Reptile & Amphibian Forums

How can you tell if your snake is egg bound?My cali laid one egg on Tuesday nite,one on Wednesday and one on Thursday.I don't know if any are good or not.The one on Wednesday and Thursday was laid outside of her box.Thursdays egg was laid over top of the heat pad when I found it,It was already hard.She is acting aggressive but wont eat.Like to know how to check her before anything happens.Thanks.
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1.0 aberrant cal. king
0.1 reverse spotted cal. king
1.1 mbk's
1.1 florida kings
1.1 anery brooks
1.0 hypo brooks
0.1 albino brooks
1.0 leucistic texas rat

Since she is slowly moving the eggs I would just make sure and provide the best nesting site you can and leave her alone. The bigger, the darker and with as deep as possible nesting material inside her laying box is better especially for females that wont settle down. If you have a long nest box with it going from cool side towards the warm side is good too.
If you post how you have her set up you might get some better suggestions of what might help.

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Randy Whittington

I have her set up with a shoe box flled with peat and over top of the uth.She goes in the box alot and will stay in there for awhile.She is usually calm but if you try to touch her now she freaks out and starts rattling her tail and jerking her body.Thanks for the reply.
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1.0 aberrant cal. king
0.1 reverse spotted cal. king
1.1 mbk's
1.1 florida kings
1.1 anery brooks
1.0 hypo brooks
0.1 albino brooks
1.0 leucistic texas rat

I have her set up with a shoe box flled with peat and over top of the uth.She goes in the box alot and will stay in there for awhile.

A Kingsnake that lays eggs all over the encloser does not have an approite nest area. Try using some shagnum moss and lay a board over it. Don't put it over the heat tape and make sure it is not to wet. Just slightly moist.
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Signature edited

Yes....

over the heat pad might be too warm....you want 80-82 degrees...
not too wet
not too dry
as mentioned all....
if she is laying one a day...the females that do that are usually laying duds...are they yellow?...(hard one turned all yellow?)...dud...

she freaks out if you touch her.....umm...don't touch her...

/.....let her alone and only check her once a day...I know you cannot let her alone more than that......LOL.....

......if you keep bugging her and /or she stops and starts...the eggs may not come down properly and if she gets tired and the eggs don't drop, that's when you get into troubles....make sure she has clean water , as mentioned alot of moss, a cover....and let her be....she may be dropping duds...and the good eggs will come a few days later....let her drop all good eggs at once...

good luck......
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How do you like your eggs? If your like me i like them viable,so unplug the U.T.Heater

Like the other guys mentioned, I never place the nest box directly on their heat. I put one end close to the heat with the other end going towards the cool end.
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Randy Whittington

this is my first year ever using an UTH ,not for kings but for Leos .even the little UTH creates high temps.i only had them for winter usage. THEY GET HOT

I did as bluerosy said and went and bought sphagnum moss for a new nesting box.I'll leave her alone and see what happens.Thanks for all the replies.
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1.0 aberrant cal. king
0.1 reverse spotted cal. king
1.1 mbk's
1.1 florida kings
1.1 anery brooks
1.0 hypo brooks
0.1 albino brooks
1.0 leucistic texas rat

I did as bluerosy said and went and bought sphagnum moss for a new nesting box

Try not using a box. Snakes like to lay under a hard surface and build a nest.

Put sphagnum on one half of the encloser and cover with a board. If you have a large plate of glass to use. Then you can watch the laying process without disturbing the snake.
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Signature edited

I took the box out and put the moss down.I didn't have any glass that would fit so I used a peice of plexi-glass.Is that fine?Thanks for all your help.
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1.0 aberrant cal. king
0.1 reverse spotted cal. king
1.1 mbk's
1.1 florida kings
1.1 anery brooks
1.0 hypo brooks
0.1 albino brooks
1.0 leucistic texas rat

It's all good.
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Todd Hughes

plexiglass, plastic lids, wood boards..it all works.

I like it cause you can put the water dish on top of the board.

...and turn off that UTH.
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Signature edited

Let us know how it works. I have to say that unless you use a huge amount of moss in the cage you will likely have an issue with the female pushing the moss away until she has no space between her and the board which she most likly won't like. I think if you choose to do it that way you might want to find some way to keep some depth to the spagnum moss under the board. Nesting females will move a lot of substrate in very little time.
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Randy Whittington

I have about three inches in the tank and it's probably 8-10 inches around.She has pushed some out so far.I'll keeg an eye out on her.Thanks again.
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1.0 aberrant cal. king
0.1 reverse spotted cal. king
1.1 mbk's
1.1 florida kings
1.1 anery brooks
1.0 hypo brooks
0.1 albino brooks
1.0 leucistic texas rat