Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Does anyone have (or know of) statistics on reorded clutch sizes based upon age/size/weight of Cal Kings in captivity?

I know it is going to be variable, but I imagine (note word imagine) a 54" female that is in her fourth or fith season will likely lay more eggs than a 36" female in her first season.

I think it would be interesting to see how it varies, how much previous breeding impacts that (IE will a 48 inch female being bred for the first time clutch signifigantly smaller than a 48 inch female being bred for the third time) etc.

Weight records would also be interesting, with respect to obese or underweight snakes and their clutch sizes.

I know there is individual female variance, but I imagine there would be a trend?
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3.0 WC; 0.3 CB L. getula californiae
1.0 CB L. getula nigrita
0.1.1 WC; 0.0.3 CH Elgaria multicarinata multicarinata

I am no help right now, but these next years I am going to take records, notes, stats, etc. I guess I was always too lazy to jot down some in the past.

But I do know that younger/smaller cal kings have smaller clutches than larger/older cal kings. In my experience with cal king breeding, I've found that the clutches get larger every year (assuming the female gets larger every year) until they peak in length between 4-8 years old, then the clutches can flucuate near their max capacity for quite a few years after that. They can obviously breed/produce for quite a few years.

An example:
1998 female hatched, kept warm the first winter. Brumated on her second winter. Bred her in 2000 for the first time:

2000 5 eggs
2001 7 eggs
2002 9 eggs
2003 10 eggs
2004 11 eggs
2005 10 eggs

sold the pair in 2005

I do not have weights associated with the breedings.

Kerby...

p.s. This is just an example. The most eggs I ever got out of a cal king was 14. I have heard of larger clutches for sure.
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Lonesome Valley Reptiles
www.lonesomevalleyreptiles.com
Specializing In California Kingsnakes

n/p
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3.0 WC; 0.3 CB L. getula californiae
1.0 CB L. getula nigrita
0.1.1 WC; 0.0.3 CH Elgaria multicarinata multicarinata

If you are serious about compileing some info and looking into this you should also consider egg size and hatchling weight.

I went a year where I weighed all my females and each egg. I'll see if I can did up those numbers when I get home on monday.

One of my largest females only lays about 7 eggs each clutch, (actually she has laid exactly 7 eggs for 4 clutches in a row now). But the eggs (and hatchlings) are huge! Compare this to a clutch of 8 or 9 smaller eggs from a smaller female and the mass of the reproductive effort is obviously greater even if the numbers of offspring are not.

That's a good point.
Weighing each individual egg may be difficult if the eggs are stuck together, but one could weigh the entire clutch without too much difficulty.

My Albino layed 12 eggs at the end of last month (I didn't weigh her or the eggs), and according to the seller, she layed 20 something before I bought her and layed 20 something last year.

The 12 she layed for me were small.

I don't know if the 20 something clutch sizes were real or sales exageration, but I've heard 2nd clutches are usually smaller than 1st.

Next year I'm planning to record all that data myself and see what happens. It would be interesting to see if clutch size (and/or egg size) is genetic.
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3.0 WC; 0.3 CB L. getula californiae
1.0 CB L. getula nigrita
0.1.1 WC; 0.0.3 CH Elgaria multicarinata multicarinata

That makes two of us! I've recorded gecko eggs in the past but just got lazy. This next season I am going to record everything. I just got a new scale and find myself recording the snakes weight every other day. Ha. We can exchange data and try to find patterns and similarities. I recently sold some breeders and only have a couple left so this next season is going to be really slow for me. The season after is going to be exciting though, can't wait. Have a great weekend all. Sam