Reptile & Amphibian Forums

....if you would....
In wild snakes, have you ever found a young female king (or other)dead and egg bound???
I realize in the hobby there can be many husbandry errors, but in nature when the snakes "make their own choices" does it happen?
The reason I ask is I don't think it happens often in nature and I know of at least 3 FL king females found (all of them "looked" a bit young) carrying eggs that were hard as rocks. They appeared as "egg-bound" as any that friends have had problems with in the hobby. Each one of those snakes eventually passed the eggs after being well hydrated. One I remember was found in a severe drought year. Two I found (and I believe the other that a friend has) went on to breed/lay the next year with no problems at all.
Is it your experience that fatal egg binding is a "hobby only" occurence?
Also do you believe that hydration/dehydration is the biggest factor??
Thanks for any insight...
:Mark
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Surrender Dorothy!

www.crimsonking.funtigo.com

well im no FR but i have kept snakes for 25plus years, and i firmly beleive egg binding is a captive only issue,ive never found a wild egg bound female.its probably due to what we feed them and several other factors including exercise, stress, diet,UV?, but i beleive diet is probably the root of it we feed captives fat mice from pinkies to adults, just the variety of wild prey has to mean something , we humans could live on lets say hotdogs alone but how healthy would we be and would fertility problems occur? variety its the "spice" of all life imho,,,,,,,,,thomas davis

As I mentioned below, I have seen eggbinding or reproductive failure in nature, but as mentioned, very rarely.

I do not agree with what you attribute the captive causes too.

As I have mentioned until I am blue(rosy) in the face is. Wild reptiles live in a range of conditions. That is, a range of temperature, a range of humidity, a range of depths from the surface. A range of exposure to air, ETC ETC ETC ETC ETC ETC.

Yet in captivity, they are offered a winter temp, and summer temp and a set humidity. Three basic areas, Yet, We have more fingers to count with, but cannot remember to do so. In REALITY, they have hundreds of different levels of need.

AS MENTIONED A THOUSAND TIMES, in our studies, all snakes do their stinking entire lifes is move from one to the other. They DO NOT pick a single perferred temp or humidity. They use what is most efficient for each task.

This lack of choice is cause of our captive failures. You must also consider, lack of choices often is the cause of failures in wild populations. In fact, its a huge cause. AS most individuals do not fullfill their needs and perish.

Diet does not seem to be a big factor, as long as they recieve sufficent food. Also in our studys we found that different populations of the same species can concentrate on a different base prey item. An example would be rock or ridgenosed rattlesnakes that have rodent a rodent based prey source tend to contain larger individual snakes. Where as, if the same species as a lizard based diet(one of our sites does) the adults are much smaller. But without question, both populations exsist and reproduce without problem.

So if rodents allow your snakes to grow like weeds, and it does, then there is no reason to question rodents as a diet for reproduction. As there is little doubt that for a snake to double or triple its entire body structure takes a superior diet to reproduction. Normally reproduction is not a cause of stress, except in captivity where we do not allow choices.

The reality is, we in captivty have done a great job of obtaining a middle of the road set of husbandry rules. But it surely does not compare to wild animals that can obtain a need simply by moving 10 inches in any direction.

For instance, last sunday, we found several individual females who were in their post reproductive shed. Their temps were in the mid twenties C. Then we found a female who had a recent prey item in her stomach, and ovum for next years recruitment. She we in the mid to high thirties C.

The point, we find that their temps are DIRECTLY related to NEED. NOT to some caresheet. That has to be understood if you want to break away from the cart(marginal captive husbandry)leading the horse(the actual wild natural snake) The reality is the horse(the actual wild snake) always leads the cart. Cheers