Okay, some of you are familiar with some of the drama I've had this year with hatchlings. In the end, I had two kingsnake clutches that were laid. One was 12 eggs, of which two died, got maggoty, and I came here for some advice. The OTHER clutch, which I also mentioned, was from my desert banded cal king, she laid it 16 days after her pre-laying shed, keeping me quite worried, and then the 15 eggs all died approximately 2 weeks into incubation (my guess based on the kidney-bean-sized embryos to be found in the dissected eggs). Since the female was exposed to high heat for 3 days before laying her eggs, my guess is that the heat was the ultimate death for the eggs.
Since then, the female snake beefed up and started looking gravid, refusing food, all the right nesting behaviour. I'd moved her to a more quiet location so she would feel more comfortable laying her eggs and perhaps do it sooner. Well, when I went to check on her, she was GONE. I expected eggs, and had none, not even the momma snake. I was quite upset by this, and we tore apart the shed looking for her. (she was in my air conditioned mouse house). No luck. *sigh*. Then about a week passed and who shows up in the mouse house again, looking longingly at mice and rats? You guessed it, my beautiful girl was back, looking like she'd JUST LAYED her eggs. ARGH. Again we looked throughout the 8' x 12' mouse house, but no luck. My thought was she'd found a hole and layed them in the wall, or escaped the mouse house entirely and layed them in the compost heap, or somewhere else. I gave her lots of mice and rats (suitably spaced) so she could get her energy back. I also noted an approximate due date so that I could at least keep my eyes open for hatchling kingsnakes. Well, today is day 59, and sitting on the porch is a half-eaten california kingsnake baby, with an umbilical cord still obvious (I've seen enough of those). My guess is, she laid her clutch of eggs somewhere good enough for them to go full term, and unlike the last batch, they did go full term.... only problem is they were laid where the feral cats in the neighborhood can find them.
Anyway, I'm considering that the likelihood is the baby came from her missing clutch. Which means that she won't always lay clutches full of babies who will die. Next year, of course, should be better.
Thought I'd share, sorry for the long story, but it seemed interesting enough to do so. Meantime, of course, Licorice (the snake) is nearly 5 feet and chowing down on small juvie rats!
Here's a picture of Licorice gravid with her first clutch:
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~Sasheena
