large box with damp sphagnum moss and a large half of cork bark over the box to better simulate a holow log. Last year I did not use the cork log. I also increased the temperature in the cage by putting a spot light on a timer at one end. I've noticed her using this hot spot for a couple hours each morning and then retreating to her hide. Hope things work out for her.

Rob Haneisen