Jill and Jack's first eggs!

[GitaBooks]

Jill finally laid her eggs! It's her first time laying and she has at least 15 of them too. This is the first egg she laid, a few days before the rest. I don't know if it will hatch, but hopefully the others will.

Man she was protective of them, she was striking and rattling her tail against the container (making it sound like a rattle-snake) and coiling around them. She wasn't willing to eat but she killed the mice so they couldn't hurt her eggs. She is getting ready to shed so she can't see or I would have been bitten more then once.

Jack is the father of the eggs, he is a Red Albino Corn. I'm not sure what Jill is, I think the breeders just made up a name for her (they called her Sun Glow). She's a beauty though.

 

[axis1]

Never heard of a female snake being so aggressive over eggs she laid. Probably more a reaction of fear! Why would you give a gravid snake - or one who just laid eggs - live mice? Am I missing something here? If I'm not, and I'm not trying to be rude or confrontational, but I think you might be compromising the well-being of your snake and those eggs by doing that. When your snake recovers (after removing her from her clutch and allowing her to drink lots of water), you should offer a smaller than usual mouse, when the eggs are safe, that is.

Just sayin'.

 

[GitaBooks]

Sorry, I meant to explain that. We were giving mice because we thought she wasn't pregnant. As a matter of fact, we thought the seller had lied to us and she was a male so we weren't expecting eggs in the least. When we found out she had them, we removed the mice quickly and left her be (making sure her laying box was moist and warm) for a few days, when she finished laying the remainder of her eggs.

Jill is a very nervous snake, but she always runs, never strikes out at us or rattles her tail like that. She seemed very, very protective of those eggs, much more so then I expected. She even wrapped herself around them like a Ball Python might.

 

[Dragonling]

I'm not sure what Jill is, I think the breeders just made up a name for her (they called her Sun Glow).

Sunglows are amels (like Jack) that are selectively bred to have no white saddle borders, leaving a bright red on orange snake. A large number of snakes sold as sunglows are also motley, since the motley gene greatly reduces border size on its own. If you post a photo of her we can probably tell you her morph for sure.

(e) I just noticed you joined late last year, and I remember seeing your post though I have no idea why I didn't reply since I'm not horribly far from you. If you got them from a local breeder, heh...let's jsut say I don't put much stock in the average corn snake breeders I've seen at shows. I've seen so many mislabeled snakes and sellers who know next to nothing about genetics. Dustin and Rich are the only two local corn breeders I know that seem to really have anything special AND actually know what the heck they're doing. I do tend to lump the Zerkles in more with the rat snake crowd...of course, I've also seen them sell sunkissed as hypo and they gave me somewhat poor advice concerning bloodreds when I was first starting out. When you work with as many species as they do, it's hard to keep up with the corn crowd, so I give them a break.

Anyhoo, your female actually looks more like a hypo in the photo you posted back in October. If you can get some clear shots of her eye, her whole back, and her belly we can probably identify her, or at least come very close. Good to meet ya, neighbor.

 

[axis1]

Sorry, I meant to explain that. We were giving mice because we thought she wasn't pregnant. As a matter of fact, we thought the seller had lied to us and she was a male so we weren't expecting eggs in the least. When we found out she had them, we removed the mice quickly and left her be (making sure her laying box was moist and warm) for a few days, when she finished laying the remainder of her eggs.

Jill is a very nervous snake, but she always runs, never strikes out at us or rattles her tail like that. She seemed very, very protective of those eggs, much more so then I expected. She even wrapped herself around them like a Ball Python might.

S'OK there gbrooks. Like I said, I wasn't intending to be rude or confrontational. Just when I see something I don't understand that even remotely insinuates a snake suffering, I'm gonna say something.

So, how is your sneaky one(s) doing? Did you set up an incubator? The first time I was fortunate enough to witness my Lilly laying eggs (last year), I removed and incubated them. There were 12 but only 3 hatched and out of those, only 1 survived past 3 months. A yearling who is unsexed but who I call Ozzy anyway (long story, but in short, he/she is not named after Ozzy Osbourne but rather a character in a movie called "Burn After Reading" played by John Malcovich!).

This year, being prepared (somewhat), I'm awaiting a clutch of 17 out of 19 eggs Lilly laid on May 21st. The males I bred her with are Bozo & Chili-Pepper (pix are in the album sections). I'm not good with morphs so I labeled them with what the pet store said they were but I'm not sure WHAT they are besides being beautiful snakes. (I did purchase the last edition of the corn snake morph guide, as per Nanci's advice based upon my admitted ignorance, but I haven't had the time to get into it in-depth as of yet).

In any case, please keep us updated! I'm sure most of us here on this forum love to hear of new arrivals!

 

[GitaBooks]

S'OK there gbrooks. Like I said, I wasn't intending to be rude or confrontational. Just when I see something I don't understand that even remotely insinuates a snake suffering, I'm gonna say something.

So, how is your sneaky one(s) doing? Did you set up an incubator? The first time I was fortunate enough to witness my Lilly laying eggs (last year), I removed and incubated them. There were 12 but only 3 hatched and out of those, only 1 survived past 3 months. A yearling who is unsexed but who I call Ozzy anyway (long story, but in short, he/she is not named after Ozzy Osbourne but rather a character in a movie called "Burn After Reading" played by John Malcovich!).

This year, being prepared (somewhat), I'm awaiting a clutch of 17 out of 19 eggs Lilly laid on May 21st. The males I bred her with are Bozo & Chili-Pepper (pix are in the album sections). I'm not good with morphs so I labeled them with what the pet store said they were but I'm not sure WHAT they are besides being beautiful snakes. (I did purchase the last edition of the corn snake morph guide, as per Nanci's advice based upon my admitted ignorance, but I haven't had the time to get into it in-depth as of yet).

In any case, please keep us updated! I'm sure most of us here on this forum love to hear of new arrivals!

Snake loves are awesome. : )

I left two eggs with her to see if I could get any other interesting behaviors from her and took the rest (around 15) and put them in my reptile incubator that I got last year. I've been using it for my chickens because I haven't had any snake eggs yet, thank goodness there are no chickens trying to hatch eggs right now because that thing was being used nearly non-stop for a few months when all my hens decided to have babies and then abandon their eggs.

Its true, they tend to name their morphs wrong, which is frustrating. Jill is red with slightly darker red markings for saddles, a white and red underside and black eyes. I've tried searching all there is on cornsnake morphs and have never seen anything quite like her yet. I love the red contrasting with the black eyes. I've just always liked corn snakes with dark eyes.

Anyways, since I don't know their genetic backround at all, it'll be interesting to see what comes from those eggs (if they hatch, I'm having trouble keeping up humidity right now and I'm afraid to mess with the incubator and drop the humidity. I'm stuck with chickens on my mind and they are VERY different. For one thing, you have to turn their eggs at least three times a day and the temperature was set at 102 but the humidity between 20-50%. We'll see if I can switch from avians to reptilians mentally. : )

Oh, and a picture of the remaining eggs.

 

[GitaBooks]

Update on the eggs.

Only two or three so far are looking like they are going to make it. My five foster kittens decided that stepping on the incubator and turning it up to 96 F would be fun, so hopefully I caught it in time for the eggs not to have been damaged. All the infertile eggs were shriveled, dry and began to grow fungus on them so I removed them.

They should be hatching in a couple weeks, so I guess I'll have to wait and see.

 

[DLena]

Good luck. I'm hoping for you!

 

[axis1]

Good luck. I'm hoping for you!

Ditto!

Throwing some positive energy your way!!! (And a little prayer never hurts!!!). Hope everything turns out fine!!! (I'm also waiting for a second clutch of 9 eggs, but doubt they'll be ready this month as they were laid on July 2nd. But in my case, ya never know!!!). :eek1: