possible to lay without a shed?

i'm just wondering if anyone has ever witnessed a corn laying eggs without having a pre-lay shed?

Milly's last shed was on February 1st. she has been rummaging around her viv CONSTANTLY for the last week. by rummaging, i LITERALLY mean her viv has turned UPSIDE DOWN! all her ornaments are constantly being knocked over, and i have to change her water sometimes twice a day because she keeps spilling aspen in it! also her back end is very peaked. i know she is gravid, but she isn't going into shed yet.

the reason i ask, is that Zelda didn't start behaving this way until after her shed, and a few days before laying.

i know every snake is different, so who knows what's going to happen! i have added a lay box to Milly's viv already, just in case.

I have had it happen once. But the snake did go into shed, she just happened to lay the eggs prior to actually shedding. I put the egg box in the cage once I notice their going into blue for their prelay shed.

D80

yeah, the eggbox is in there, but i'm starting to regret that decision, LOL! she's managed to track the vermiculite all over the place. when she has laid i'm going to have to totally clear our the substrate, AGAIN! i just did it like a week ago! silly snakes.

though this is her first time, she's probably a bit freaked out by what's happening inside her.

If there's one cardinal rule of snake breeding you should ALWAYS remember....

"Anything is possible"

Yup, happened to me just a week or two ago. A senior female who always used to go "by the book" decided to try things a little differently this year

Rebecca

I've never had a cornsnake fail to prelay shed, but my chondro did not...everyone told me it never happens, but it did! I use eco earth and moss in my laying boxes. I've never used vermiculite for that as it's messy (I don't use it for my egg boxes either for that matter) and it holds too much water too easily. I think they like the earth to dig in. I know when I placed boxes of earth and moss, my girls went in and didn't come out except occasionally until they laid.

yeah it's vermiculite right now, and that's what we're incubating the current clutch in, but i found some perlite today, so i will be using that in the future

never thought of using eco earth in the lay box, because after they lay, i just take the lay box out and stick it in the incubator. seems to be working. but YES vermiculite is SO messy, so i'm hoping this perlite is going to work out.

the lay box right now is just a sterilite bin with a big hole cut in the lid, and i put it inside of a t-shirt since the whole box is clear. milly LOVES it so far!

I just transfer the eggs over. I don't think I'd like my female burrowing in Perlite, although that's what I use for the egg boxes. Love that stuff!

yeah i wll probably just transfer the eggs once laid into the perlite.

she hasn't laid yet, but now that she has the box she has settled down quite a bit. i'm hoping that she feels she has a comfortable spot now, and she's just waiting for her shed to come on. i'll keep you guys updated!