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My big female meahlly from Nueces County, TX - with eggs!

-Toby

Congratulations Toby and well done momma ... Looks like a nice BIG healthy clutch
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Thanks Sue! This seems to be her average size clutch, and the eggs seem to be about the same size as well from previous breedings. Wish I had taken photos of her first clutch of eleven eggs,in 2004. I was amazed that she was able to pass them!

-Toby

Wow, those are some rather large looking eggs!! Congrats, and now the real wait begins.....
Ralph

>>Wow, those are some rather large looking eggs!! Congrats, and now the real wait begins.....
>>Ralph

Thanks Ralph! Yep, the real impatient wait. LOL!

This clutch weighs 302 grams compared to a younger female's hybrid (guttatus x meahllmorum) clutch at 230 grams, of the same number of eggs (roughly). I believe that if the younger female had bred with another meahllmorum, her eggs would have been much larger and fewer in number. Emoryi meahllmorum have very large eggs, and the Nueces County locality animals also have large clutches. To give an idea of scale, this female was 54 inches long last summer. I have not measured her length this year, yet.

-Toby

ps. Here's one of her offspring from 2005 before the first shed.

Yeeeeah! Way to go!

Actually, I think the laying of the eggs is the longest wait, 'cus the female is so important, and getting healthy eggs is too. The eggs will hatch in time. LOL!

TC

>>Yeeeeah! Way to go!
>>
>>Actually, I think the laying of the eggs is the longest wait, 'cus the female is so important, and getting healthy eggs is too. The eggs will hatch in time. LOL!
>>
>>TC

You have a good point there, Terry. It is a long wait from breeding to laying, worrying about how the female will do. Still, it's at least a 60+ day incubation compared to 40 days of gestation, for these snakes anyway. Personally, I get most anxious near hatching time, and start pacing in the waiting room! LOL!

-Toby