Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Sorry I don't have a picture, but perhaps someone could help me identifiy this mysterious bulge in my kingsnake.

I caught a california kingsnake a few months ago. It's a real beauty at nearly 4' long. I noticed a bulge in it and at first thought it was simply a meal not yet digested, but it never went away. I've fed the snake and it seemed to have no problems digesting its meals and doing it's business shortly afterward.

A while back buddy of mine mentioned it might be a retained egg, but I haven't heard from him since then to get any more information. I did research on retained eggs and so far it seems as though it could be a possibility. The only thing is that it's almost a foot away from the vent. Shouldn't eggs be no more than a few inches from the vent at most?

As far as the snake's behavior is concerned, all seems well and normal. It moves around plenty, sleeps and eats normally, from what I can tell.

Perhaps one of you more experienced herpers out there can shed some light on this subject. (speaking of shedding, it did shed once since I've had it, and it did seem to have some trouble with that. The old skin came off in many many little pieces and much of it stuck to the snake even after days went by. I eventually took it out and let it soak in some water for a while and then helped the rest of the old skin off. It wouldn't seem to me that this could be an issue related to the mysterious bulge, but I wanted to share just in case.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Well assuming it is an egg it will most likely eventually pass it on its own. I had a Florida king that retained an entire clucth and i left her alone. She held the eggs for an entire year and still laid good ones this year while the others are still inside..

Usually if a snake retains an egg(s) I palpitate them out myself. Its quite commom for someone like me with a large collection to get retained egg amsses once in a while.

I would not reccomend palpitating them yourself. There is a thread on this subect a while back and I posted a long description on how to properly palpitate the eggs. Maybe do a search on palpitate, retention, oviduct. ect.
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"Yeah ya told me, and ya wrote it down too. But how the hell am I supposed to remember!"

Interesting that the new eggs can pass the old ones How big are the old ones and how big is this snake?
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..Doug
~ø¿ô~

Try a little water in the substrate to keep it moist.That will help with the shed cycle.Where is the buldge? Down near the tail? I just thumb rolled a retained egg from one of my corn snakes and fed it to a cal king.It came right out but sometimes other method are needed to do this.Try injecting some KY jelly with a syringe and a small catheter then pushing it out. Aspiration is the last thing you want to try.I have done it with a 18 guage needle and a 10CC syringe beteen two ventral scales but its not easy to pull the plunger backand hold the snake.You may want a 18G butterfly and a helper.If you do it this way let the egg come out a few days later by itself as pushing after the needle may cause more bleeding then you want.
Email me if you need more help


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..Doug
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This year I had a female lay 7 good eggs & retain the last one.. I tried to gently push it out with no luck, so i aspirated using a large syrenge & a helper (you really need more than 2 hands). Two days later she passed the "deflated" egg and now she is fine.

I have tried many methods of dealing with egg bound snakes over the years (my animals & friends animals) and i have had mostly bad luck.. It's always nice when you can save them!

~ Mike Russo

this is the best way to go...............

syrenge = syringe

Someday with lots of hard work i hope to have an entire post without one typo...

~ Mike

The cornsnake i aspirated last year laid good eggs this year.I am wondering how you guys have fared with post aspiration snakes.
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..Doug
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Just last nite I had it with my female thayeri....she hadnt eaten for about a month and a half(since she laid)and was listless to even a live fuzzy mouse. She had two retained eggs that I forced out last nite. There was blood, there was "pain" on her part, she bit me up pretty good too. But this morning she was looking a little better, on the heat to heal, but better,Jeff