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Is this egg fertile?

B

bullfrog

New member
Hey guys i just got a female cornsnake yesterday and she laid an egg! Just one though..... and i was wondering if it is fertile. I have it incubating rigth now but i only took off the top for photo purposes. The humidity is high and the vermiculite is moist and its at just the right temp. I have included a photo but the egg feels soft. When it was laid i didnt touch it right then because i didnt have a place to incubate it in. My dad took it out of the snake cage today without telling me and i dont think he knew not to flip it over .... so im not sure if he did. Thanks for your help.
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hmm

Correct me if I am wrong here experts, but that egg definitly doesn't look fertile. It looks exactly the same as when my iguana lays her eggs, which are infertile as well, dented, discolored etc.

THe real concern though is why did she lay one egg? Your snake has either laid them elsewhere before you got her but very recently, or she has more to lay.

It would be a very good idea to give her a nesting box right away with moist moss, so she can lay any other eggs.

bmm
 
I really must stress what bmm said about her possibly having more eggs. I've never heard of a corn laying only one egg. You need to get her a nesting box and if she doesn't lay any more in the next few days then you need to get her to an experienced reptile vet. Being eggbound is a serious condition and it can and has killed snakes.
 
well she laid a few more ... these ones are all white, filled out and semi firm. I made sure that when i took them out of her tank i didnt flip them over. they are incubating right now. She went under the shirt that i put in there and laid them. So all looks fine. She is still under there so i assume that she is still laying them.
 
o.k.

You should leave her alone, until tomorrow, then "harvest" any more eggs she has laid. Don't worry about taking them out as she lays them that will just stress her out more.

But if the new ones she has laid are white and firm then they may be fertile! good luck!

bmm
 
just

Do as you have been...putting them in incubator. I would wait and collect them all at once, not one by one. How many have you gotten so far? How many look fertile?

bmm
 
I don't think it's a good idea to leave the mother in with the eggs.
She can bump them and roll them which would kill the babies inside.
The eggs should be in their own separate container away from disturbances. either in the incubator or somewhere else where they'll get the right temp range.
 
DANG! I wonder how these creatures survived in the wild?!
Click to expand...

I guess Mom just lays the eggs somewhere she considers suitable (no chance of them being found & correct temperature) and goes away. In a viv, there's only a limited space, so more chance of the eggs being disturbed.

Don't suppose nature manages 80-100% hatch rates either !

Cheers
Kel
 
Glad to hear she's not egg bound! Gl with the eggs and post pics when you can get them!

Oh, and how many are there so far?
 
well so far i have 3 eggs out. 2 look fertile and the other one that looks all squashed. Its kinda hard to take out the other eggs because the snake twitches every time i accedentally touch her... it scares the crap out of me! Well today im going to pick up some more humidity and temp guages for the incubator.
 
Don't worry about the twitching, she's just nervous
After our science class's snake laid eggs she was twitchy and nervous for a few weeks. We separated her from the male b/c he was bothering her
Don't forget that she'll probably be really hungry and weak from laying those eggs so feed her something a little smaller than she usually eats (as a little snack) when she finishes laying the eggs.
 
well she is still not letting me at the eggs ... and they are starting to look like they are caving a little so i set a damp paper towel over her and the eggs ..... oh i also noticed that she is getting very light in color and she is getting some milkyness on the top of her head. I think a shed is coming! So i kicked up the humidity to 65% and the temp is currently around 80. BTW i picked up some temp and humidity guages today at petco ... the humidity in the place where the eggs that i took out is about 90% and the temp is almost dead on 80. Is that ok?
 
80 degrees is fine but they may take a little longer than normal to hatch. Eggs hatch in around nine weeks at their optimal temperature of 85 degrees.
 
Have you gotten the other eggs out, yet? One of my females wouldn't let me take her eggs either. It was almost as if she was guarding them. Anyway, I simply removed her, then took the eggs out. Of course, I gave her plenty of time to be certain she was through laying first. Good luck!
 
yeah since you have been going in and out of there she might have a motherly protective instinct. She is trying to protect the last of her eggs you have not stolen and eaten from her
 
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