Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am having a crappy year, One of the 4 female pueblans laid 2 clutches of slugs(Males' fault! to busy drinking beer)Another laid first clutch and became egg bound.(can't blame that on the male) I had a clutch of slugs from my Tricolor hypo Hondurans.( Now she is pissed and wants to bite me) Lost a female L.p.pyro while gravid and a clutch of bad eggs from a L.p.knoblochi.

On the happier note, I still have 49 eggs cooking. 18 Hypo/het hypo pueblans,11 het hypo halloween pueblans, 12 L.p.knoblochi,8 tricolor hogs.
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Jimmy Tintle

While you can't blame the egg-bound snake on the male, you probably can blame you. Harsh I know, but reading your post, it sounds like a female snake's nightmare over there.

Larger nest areas early on may help the females lay eggs sooner, which may help prevent egg binding. That and a cage with a little elbow room perhaps if you don't have that now.

Also hydration is important. A dehydrated snake cannot lay eggs as easily as a well-hydrated snake. Did you give the females a nice soak now and then?

There may be other factors, but certainly a female that retains her eggs because she doesn't have a suitable nest site is in trouble. The longer she waits, the tougher to lay. It can't hurt to try some things out.
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Mark

All adult snakes are in 41qt tubs they had sweater boxes as lay chambers with moistened spagnum. They also had large enough water bowls to soak in. Maybe next year I will fill shoe boxes with one inch or so of water.Elbow room the have, as the largest of any snake I have is at 48 inches. Just the luck of the draw I would imagine. Not complaining but what works one year may not work another. Also what works for one may not work for another. The loss of snake is always a reminder that we can do better and try different things to make it better for the animals. I am always up to a challenge, and that is the pleasure of keeping and breeding snakes. Thanks for the ideas and constructive critism in my husbandry I wish all of you the best.
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Jimmy Tintle

41qt, nice. Wait while I take my foot out of my mouth..

I wasn't really criticizing, since I didn't know your setup. I was assuming, lol.

Over the years I saw what I thought was a correlation between how soon females laid and how good the nest box was. Good meaning deep and large. But there also differences with individual snakes.

I think some females would lay on a damp paper plate if that is all they had. I think others are more picky. 1st time females might be picky more often.

In any case, perhaps in the hobby, the females that will successfully lay anywhere ultimately pass on their genetics more readily than snakes that get eggbound if one thing is not right. So perhaps egg binding might be less frequent as generations go forward.
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Mark

You no what happens when you assume?LOL No hard feelings on the assumption as I know there are plenty of people that do not know how, what, when, where, here and they think it is as simple as feeding and breeding. Just my thought. Sometimes I think "egg bound" is not related to anything except stress and perhaps just more frequent in collections as we bother our animals everyday checking for eggs. Just food for thought.
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Jimmy Tintle