Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Well, the first of my 3 cal kings to be bred this year dropped me a couple of slugs 3 days ago (7 days post shed) and today (10 days post shed) she's laid the rest of her clutch: 6 'good' looking eggs, 2 more obvious slugs and looks like she may have at least one more egg/slug left to go, possibly 2. Problem is, I just candled the 'good' eggs and I think they may ALL be duds. I saw a large vein in one or two of them, but nothing in the rest. Unfortunately they're all clumped together too, so if there ARE a couple of good ones I'm in for a royal mess when the others start to rot

I've also noticed a lot of other people seem to be having trouble with their kingsnake breeding projects this year. Everything from cannibalism at breeding, retained eggs, maggoty eggs, and what sounds like consumed eggs so far, what'll be next? I know there are always problems and disappointments, and I know most of them are out of our hands before they even begin. But there just seems to be an unusually large amount of problems occurring and people asking for help this year.

In all of my close to 10 years of snake breeding I have never had **knocks on wood** any of the above mentioned problems, not even any slugs dropped (so I guess I'm overdue really huh?) Why this year? And why so many others too? Is this just a bad year or what?

I certainly wish us all better luck for the second half of this breeding season and into the years to come.
~Roo

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"Klaatu...Verata...Nicht--cough, cough, cough!"

Could it be that your snake eggs just aren't showing veins yet? I have heard that it can take up to a week for the eggs to show veins... so I wouldn't give up on them yet.

Yes, so far this year, I've had a bad year!

Kingsnake Clutch 1: 12 laid, 2 went bad, one is still slightly wrinkled

Kingsnake Clutch 2: 15 laid, a few are sweating and a few still show no veins. (one has a weird dark spot)

Kingsnake NON clutch 3: No eggs, female got an RI, Male died!

Kingssnake NON clutch 4: No eggs, guess I was too late with the pyros!

Corn Clutch 1: 10 laid, I got them too moist so have had mold problems (but all have good veins still)

Corn Clutch 2: 21 laid, 1 ruptured

Corn Clutch 3: 6 good eggs, 6 slugs, one of the good eggs just turned green.
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~Sasheena

I awoke this morning to find my Albino Cal king had laid 3 eggs. 1 probable slug. But instead of laying them in her laying area they were scattered throughout her bedding. I placed them in the bed as soon as I saw them and I hope she will use it if she lays more. I will post any changes.

Scott

...I found yet another slug UNDER her laying box -.-
I don't think I'll breed this snake again next year, maybe I should try a different mate, who knows at this point

But in your case this IS a problem I've encountered before! My best breeder Cal for the last 3-4 years laid her very first clutch for me in her HIDE box, a cereal box, instead of her laying box, and she also did it sometime during the night while I was asleep. I just scooped up the clutch and put them in the incubator and I had an 8/8 hatch rate at 65 days.

*fingers crossed* If those eggs were viable when laid they should be just fine as long as you got them cooking as soon as you found them

Good luck!
~Roo
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"Klaatu...Verata...Nicht--cough, cough, cough!"