View Single Post
Old 06-04-2002, 03:50 AM   #2
Doctor Mike
From my limited experience in such matters so far, I've noticed that younger, shorter corns don't always have individually palpable eggs. You didn't say how old your female corn was.

I think this lack of individually palpable eggs in smaller, younger corns may be related to 2 things: [1] the possibility of fewer, say 6 or 7 eggs, all lined up neatly end-to-end lengthwise in the belly, and not staggered, and [2] the eggs having flexible shells which allows them to "pack" closely together--something like sausages being forced together inside a flexible plastic tube such that it's hard to feel the limited spaces between them.

Thus, it may only be obvious that such a young female corn is gravid from having [a] noted when mating occurred, and [b] keeping weekly body weight records so that a rapid weight gain over several weeks can be easily noticed. I weigh my snakes just before I feed them again, well after they have had their last likely bowel movement, each week. Not being consistent on the timing of weighing could throw you off by the weight of a recent meal.

Older, larger corns may literally become a "sack of eggs", making it easy to see and feel the eggs as individual shapes.

If you think your corn is gravid, it is probably better to be safe than sorry and place an egg laying box with damp sphagnum moss inside your tank NOW. If you're corn isn't gravid, it'll just be an extra humidity chamber for awhile. If she is, she will choose to lay her eggs on her schedule, not yours, and you don't want to take the chance that the eggs are laid in the substrate or in the water bowl. Make sure to check it frequently, and to keep the moss damp.

As I am at the beginning of my own learning curve on such issues, I'd like to get some feedback from the experts here on my theories, since they are unproven by sufficient experience on my part or by anything that I've read.

Not eggsxactly sure but wondering,
Doctor Mike