Reptile & Amphibian Forums

It is now out, looks healthy, demonstrated its ability to perfectly fling poop so it gets on more than one article of clothing, and even demonstrated it knows how to bite.

What's kind of interesting is that it did not come out early as I feared, but was actually the last to emerge.

So - it did come out when it was ready, not before. And thankfully healthy.

These seven eggs were the eggs that were extremely ugly that caused me to wonder about calcium deficiency in that thread way back. All seven hatched, are very decent sized young, and all have very visible evidence of yolk in them, the intergrades from nice looking eggs hatched smaller without any really visible tummies.

So - the late hatching seems to be because they simply had more food in their eggs to begin with, ugly as those eggs were, and seems to be an argument against nutritional deficiency in the mother.
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I decided my old sig was too big.

It's good they hatched without incident, and have full stomachs of yolk....but as to those eggs that the shells were weirdly formed, it doesn't really mean at ALL that the female is necessarily deficient in any way, but rather it could be that she just doesn't "produce" or synthesize the calcium, or whatever else correctly for whatever reason.....know what I mean?

~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

Yeah - someone else pointed out that the eggs looked over-calcified, I'm not sure how to determine that but while I forget who it was, it was someone who seems to know what they are talking about.

Much to the dislike of some people, I'm now *every other feeding* (actually a little less often) feeding live to my females that I plan to breed the following year - because I can notice a difference in muscle tone between my few snakes that only take live and the snakes that take f/t. My females that let me tease them and ggive change with f/t and constrict when I do so are still getting f/t because I can specifically exercise them that way. My female banded amel is great that way - I just have to be careful because when she grabs herself, she doesn't let go ...

And of course the live feeding are closely monitored, as they always are with the few that only take live.
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I decided my old sig was too big.

Yeah,.......I remember the long "egg-binding" thread all too well..LOL!

I'm a firm believer that muscle tone certainly MUST play a role in deposition strength to some sort of a degree. It would be sort of like asking an out of shape "couch-potato" to "sprint" as fast as a professional athlete!..LOL!

Sure many have eggs without instance, but exercise certainly can't hurt, and can only help matters if you ask me.

~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

if it isn't worth fighting over it probably isn't worth doing, hahaha...

daveb
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in the light, you will find the road...