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Unexpected Eggs!

L

LJatFSU

New member
I have had a corn snake for about 3 years now. About 2 months ago, my boyfriend "found" another corn in the wild & brought it home. I called the local reptile store to ask for advice & they recommended that I quarantine the new snake for a month & let them check it out. I did that, and they then deemed it ok to introduce into the same tank as my other snake.

Apparently.. one is male & one is female. I came home the other day to find that 4 eggs had been laid in 1 of the two water dishes in the tank. The one she laid in is fairly large (plenty of room to spare for the 4 eggs) and was empty at the time. The eggs are all nice & white, but do not look smooth. (they are are a bit sunken in on some places). Not knowing anything about snake eggs, I sprayed them with a water spray bottle, assuming that they were in too-dry conditions & turned up the heat on the heating pad beneath them.

I assume that I will need to move them immediately from the tank, but I have no idea what to do from there. Are they even viable eggs now? PLEASE HELP!
 
Yes, you need to move them into a box full of moistened substrate. I use sphagnum moss. I let it soak in warm water for about a half hour and then wring it out until I can't squeeze out any more water. Then put the eggs in the moss, with some of the moss covering the top of the eggs.

If you don't have an incubator, which I'm guessing you don't, just put the container in an area that will get about 80F. Some people suggest the top of a refrigerator.

Don't keep them on top of a heating pad.

They may already be doomed if they absorbed too much water from being in the waterbowl and/or the heating pad you have under it is too hot.
 
Thanks for the help!

The house is always kept freezing, freezing cold (it's a "guy thing," I've been told), and the heating pad isn't right up against the bowl they're in, so I hope they'll be ok. And, I think that the water bowl may have been empty at the time, so I'll move them as soon as I get home today & pray for the best!

Also, can I likely find the moss at the pet supply store?
 
ooh ive been here before. with my first two corns, didnt know they were male and female either.
my female started laying eggs around the tank. which wasnt a good thing really, as she wasnt prepared she then turned egg-bound (when females cannot lay their eggs and would need veterinary assistance),
if the female feels it isnt a safe environment to lay her eggs then she'll keep them in, more likely to turn egg-bound.
my concern here is, has she layed them all?
is she has more, concentrate on her for a bit, maybe place her in a shoe box with moist vermiculate into her tank and she'll lay them in there, its small, cosy and she'll feel safe.
hold her up and look under her belly if you can see any more bumps, if not then just do what everyone else has said to do above and ignore what ive just said. :)
good luck with them all.
 
You might be able to find the moss at a pet store, but I bought mine at Home Depot (or was it Lowes?), in their lawn/garden area.

You can also use perilite or vermiculite, with a 1:1 ratio of water to vermiculite (by weight, not volume). You can find both of these at a Home Depot or Lowes too, but I've found I like the moss best. Be sure to get sphagnum moss, NOT sphagnum peat moss.
 
Well... I checked both snakes (not knowing which is the female & which the male), and neither seemed to be in any distress or show signs of egg rentention. I did find one additional egg down in the bedding, but it looked like it was in worse shape than the others.

I've moved the eggs into a make-shift incubator container with moss & will see what happens. I don't expect them to make it, but I'll let you know if they do!

Thanks for the assistance!
 
You know, your snakes may be a pair, but you also could have 2 females and one just laid unfertilized eggs.
 
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