Ok my turn to jump in the fray.
Everyone on here has already heard my story, but Taryn, for your benefit, here goes.....
In March 2005, I came home from work, had dinner and thawed mice to feed the snakes. When I went to feed Zoe, the ball python, she was going crazy, lunging and striking wildly. There was a wierd smell in the room. The heater in her rack had malfunctioned and her tub was melted at the bottom. Her substrate was burned. Thankfully she was unhurt. I had to rehome 3 of my ball pythons, because there was no warm enough place to keep them in my chilly house. I had to toss that rack. I had to cohabit some corns until a new rack came in. I had always been against co-habbing, but I had no other choice and it was going to be temporary.
I cohabbed Sniper, a 3 year old male corn, with Kelsey, a 7 year old corn that the breeder told me was a male. He had never shown any interest in the ladies, but I was not seriously into breeding at that time and thought I caught the timing wrong.
They were housed together approximately 3 weeks.
New rack came in, everyone was seperated and life went on.
In June 2005 I noticed Kelsey was looking a bit chunky. He had always been a great eater. It NEVER occurred to me that Kelsey was a female. Kelsey shed and I didn't provide an eggbox. One Saturday night in July, I went to feed "him" and found "him" surrounded by 13 eggs.
Kelsey became eggbound due to being co habbed and not having an eggbox.
Kelsey died August 2005. She had 2 vet visits but it didn't save her.
3 of the eggs hatched, all males. I kept all 3. One is Kato, the hatchling in my avatar.
I still miss that girl, and still cry when I think about how I failed her. She was one of the most beautiful cornsnakes I had ever, or will ever see.