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Not quite sure what to do here...

M

megmer

New member
Hi!

My husband and I were given what we were told was a 3 year old (at the time) male corn snake by a friend of his about 2 years ago. Turns out, he is a she. She hasn't been eating for the past 2.5 months, which didn't concern me overmuch, as she did the same thing after last winter, for 6 months. The last couple of weeks, she's been really really active around her cage, which we've seen a few times, but nothing like this. We picked up a couple of mice to give her today, and when I dropped the first one into her cage, noticed what looked like a small, squished, yellow ping pong ball. I asked my hubby what he thought it might be, or if he had noticed our 3 year old hanging around the cage (little man decided once to give Trigger a "snack" and I found a cheesy in there. He got a VERY stern talking to). He said it looked like it could be an egg, but since he's never had reptiles before, wasn't sure. I raised and bred leopard geckos quite a few years ago, so I knew what an egg should look like, good or bad, and if I hadn't been so convinced she was a he, I probably would've investigated a little quicker. Anywho...she didn't eat, so I pulled the mouse and tried again tonight before I came to work. Absolutely zero interest, she didn't even poke her head out her cave, which seemed odd to me, since she has been so active. I thought I should maybe take a peek at her, and make sure she was ok, so I opened up the top of her cave, and lo and behold, she's curled up around a whole clutch of eggs. I can say with 100% certainty that she hasn't been around any other snakes for at least the past 2 years, so it kinda took me by surprise lol. My questions are as follows:
1) They ARE infertile, right?? I've heard of "virgin" births in reptiles, but don't know if there are any conditions that have to be met...
2) How do I know she's done?
3) What do I do with them? Will she let me near them?
4) When should she eat again? Is there any special I have to do to get her nutrients back up or anything?
 
1. A photo would be nice, but when they are small and yellow they're slugs. If they're white/cream colored they are fertile.
2. You can see or feel any eggs that are left in her.
3. If you want to hatch them if they're fertile you have to put them in an incubator, she might be aggressive but if she's too tired she'll probably do nothing.
4. You can give her food the same day as laying, I personally would wait a day so she can get a bit of rest. A smaller food item is preferred as they usually lose quite a bit of weight and might not be able to eat her normal food size. I gave mine some vitamins but it's not really necessary.

Here's a thread on making a simple incubator: http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=65141
 
Oops, can't edit.. Wanted to add: if you don't want hatchlings just put the eggs in the freezer if you think they're fertile.
 
Thank you so much for the info!!
I'm having a hard time uploading a picture from my phone, I'll try from the computer at work tonight. It kind of looks like about half are yellowish and half are whitish... We've had her 2 years now, and the previous owners for 1, and she was never in with another snake in that time for sure, we don't know about previous to that. Is it really still a possibility that they could be fertile even after 3 years?? Looks like I'll have to think about setting up an incubator lol
 
That sounds like what my girl Cleo does. Starting around age 8-9 (she's 13 now), she starting laying a clutch of 7-15 infertile eggs. I was shocked; I'd had her since she was 10 weeks old, and she'd never been with other snakes so I knew she hadn't bred. Some of her slugs looked deceptively fertile and I'd incubate them a few days just to be sure, but they always collapsed and started to rot.

I bred her the previous two years but not this year, and sure enough, she went back to laying slugs. Big difference I noticed: she lays the slugs over a period of 3-5 days and the eggs don't stick together. Her fertile clutches were always laid all at once, and the fertile eggs stuck nicely together. Some of those slugs looked convincingly viable, so thinking she might've retained sperm for a whole year (!), we incubated them jussst in case even though candling did not suggest viability. They all eventually started to collapse and rot and so were clearingly infertile.

It sounds like your girl is taking a page from Cleo's book. :)
 
Thanks everyone! It looks like she's done doing whatever she's going to do now. I checked all the eggs last night, and all were no good, so no miracle snakies here lol. She's still pretty laxadaisical, so I'm going to pick her up a couple of Little mice tomorrow when we go to town. I really appreciate everyone's input on this, it sure is nice to have people who know what's what :D
 
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