It's egg laying time

[Catherine]

It is that time of the year when my female corn snakes lay eggs. They respond to the weather so usually all the eggs happen in a short period of time.  This week there were four batches of eggs. One was on Monday, one on Thursday and two on Friday.















Catherine Becket • Only you

The pictures are not that clear, but they are an up close view of eggs actually being laid.

I still can't believe my tiny little females can produce such big eggs and so many. Some of the clutches had 20 eggs.
Once a year they all produce eggs and then the rest of the year they live quiet lives. For the girls it is just one batch of eggs a year. For me it is a hectic time because I have the eggs to take care of and I have the girls to look after. They usually lie curled around the eggs until I arrive and then they are happy to leave them to me.  The girls trust me to take care of things.
I think we are almost done for the year...or not. My female pine snake looks like she might be pregnant. She is a bigger snake and she will only have 6 eggs, maybe 8, but they will be bigger than chicken eggs. I am getting a box ready now for her eggs to incubate in. I like to be prepared because like humans, snakes often deliver at night. I don't want to be trying to set things up at 2am.

[Catherine]

I have come home to yet another clutch of eggs. This time it is Kateri, one of my younger females. She did a beautiful job of laying eggs.



You can see she is resting around the eggs protectively. They don't stay with them long, but all my girls like to sit with them for a while.





Here they are in an egg box ready for the incubator. The dark stuff is clean peat moss. I hold moisture and it doesn't mold to easily. If the eggs get moldy they will not survive.
This time there are 13.

I sure would like a day off.

[Catherine]

After Kateri was finished laying her eggs, I took her out and looked after the eggs. I put her back in with her mate. She was glad to see him. When I checked later she had wrapped herself around him tightly. He is a patient older male and he just lay there quietly letting her hold him.



I have seen snakes wrap around each other, but I have never seen anything like this.

[Cat001]

Congrats

My girl has laid her 2 clutches for the year (34 eggs then 25 for the second - 59 in total). She's making sure she builds her reserves back up, can't pass her enclosure without her begging for food lol.

[Catherine]

Those are big clutches. Is she a corn snake? 
None of mine have ever had that many at once. They don't usually double clutch here either. Once in a while an established breeder will have two clutches.
I think it is weather related. They don't lay eggs until it warms up. They like the few weeks of spring that we have. When the extreme heat hits the girls stop laying eggs.  I don't vary my day length so I think they must be responding to temperature changes.

Right now I have six clutches in the incubator. Most will hatch in the last two weeks of July. I have 20 snow corn eggs and so far they all look good. There is till time for a second set of eggs so I am watching my girls just in case.

[Cat001]

Yep, she's a 5 year old Corn. My other female, who has since passed away (my beautiful JD) would also double clutch and produce around the same number of eggs (usually 30-35 for first clutch then 20-25 second clutch).

My females do produce unusually large clutches but my vet reckons it's because she is so well taken care of lol. She lives in a 4ft viv and I've built her a basking shelf with access to UV light and maintain her at optimal temperatures year round - 25-30ºC (77-86ºF) (cool end to warm end respectively). I might increase the basking spot by a few degrees if she seems a little under the weather. She practically lives on her basking shelf.

[Catherine]

I think it makes a difference that I live in Canada. We have very cold winters and most snakes don't double clutch. Even inside in a temperature controlled tank they are still affected by the weather.
When I bred dwarf hamsters they hibernated when it turned cold and dark outside. It was not cold and dark inside, but they still hibernated. Nothing I could do would change them.

How long was your female?
I don't think I have heard of clutches that big here. Of course our corn snakes would be from different stock. I have some larger ones, but some of the more delicate colours are smaller snakes.

Earl was the exception. He was 68 inches long when he died. Raven was 56 inches. There son is at least 50-55 inches maybe even bigger. Petra wasn't 40 inches, but she was an Aztec pattern and almost a lavender colour. She was always a fragile snake and she only lived 9 years. I think Earl was around 20 years old when he died. There is a lot of variation within the species.
I am crossing a daughter of Petra to a son of Earl. I have a couple of babies that I kept from their first clutch. I think they have Earl's vigour with Petra's beauty. I am not yet sure if they are males or females.

There second clutch is due to hatch in two weeks. I can't wait to see what we get this year.

[Cat001]

I'm not certain about her length, maybe 50-60 inches, will measure her shed next time she sloughs. She's not an especially big snake and has been producing large clutches twice yearly since she was 3. Her mother was the same and would always double clutch from the age of 3. 

I live in UK so our weather is often mild, the heat lamps also help to maintain correct air temperature inside their enclosures and I use a fan to blow over the enclosures when the room is a bit warm. I also keep the curtains open so they have full access to natural light cycles to determine time of year.

This is a picture I took a while ago when I still I had two other leopard geckos (the two tanks on the top), but the large enclosure is Eddy's home, there's a hollow log on the basking shelf now instead of the cave, she's usually in the log partially under the hot spot. There's also a suspended hide (which she's now outgrown lol) so I'm going to re-make a suspended hide out of an old pillow case as she loves climbing under my blanket when I let her out and I find snakes love hammocks too. 





You must be super excited about your babies though It's always an exciting time when they start to hatch!

[Tobi]

I hope you two don't mind my silly comment....but when I look at those beautiful snakes with their slender bodies....and then I look at the size of those eggs....I think OUCH!!  

[Cat001]

Lol Tobi, that did make me giggle. I know what you mean, I know with mine, the girls do seem pretty tired after they lay their eggs bless them. My girl is eating like a piggy at the moment, building her reserves back up.