Can females re-absorb their eggs?

I haven't been able to find my corn snake manual but think something might be wrong with my female who produced no problem last year...

She went through the motions again this year with everything being on schedule except actually laying. She went off eating, did her prelay shed, refuses all food, looks larger than normal but just won't lay.

I fear I may have stressed her one time when I was wetting the vermiculite with water that was too warm.

Thoughts?

I haven't heard of female reabsorbing fertile eggs but I have heard of them reabsorbing slugs. Now if she has a few fertile and alot of slugs then she would probably lay them. I don't know I really haven't had any experience with that.

There was a big debate about this.... this is what I understand the process to be:

Snake develops follicles... bumps on her ovaries that can be quite huge, the size of eggs even. This is when she is ready to BE fertilized. If she is NOT fertilized then one of two things happens. She reabsorbs (Resorbs?) the follicles or she ovulates.. the follicles become eggs that are no longer attached to the ovaries. If they are not fertilized she will eventually pass those as slugs. If she resorbs the follicles she will have given a lot of the indicators that she is going to lay a clutch of eggs, but won't in fact lay any.

Homer, key piece of information... when did you EXPECT her to lay? ie when did she have what you would call her "pre=lay shed"? I've heard of it taking up to 19 days between prelay shed and the actual laying of eggs.

This year I had one snake who was successfully bred four times to her male (kingsnakes), but she had a shed at the "wrong" time in the cycle, never really got fat, and NEVER had eggs. The male died before I could reintroduce them to try again. (She seemed to be developing follicles, so I wanted to try once more). She bred with this same male the year before and produced 8 eggs, so it seemed a sure thing that I would have eggs from her. But alas, no eggs. She's a real porker now. You should see my "money jar".... I've been filling it so I can afford to buy a new mate for her and for her daughter for next year. We'll see!

Yeah, I'm starting to get concerned because she went off eating around 4/13/04 then according to my records she did her "prelay shed" 5/29/04 and last year she shed exactly 14 days both times for both clutches she had last year...

<sigh> I'm going to holder her and see if I feel anything.

Well, she ate two f/t mice AND pooped. Two things she's not suppose to do if gravid...

I took my hand and let her crawl through it to feel for "bumps" and I swear I feel them.

I just have no clue what the heck is going on and I can't freaking find the cornsnake bible (The Cornsnake Manual), I misplaced it somewhere, DAMNIT!

:flames: :twoguns: :shrugs:

One of mine eats like a pig all the time, even when she's gravid, and she poops as well. They don't read the manuals, so you could still be in luck! Keep us posted.

I had a female that got fat with eggs (non-fertilized) she went off food, shed, but never laid any slugs. I was worried about egg-binding, but after about 2 months, the eggs slowly disappeared and now I can't feel any inside of her.

So, long story short, yes, they can reabsorb eggs.

my corn snake is doing the same thing and i am very worried, she has refused food for 2 months now, just shed about a week ago and i can very plainly see the eggs. she is 11 years old and has never layed eggs befor and has never been around a male. out of no where she stopped eating and layed a deformed small yello egg. now i can plainly see three larger eggs inside her, just above where they should come out (she looks like she is going to explode in that area) i built a nesting box and she is sitting inside it but its been 3 days and she still hasnt layed them. please help, im very worried and inexperienced am i doing anything wrong?

They can absorb follicles, but not developed eggs. Once the eggs are developed, they are either fertilized or passed as slugs. (As Sasheena said.)
Also, females can retain sperm, definitely one year past copulation, I've heard rumor of possibly two years after copulation (no proof that I'm aware of) but not retained indefinitely.

It's not unusual for a female to pass a slug or several a day or two before laying the rest of the clutch. Once she has laid anything, the rest will never be reabsorbed. They will come out.

This is an old thread, but I'd like to add, I had a female this season breed, go blue, shed, not lay, go blue, and lay after the second shed. I also had a female shed, breed once, refuse any more breedings, shed, refuse the test breeding after shedding, but then go on to breed four more times. I am waiting for her to lay, now.

Yep, just depends on the snake.
I have females that were bred right around the same time and most of them laid a few weeks ago but then I had a few just lay last night and a few that haven't laid yet.

What am I supposed to do if she still won't lay the eggs?

Does she appear to be egg bound? Are the eggs bunched up near her cloaca? If not, just leave her alone & wait. If she appears to be eggbound, I would recommend taking her to a vet.

The biggest thing, IMO, with gravid females, is to just leave them be. The more you mess with them, the higher chance they have of becoming too stressed & the risk of egg binding becomes higher.