Reptile & Amphibian Forums

A few questions on "egg binding" and "bad eggs". From what I have seen and friends have noticed,wild caught gravid snakes have a far lower incidence of egg binding and dropping bad eggs then snakes in captivity.I think I have found about 8 - 10 gravid snakes over the years and never had bad eggs or bound eggs from any of them.Maybe there was one or two bad eggs that I dont remember but not nearly what get from my snakes in capitivity. I think I may get about 1-2 eggs go bad per 4-6 egg clutches with captive snakes.Of the 35 or so eggs I had this years about 5 or 6 went bad.None of those were from the WC gravid females.
So the question is have you guys noticed this same thing with WC gravid snakes?
Also what percentage of your eggs go bad?This may include infertile eggs that were all bad.
And the last question is why.Why do snakes in the wild have better eggs then those we keep in captivity?

After a few days bad eggs begin to look like Gabby Hayes while the good ones still look like Roy Rogers

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"He's down in the basement staring at his snakes " My Wife

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Doug L

From what I have seen and friends have noticed,wild caught gravid snakes have a far lower incidence of egg binding and dropping bad eggs then snakes in captivity.I think I have found about 8 - 10 gravid snakes over the years and never had bad eggs or bound eggs from any of them

I am not sue about the egg binding but I have a theory on the bad eggs. They come from a a famale that was not completly fertilized on all her eggs.. This can be because wild males track or chase after ovulating females and catch them at the right time. In captivity people keep their snakes apart and then introduce the male when they think the female is ready and/or the male is activly courting her. this is why i keep all my snakes in groups. That way you don't miss your window...or should i say the snakes window.

Just a theory.
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www.Bluerosy.com

Doug, the most glaring omission from my milksnake followup is that lets face it....wild snakes are just in WAYYY better "shape" than our captives. Fat reserves I have never seen in wc gravid snakes. That and the movement of the egg within the animal, because the wc animal will certainly move around more than any captive gravid snake right? Maybe its the movement that helps viable sperm reach all the eggs....which might not happen if she is coiled tight on the heat in her cage. Very good topic and interesting observation!

I've only caught a few snakes that were aalready gravid but I will comment on the egg binding. Bill Love wrote in one of his books that egg binding seems to be a captive bred phenomenon. He attributes it to the lack of exercise of caged snakes, and also the fact that they don't even struggle to kill their foods in most cases. Frozen rodents don't put up much of a fight. Another interesting thing that may play a factor is Calcium deficiency. Mant Vets will administer calcium shots to an eggbound snake and many times will have good results.
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King Snakes! Who can make a better mouse trap?
J Sierra

I agree with J Sierra about the calcium deficiency possibly playing a role. As some of you know who read the cornsnake forum, my female hypo stripe had problems this year, her first. It took 2 week from her first egg, to the last one that I actually squeezed out of her (very gently!) for a total of 21 eggs. She prolapsed twice, and the vet gave her a calcium injection. That stopped the prolapsing, but she still had a hard time passing them. I have 12 remaining (of 17 that looked fertile) at day 56 that still look good. The last few to be passed were obviously infertile. The good ones came from among the ones passed in the first week.

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Kent

0.1 Hypomelanistic striped cornsnake
1.0 Lavender cornsnake
1.2 Gray-banded kingsnakes, blairs phase
1.1 Oregon rubber boas