Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi,

I'm new to the board but have been keeping snakes for two years, and currently have six corns, three trinket snakes and one cali kingsnake. I bred corns for the first time last year and hatched ten, and have 18 corn eggs in the incubator this year, due to hatch in a week or so.

My female trinket laid four eggs a few days ago - it's her first clutch and the first for the rather small male, both unbrumated. Unfortunately I don't seem to be able to post a picture on here -- my pictures are in a folder on the C drive but it won't post one - maybe someone can help me on that. Anyway it's not so good without the picture, but I wondered a) if anyone here has bred trinkets, and b) if someone could shed some light on a strange egg! Two of the four eggs look fine - longer and slimmer than corn eggs, as I expected. One is a slug. The fourth has a bump on one end which is starting to seep a little liquid. I have smelt all four - the good two smell of nothing, the bad two smell fishy - so I guess they are going to rot. I must also add that despite internet and book research I really couldn't find much on breeding trinkets apart from that they lay 5-12 eggs which hatch in 60-75 days at around 78-84F. I'm not even sure when she laid them. She had her pre lay shed on 8th and I wasn't expecting eggs for at least a week. Then on 13th she no longer looked gravid so I checked in her lay box and there were four eggs, as above. I think she may have laid them on 11th, in retrospect, as she was at the bottom of her lay box then. Thanks to the nice deep lay box with plenty of damp moss, the eggs weren't at all dehydrated when I found them. They're now on damp perlite in my incubator at 83ish.

Sorry about the long post, I just wanted to explain. So has anyone bred trinkets? Anyone had a funny egg like this? - any thoughts? And finally what sort of size clutches have people had if they have bred trinkets? I was a little surprised only to have four, and probably only two good ones - but then it is her first clutch. The female herself is the picture of health, has not lost any weight, I'm sure there are no retained eggs and she has eaten. And any help with posting photos would be greatly appreciated. Some of your photos on here are fantastic!

Thanks in advance - for reading my essay if nothing else!

Jessica

Ah, it worked! Still haven't worked out how to view people's profiles though. The staining is from the sphagnum moss in the lay box.

So has anyone bred trinkets?

I bred them 5 or 6 times back in the 90's. I love trinkets.

Anyone had a funny egg like this? - any thoughts?

It's always hard to tell from a photo but to me 2 and possibly 3 of your eggs look good. Funny eggs happen. I usually incubate them and hope for the best. If they're no good, you'll usually know it by them turning color and caving within a week to 10 days or so.

And finally what sort of size clutches have people had if they have bred trinkets?

My smallest trinket clutch was 6 but the usual clutch size was 8 or 9.

By the way, you mentioned something in your original post about not having brumated them. That's good. Trinkets do not brumate and a true brumation like we give to most North American and Eurasian ratsnakes will kill them. Reproduction in Trinkets (and other Coelognathus) is triggered by food availability/fat stores. Feed your girl well and she'll give you 4-6 clutches of 8 eggs per year.

-Dave

Thanks a lot for your reply. That's a lovely trinket in the picture! They are lovely snakes - my female is so calm and gentle.

I'll see what happens as you say, but this funny egg and the slug smell fishy whereas the other two smell ok, so I think they're both going to rot. I've put them in a separate tub in the incubator just because they smell bad! - and I'll wait and see.

After I wrote about not brumating them, I remembered I'd read that trinkets don't need it as corns do. Thanks for pointing that out too.

Jessica