Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey folks, was hoping to get some opinions on a clutch that went bad...

First of all I have had five clutches of eggs this year. Three corn clutches and two cali king clutches. Of four of those I've had mostly success... (CORNS--clutch #1: 10 good eggs; clutch #2: 21 good, 1 went bad; Clutch 3: 6 good, 6 slugs, one went bad. and KINGS Clutch #4: 12 good eggs, 2 went bad, one is questionable)

MY questions are on the fifth clutch... 15 eggs, and at this point I'm not expecting to see any of them hatch. But ALL 15 showed veins at one point or another.

Licorice was the mother snake, and she is a snake without history. I do not know if she is WC or if she is CB. I don't know how old she is. By the size of her head I've guessed that she is between 5 and 10 years old. She is 51 inches long at the last I measured her. The father snake is a proven breeder, his girl had 8 eggs last year that all hatched, and this year the other kingsnake eggs are also his, and there are still 9 huge robust eggs left in that clutch.

Licorice was bred within seven days of the other female cal king, and then bred every few days for a week to a week and a half. She had her pre-lay shed and everything seemed fine, except she was in shed for what seemed a LONG time. Her eyes went opaque about the same time that Queenie's went clear (Queenie is the other female cal king). But she didn't shed until two days before Queenie laid her eggs (at day 10, post shed)... so she seemed to be "blue" for 10 days.

About six days after she shed our AC broke down and she had to exist in a much warmer than recommended atmosphere. That lasted three days. On day 16 post shed she finally laid her eggs. While they were just a little bit yellow tinted, they did look good, and within four or five days I could see veins in all of them. By day 12 some started to look bad, sweat, and otherwise just give all appearances of going bad... in some of those the veins started to look like "vein fragments"... instead of a network of veins, it was a spaghetti bowl of vein pieces. Those eggs turned blue and stopped having visible veins. Now the last seven eggs have started to turn a deeper yellow color around the base, get white mold, and sweat. Only one or two haven't done this at this point in time. But with only 23 days elapsed I don't think any of them will hatch.

SO.... was it the heat while she was preparing to lay her eggs that killed the eggs? Could she just be a snake who cannot produce good eggs? Could she be too old? Should I try her on another male snake next year?
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~Sasheena

n/p

Could be many things Sash. Olby advise I can give is get more snakes and then when breeding comes the odds are in you favor

Seriously your posts are appreciated and I am sure many have learned from them. I am sorry that happened and a that breeding season was wasted. I have always had bad eggs every season and I just got used to the dissapointments and live with them better these days.

Today I had a clutch of 14 amelanistic Dream Kings come out and they look yellow but still look good. Now I wonder (and hope) that they will be okay since I was really looking forward to these as these would be the first amel Dreams besides the 1.1 adults.

Rainer

Thanks for the kind words. I'm very glad of the chance to be able to "vent" my fears, frustrations, and my triumphs.

Luckily for me it hasn't been a complete waste for me this season. I bred four kingsnakes, and DID get one good clutch. I did lose two and a quarter eggs from that dozen eggs, but I expect to have 9 and three quarters to hatch. (There's one iffy egg that sometimes I give up for dead, and other times I'm certain it will hatch.... today is a good day, so it's at 3/4s)

The full spiel:

High White Cal King x Newport Cal King - 12 laid, 9.75 currently look good to hatch.

High White Cal King x Normal Banded - 15 laid, a couple still look likely to hatch, but not expecting anything.

Apalachicola x Apalachicola - No eggs laid, no slugs, nuttin! Then I lost the male! ~ HUGE disappointment. I've now got a jar on my computer desk, and every time I sell mice to local kids, I put the money in the jar. Hope to get a nice sub-adult or young-adult male for next year's breeding season.

Pyro x Pyro - No eggs laid... seems I got the male to the female a little bit too late. The male is on loan (and a little piggy!) so I need to get a male for her for next year also, but this wasn't that drastic a disappointment. No lost snakes, no big distress.

SO.... I'm expecting my 9.75 eggs to hatch on the 8th of July.

AND, my three cornsnake clutches are doing good. One clutch was 21 eggs, 20 still good, another was 10 eggs, 9.75 still good (same reason as the kingsnake eggs), and the third clutch was 6 eggs, 6 slugs, with five still good. SO, I am expecting around 40 eggs to hatch, so it's not a completely disaster. All the eggs expected to hatch are due to hatch within a single week!
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~Sasheena