The 'In's and 'Out's of Snake Sitting...

First, it is of utmost importance to find a snake that is willing to sit with the eggs. Not all snakes are interested in the refined art of egg-sitting. Some are apt to wonder off and others liable to throw the eggs out while getting comfortable.

You'll know right away if you have a good candidate though, when you see the snake and egg 'bonding'.



You'll also want a Snake Sitter that can spend the time to check each egg individually:





It is important that your new sitter is willing to move the eggs gently as well:

There are of course hazards when it comes to egg-sitting, though I doubt your sitter will be the first one to complain - especially when it comes to snack time:

Not funny, but I think about picture #4 I knew what was coming. Great pics though, :crazy02: susan

It's even worse when you've a whole clutch on the line...






Even then, they'll always be looking for more eggs to sit for you...


I just wanted to note, that no fertile eggs were harmed during this brief documentary and although a few fingers, a hand, and an arm came close to be harmed, they made it through in the end.

The eggs were from Pebbles, our 2004 banded-ish amel motley female that unexpectedly dropped eggs today and earlier this week. We never hooked her up with any males, and while it's possible the previous owner/breeder did - we don't think so. So 95% of the clutch was nothing but slugs and the last three eggs that looked healthy were dropped into the incubator to be watched to see if they turn out to be anything. Not going to hold our breath though.

Hope you enjoyed the pics - I missed posting while my computer was being upgraded and repaired. That's one of the reasons why there are so many pics here. I was saving them up! lol...

Jenn

Fantastic set of pics and great commentary!

susang said:

Not funny, but I think about picture #4 I knew what was coming. Great pics though, :crazy02: susan

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A little bit of twisted humor to be sure - but the eggs were all slugs. I personally would not consider feeding fertile eggs off to the kings.


Jenn

ArpeggioAngel said:

Fantastic set of pics and great commentary!

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Thanks Katie! lol.. that first pic started the whole idea of the thread - she looked like she just wanted to cuddle with the egg instead of eat it!


Jenn

Awesome pictures! I didn't know kings could eat eggs. :shrugs:

I love the first picture!

Hehehe

In that first picture, I couldn't decide if you were being serious or not. I guess I should have known.

Mmm, slugs!

I like how the purple-bowl snake has a horseshoe on his head.

Nanci

lol, that was great! Love the pics and the commentary. Good thing i saw this, now I know not to hire her to egg sit! :grin01:

Nice! the striped one looks like it has a pac-man ghost for head pattern. Is that what those little white dots pac-man eats are?

Great looking kings, Jenn

:rofl: Awesome. I loved it ... from the first "huggy-snake" to the last.

Sucks about the slugs, but that's snake-keeping for ya'. Gotta' take the bad with the good.

Thanks for the chuckle, Jenn! :wavey:

Great photos but sort of reminds me (excuse my sick mind) of a snake turning in a circle, laying a egg, eating that egg while laying another egg, eating that egg while laying another, eating that . . . . .

:bang: :sidestep: :crazy02:

Plissken said:

Awesome pictures! I didn't know kings could eat eggs. :shrugs:

I love the first picture!

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Thanks! And I thought the same thing when another member posted pics of their king/milk eating slugs. It's actually a natural part of a wild king/milk snake's diet. Though I'd imagine they'd prefer the fertile eggs over the slugs. I would have offered one to my daughter's Nelson, but Jane is a picky enough eater as it is. With the two Cali's, I know I can get them to take mice again no prob.

Jrgh17 said:

Hehehe

In that first picture, I couldn't decide if you were being serious or not. I guess I should have known.

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LOL, yeah, that first pic is just too cute - no savage feeding response from that girl. She daintily took both of the slugs I gave her while Folly (the bigger banded king) just wolfed them down.

Nanci said:

Mmm, slugs!

I like how the purple-bowl snake has a horseshoe on his head.

Nanci

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I love Dolly's head pattern! When she was younger I thought it looked like Darth Vader's helmet. lol.

laceyjane260 said:

lol, that was great! Love the pics and the commentary. Good thing i saw this, now I know not to hire her to egg sit! :grin01:

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LOL, glad you enjoyed both the pictures and the comments! I'm sure Dolly and Folly will both be sad that their references have placed them in a bad light for egg-sitting!

antsterr said:

Nice! the striped one looks like it has a pac-man ghost for head pattern. Is that what those little white dots pac-man eats are?

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You know, I never quite looked at her head pattern that way. It does look like them dudes from Pac-Man. Though I don't think the slugs are round enough to be the dots! lol... I also thought it looked like a space invader aside from the Vader thing. lol

diamondlil said:

Great looking kings, Jenn

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Thanks!

Kitty said:

:rofl: Awesome. I loved it ... from the first "huggy-snake" to the last.

Sucks about the slugs, but that's snake-keeping for ya'. Gotta' take the bad with the good.

Thanks for the chuckle, Jenn! :wavey:

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lmao, glad you enjoyed the pics! We weren't too sad about the slugs - expected them because we didn't breed that female this year. What we didn't expect was the 3 good eggs we got from her in addition to the slugs. The sire is a mystery snake cause we have no idea when or who or what she was hooked up with.

suecornish said:

Great photos but sort of reminds me (excuse my sick mind) of a snake turning in a circle, laying a egg, eating that egg while laying another egg, eating that egg while laying another, eating that . . . . .

:bang: :sidestep: :crazy02:

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lol, Folly looked kind of like that as he turned in circles eating the half dozen slugs we gave him.


Thanks again for the comments everyone!

Jenn

Lol, you got me Jenn....I was "aww, look, Jenn's kings layed eggs...wait...THEY'RE EATING THEIR OWN EGGS?! OMG!"

I'm so gullible sometimes...

cassandra said:

Lol, you got me Jenn....I was "aww, look, Jenn's kings layed eggs...wait...THEY'RE EATING THEIR OWN EGGS?! OMG!"

I'm so gullible sometimes...

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Me too! At the first picture I was like "Oh how cute! What a good snake mommy!". LOL

cassandra said:

Lol, you got me Jenn....I was "aww, look, Jenn's kings layed eggs...wait...THEY'RE EATING THEIR OWN EGGS?! OMG!"

I'm so gullible sometimes...

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Hmmm.. I suppose I should have mentioned that they were cornsnake eggs in the first post... Didn't dawn on me to clarify I guess! lmao. I wish our kings would have had eggs this year - but that won't be till a year or two as all of ours (except the one I snake-napped from my sister) are 2006's.

mommyof2 said:

Me too! At the first picture I was like "Oh how cute! What a good snake mommy!". LOL

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*Chuckles* I know, that first picture draws the compassion and the ooos and ahhhs.. and then there's the rest!


Jenn

cool pics... thanks.