Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My 6' female layed yesterday at 31 days POS and it's very depressing. She laid 26 eggs total and only 1 looks good and 1 more looks good except for a bad spot on it so I'm not sure about that one. Hopefully she didn't roll the 1 good one, she was laying them all over the cage even tho I had a nest box in there for her. A bunch of the eggs look about the size of a dud but are kinda the same color as the 1 good egg, is this normal for duds? last year my only duds looked like amber pingpong balls so these looked kinda weird to me.

Also anyone have any thoughts on what can cause such a bum clutch?

Zack
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Zack Greens Reptiles

My thought was always overweight female or pulling a male too early

It's hard to tell honestly. We just had a female lay last night that had not been with a male since the end of December. There were 11 good eggs and 4 duds.
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Chris & Alliey
www.bloodyleopard.com
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Thanks guys for your input, She is deffinitly not overweight so that rules out that part. only thing i can think of is maybe the male and her seperated too soon as they were apart for a few days prior to ovulation and I didnt put them back together after it, not quite sure why i didnt.

Well on a good note, she already ate an XL Rat lastnight, I'm looking foward to the 2011-2012 season where I'm going to put my Male from James in with her.

Zack
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Zack Greens Reptiles

Females can retain viable sperm for a very long time. Whether its a week or months since last copulation. After ovulation the sperm has been introduced so no need to breed after that. Sometimes females just throw a bad clutch for a many different reasons and its not always in your control. Best of luck for the surviving egg and for future clutches!
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Mike Jenks-Solar Serpents llc

Thanks Mike, the weird thing is the duds look like normal eggs mostly except a fraction of the size then 2 normal size ones
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Zack Greens Reptiles

Could have been because she just wasnt ready/recuperated from last year.....

Then you bred her this year ya know?

Then your planning on breeding her again next year? MIGHT get the same results.

Maybe she just needed a year off....

no I dont plan on breeding her this next season, I'm giving her this one off and planning on 2011-2012 season
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Zack Greens Reptiles