Reptile & Amphibian Forums

now i'm stumped. earlier this year i disturbed a cal king laying her eggs. i left her alone, checked backed the next day, and.....no eggs. this was her 4th year breeding for me, she's good for 8-10 eggs, weighs about 700 grams. bizarre for sure, but it's a cal king, so i shrugged it off. yesterday i had the exact same thing happen with a hypo hondo. anybody know anything i don't? the only odd thing i noticed in both cases was when i disturbed the female, the eggs she had laid were not in a clump, but scattered around the nest box. any theories? kurt d.

Kurt, That sucks man.I have only had it happen with cal kings and western hognose.I have never had it happen (knock on wood) with hondos and I have disturbed many laying eggs before.
Weird for sure.Must just be a stress thing were they feel threatend,like sometimes taking a couple pinks and then the mom eats the rest???

L8r
Shannon

Sorry to hear that man. I have disturbed plenty of snakes laying eggs in the past so I'm not sure that has anything to do with it.

I try to feed gravid females all through the process even after pre-egg laying shed so they are not too starving after they lay. I offer very small meals like fuzzies or even peach fuzzies just so they have something in their stomach if they will take it. Not sure if it was a hunger thing but that might be something to try.

Dave
DNS Reptiles - Updated

I have never had this happen personally, although many years ago when i was breeding Blue Tongue Skinks i had a mom that killed her babies just after they were born?? (live birth of course)

You had mentioned that the eggs were not stuck together and scattered aroung the lay box, which leads me to believe that they may have been infertile.. Which may also be why she ate them after she layed.

Either way i am sorry it did not work out for you with this clutch!

~ Mike Russo

Sorry to hear about your misfortune. Somehow I had a male greeri in with a female while gravid (not sure why). I thought she was far from laying, but when I pulled the female out she looked very skinny. Searching through the cage I found no eggs so I wondered if the male ate them. Sure enough, a day later he gurged up four bad eggs. I just figured he wanted to play surrogate mother ----- didn't work
Ryan

Damn, thats a bummer. I had that happen a couple of years ago with a sinaloan female. I checked on her in the morning and she had 4 eggs out and maybe two or three more to go. Came home from work in the afternoon and only two eggs were left. Pretty damn strange, but maybe she just did not want to give up all that energy on a few more hatchlings and decided to take some of it back

Best,
Vinny
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“There is a grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that whilst this planet has gone on cycling according to the fixed laws of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.” -C. Darwin, 1859

Natural Selection Reptiles