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Does anyone else have problems with graybands getting eggbound? It seems like this happens to at least 1 or 2 of my snakes each year. My cages are large, heat is provided and they are fed a reasonable amount.
Any opinions are appreciated. Thanks

By comparison how many females produce successfully for you each year? If you have 1-2 egg bound out of 3-4 females per year I would say that's a significant problem. If it's more like 1-2 out of 15-20 females egg bound per year I would say it's more like the cost of doing business. I have one out of 16 females egg bound so far this year. I don't know what causes it. The female that's egg bound is a mature (but not old) adult female that hasn't had problems in the past. By contrast I've had several first year (and small) females lay 8-10 good eggs this year without problems. There doesn't seem to be a rhyme or reason as I keep all my alterna the same way. That's why I say it's just the cost of doing business. After many years of breeding alterna and other colubrids I've just come to accept it and hope it doesn't happen too often.

If you do not already do so, consider reducing the amount of food offered to gravid females. Among keepers, there is a tendency to continue offering food if the female will accept it, and of course we anticipate how skinny she'll be after laying. You might try this next season and see if your results improve.

Cheers,

BH
SierraHerps.com

Simple way to unbound them this technique works well. Take a medium Rubbermaid tub fill it 1/2 of water and toss them in, they will swim and loosen the eggs and pass the eggs. If you have patience and watch them as the eggs come out grab them and incubate if fertile they will hatch. If the female takes all night of swimming to loosen up and you go to bed and the eggs stay in the water to long you will loose the eggs most of the time.

In 29 years of breeding I only had one snake egg bound. Last year in year 30 I had five, I lost one to an infection, aspirated the eggs in number 2 and lost all eggs. The last 3 I let them swim and hatched most of the eggs.
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I've never had a problem with graybands but I have with mexmex. I'm looking towards 3 potential solutions:
1. Nutrition - a lower fat diet, ie lizards and quail vs. strictly mice.
2. Better nest boxes - Boxes that provide complete darkness might make the snakes feel more secure.
3. Larger cages - Provide greater opportunity for physical excercise.

Another thing to think of is that in captivity there is no natural selection so there's probably a higher percentage of unfit snakes in captivity than in the wild.
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