In 2002, my healthy, five year old female gray-banded king bred for the first time with another gray-band. After the expected time frame, she laid 11 infertile eggs, one of which was broken. Another infertile egg remained in her cloaca. After 24 hours, I was able to get this infertile egg out of her by gently applying glycerin, thumb pressure along with the snakes contractions. 75 days later, with no subsequent matings, a swelling at her cloaca was found to be another infertile egg and the hard, dark remnants of what appeared to be two collapsed eggs. After waiting several days, these were again forced from her as described above. She continues to feed well, but I elected to not breed her in 2003. She is a quality snake and I am tempted to breed her in 2004, but do not want to lose the snake due to egg laying problems. I'm interested in what you think might have caused eggs from two different clutches of normal sized, infertile eggs to fail pass from her? Would you expect similar problems if she is bred again?
Thanks,
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Gray-band with previous egg laying problem
Replies (4)
I can't say anything for sure about what may be the situation with your snake, but, in my experience, most egg laying problems are related to unsatisfactory nesting possibilities. For some females, if there is not a perfect spot for them to deposit their eggs they may retain them. There is a lot of variablility in how they retain them, but, with the right nest box etc., they rarely retain fertile or infertile eggs. You can usually tell if they are satisified with the nest box you use by their pre-laying behavior.
Thanks for the reply. That is a possibility I had not considered. I suspected it may have been inadequate calcium or a muscular problem.
Thanks again,
Rick
I suspect that you are over-feeding your female. How often do you feed her? Do you feed her the same throughout the year?
You should be able to breed her again.
vadoni
I normally feed her a medium mouse once a week. She generally goes off feed in about September and accepts food infrequently until I begin cooling her. I am curious as to why you think over feeding could lead to this problem.
