Reptile & Amphibian Forums

So I went up to check on my snakes the other day. I try to check on them every day or two to make sure water levels are good, etc. I have one adult female that laid a clutch last year. My male pastel died shortly after the clutch was laid (still not sure why.... refused a rat one day, dead the next....).

Since I didn't have a male to breed the female with this year, I wasn't expecting anything to happen. But, as I said, I check on them every few days. This female had refused to eat the last two times I tried to feed her, though, which is odd. She typically sucks down small rats as fast as I can drop them in her container. Well, I found out why.

She was wrapped around a 7 egg clutch of healthy, fertilized eggs. One slug off to the side. I had to set up the incubator in a hurry since I hadn't planned on a miraculous clutch this year, but they're in an egg box now at 88 degrees.

Talk about shocked!! I still have two pastels from the clutch last year, and now with 7 new healthy eggs, not sure what I'm gonna do. I'll put pics up in a few days.

Congratulations. That's a cool find. Best of luck with them.

Wow that's cool man. Guess they can store that sperm for a long time. You would think it wouldn't be viable anymore after so long.

Well, the clutch has done remarkably well. I checked on them this evening and found four of 8 piped. Three with little heads sticking out, one with a tiny slit from the eg tooth, but no head. Two of the others had clear windows and may be a few days or week behind the rest.

I typically don't help snakes out of the gg, but the on that only has a tiny slit in it is an egg that started deflating pretty early on. I assumed it had gone bad somehow, but it seems to still be good. The small slit is on the top, and this is the top egg of the pile, so it couldn't be from one of the other snakes.

It would stand to reason that I would have the most success with a surprise clutch.... lol. I'll put up picks in a few days showing what popped out. I've had the female paired with a pastel male before and a VERY reduced pattern male before (both more than 2 years ago) so we'll see.

I'm practically giddy with excitement. lol.