EGGS! O_O..... help, please?

[Ysabet]

Just got up to find my girl Erika curled up on a pile of eggs. I've had her for more than two years and this is a first-- her previous owner *did* say that she thought she had been bred, but can sperm be retained for that long? A couple of the eggs look like duds (yellowish, smallish, wrinkled), but some of the others look very perfect-- larger and white and sort of oblong instead of jellybean-shaped. >_< I'm used to this with my bearded dragons, but with those it's very easy to tell a dud from a fertile egg at first glance; these.... no.

Thanks for the help in advance!

[Dragonling]

If you post a photo, the more experienced folks can probably tell you which ones might be fertile. They can indeed retain sperm for quite a long time. You can incubate them fairly easily if you choose to, might get some fun surprises! Or if you don't want to deal with housing, rehoming, etc., I would consider putting them in the freezer.

[Tavia]

That is a very long time to retain sperm but not impossible.

[Ysabet]

Here's a link to a pic; she's laid 9 eggs so far. 5 are amber-colored, slightly shiny and smaller; I'd consider those to be duds. 4 are larger, opaque, white and matt-shelled; possible fertile eggs?
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10154014990614242&set=p.10154014990614242&type=3&theater

The ONLY time that she might have been locked onto was once when I put hr into a tank with my next oldest snake (who I thought was a girl but now am thinking is a boy from tail-shape), a very nice peachy amel. She was in his/her tank *briefly* (less than 15 minutes) about 9 months ago while I cleaned hers; I don't recall seeing any activity, but for all I know he's a quick worker. Or maybe we do have retained sperm.....

[Ysabet]

Just in case that pic is unreachable, I've put one in my public albums entitled 'Erika's Eggs - 4/1/16'.

[Tavia]

The amber eggs are infertile but those other 4 do look possibly fertile.

[Ysabet]

Thanks! Aaaand the count is now twenty-two eggs, with ten looking white, larger and matt-finished and twelve amber, smallish and somewhat misshapen. Erika, you've got a weird sense of humor, little girl.

I'll keep them all in my makeshift incubator for a few days; if snake eggs are anything like bearded dragon eggs, the bad ones'll shrink and shrivel and I can flush them. As for the good ones, considering the circumstances, how could I resist trying to hatch them? I wouldn't mind having a baby snow if any come of this; Erika's a beauty with an excellent disposition. And I'm pretty certain that the local reptile shop (which is really fantastic) would be interested in the rest-- we've talked about breeding her a time or two.

Thanks for all the advice; I really appreciate it. All the eggs are in a small tank on damp sterile cactus potting-soil with a bulb overhead keeping the temp at a pretty steady 80 to 83F; I have a towel draped over the top to keep the heat in. Is that pretty much it? Keep the soil damp, keep the heat steady, watch for veins in about 3 weeks and discard any obviously bad eggs?

[Shiari]

They'll have veins visible any time from now to within the next 3 days or so. The key thing is humidity, but without the eggs being *wet*.