Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello - I am curious as the everyone's experience regarding the length of time it generally takes a female to lay her clutch of eggs. Once I see the first egg in the lay box, I get really antsy for the rest of the clutch to be layed. I have found that some of my females seem to take longer than others, even though they lay fewer eggs. What is everyone's experience with this?

Thanks,

Kyle

Hey Kyle. My girls will lay eggs 7 days after their pre-lay shed. 6-10 days is really common and may vary with temps etc..One of them seems to lay hers quickly.(all within an hour) others have taken as long as two days. Each is an individual, but these numbers are common with my group. Rich

Just to include this with your question, roughly 45-50 days after fertilization she should be entering her pre-lay shed. Again this can vary, but this is the norm. Rich

The all the eggs within and hour or up to 2 days is the focus of my question. Thank you for the complete picture also though. I have had snakes start laying and then seemingly take a break, and then start up again. This always worries me as I think that they may be egg bound. If it is bound I don't want to wait too long before taking action, however I also am afraid of stressing out the already uncomfortable female snake.

You may want to go to the Kingsnake forum and scroll down to find a thread on egg-laying boxes posted by FR.

What I have found, to a point, is the deeper the box and the thicker the egg-laying substrate layer in the box, the more readily and quickly the females lay. The females feel more secure and feel that the egg site is a good one. When that happens, they can lay sooner than you expect after their shed.

Give it a try yourself and see of there is any difference.

I would guess that egg-binding is, in part, the female witholding eggs because she hasn't found a suitable nest site. Holding them too long makes them harder to pass. Couple that with low muscle tone and tiny cages, you get egg binding. My guess anyway.
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Mark

bother them, they stop ....they stop too much and get too tired.....some may get stuck....

let them be till you know they are all out....(overnight ?)

......watched pots never boil theory too....

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