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Snake Laying Eggs Pictures and Words |
Alice lays her clutch of eggs |
| After shedding her skin in February (along with Shaggy
who shed his skin later on the same day), it was the signal for the
start of the breeding season for my two corn snakes. So Shaggy began
his usual chasing Alice around the vivarium - both of them getting
quite fast and energetic at times.
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Alice wasn't ready or in the mood to
begin with, but by the end of March, Shaggy's persistence had paid
off and they mated several times. For all you weirdos interested in
snakes having sex, I include just one picture only of Shaggy and
Alice squirming around on the floor of the vivarium - and you can't
'see' anything anyway!!!
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It was soon obvious that Alice was pregnant - she became
quite active, nosing around as if looking for something, alternating
with periods of quiet restfulness when she curled up in a corner. So
I put the nesting box - actually an old plastic sandwich box - into
the vivarium for her and she immediately went into it and curled up
in there, burrowed into the damp peat in the bottom.
Trouble
was, Shaggy was still feeling randy and wanted to play with Alice
some more - but she definitely wasn't having any, which led to the
ridiculous situation pictured here, where Shaggy had clambered into
the nesting box with Alice...
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Things carried on like this for a day
or so, me hoping that Shaggy would take the hint and calm down - but
the pheromones Alice must have been giving off were driving him
wild, so in the end I decided to separate them and put Alice, with
the nesting box, into the small green topped plastic vivarium I
first used when Shaggy was a hatchling. It is quite small, but big
enough for Alice for the time being - at least she could get some
peace and quiet.
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Here is another picture of the small
vivarium, showing the hole in the lid of the nesting box, which I
had enlarged to about two and a half inches (6cm). I never pushed
the lid down tight, so air can get in to circulate more easily and
also it gives Alice another way to get out of the box. Pictured
right is a shot of Alice peering out at me.
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Alice now spent most of her time sitting in the
nesting box - as picture 118 above here shows, which was taken a few
days after moving in. There were a few times when she wanted to come
out for a little exercise, but it wasn't long before she went into
shedding mode and did her pre-laying shed over the Easter weekend.
As a rule, female corn snakes shed their skins both shortly before
and after laying eggs. Another thing is that they stop eating - the
last time Alice ate anything was at the beginning of April, just
before I put the nesting box into the main vivarium.
A couple
of days before laying her eggs, Alice became very active again - not
really knowing what she wanted... One minute she was wanting to come
out and the next to go back into the vivarium. These three shots
show how fat she has become, her belly swollen with eggs.
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All was quiet in the morning, but
around lunchtime there was some movement inside the nesting box and,
when I looked, there was an egg that had only just been laid - so I
very quietly removed the green lid and took this picture and then
left Alice to carry on for a while, undisturbed.
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It wasn't long before several more eggs were laid -
and I could see that Alice's head was over in one corner of the
nesting box, so I gently lifted the other end of the box's lid and
took these pictures of the eggs, including one of them as it
emerges. I'm pretty sure Alice was either unaware of me there or it
just didn't bother her. Obviously I didn't touch her at all and
after taking the pictures the lid was gently lowered again.
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By the time she had finished laying the eggs, it was
early evening and too late to take the eggs to the pet shop, to
their incubator, that night. So it wasn't until the next morning
that I gently lifted Alice off the eggs in the nesting box, where
she had stayed all night. She curled up on the floor of the vivarium
and after this last picture was taken, I covered her with another
hide, so she feels safe and secure. You can see that her skin is not
in all that good condition now and she has now gone into shedding
mode again. In a few days time she will shed and then I will feed
her with a small mouse. Assuming she takes that ok, she will be fed
small mice and more often than usual for a short while, building
back up to medium mice in a few weeks.
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As soon as Alice was separated from the eggs and
settled in the vivarium, I took the nesting box with the eggs inside
straight to the local reptile pet shop, Reptiles Plus. They offer a
free incubating service for people with reptile eggs in their large
incubator in the shop. In case you are interested in this service,
their phone number for UK residents only is 01202 421117.
Oh,
I suppose you are wondering how many she laid - well, it's not easy
to count exactly because the eggs are stuck together in a clump.
They are not hard, like birds eggs with a brittle shell, but have a
leathery texture and slightly flexible skin. But our best estimates,
when counting at the pet shop, was somewhere between 21 and 24 eggs.
Hopefully most of these will hatch ok and when they do will be
looked after (and owned) by one of the people who works at the shop
- she will have all the time consuming feeding and watering of the
hatchlings and not me. Look out for pictures of the hatchlings as
they are born - around 70-90 days after going into the incubator as
eggs.
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