15 yr old corn

[acidiccrayfish]

hey, I've got a 15 year old corn (female obviously) and this year was the first year it ever produced eggs, it's never had any health issues and has always been fit but for some reason just never laid a clutch until this summer (laid 18). Its never mated and spent the first 7 years of its life in southern california and the last 8 in colorado. Any ideas what caused this or is this fairly uncommon?

Also had a near egg binding scare with it as the first 17 came out no problem but the last one came out nearly 2 weeks after the rest. I believe the snake gets enough calcium as i spotted a few small spots on the eggs where a little excess calcium had deposited itself and the snake was hydrated, any tips for helping avoid this problem geared specifically more towards older snakes?

Thanks

 

[Susan]

Consider your self extremely lucky that she has never produced a clutch until now. I can't keep any of my females from producing a clutch when I don't want them to. Yours may go on to produce a second clutch this year, one or clutches per year in the future, or never again. You just can't tell what a female will do, nor is there any way to control or prevent it from happening.

 

[acidiccrayfish]

well i'll keep my fingers crossed for option three since that last egg had me pretty scared. how long after the first clutch would a second one come so i can watch for some signs just in case?

 

[wade]

Its never mated and spent the first 7 years of its life in southern california and the last 8 in colorado. Any ideas what caused this or is this fairly uncommon?

I think it is fairly common. I find the guys in Southern California are just simply unattractive. I'm a guy and I guess I shouldn't speak for the women but if it were up to me and I had to choose only from So. CA guys, I wouldn't mate either.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t mean to imply that they guys in Colorado are anything to crow about, because I don’t think they are. My brother lives in Boulder and he says they are all a bunch of granola eating, bike riding, sandal wearing, longhaired friends of Jesus. You know the kind of guys that put a bandana around their dog’s neck.

But maybe I should hold my tongue, as I really am not a judge of men. Now if you want to talk about Southern California girls, that is a whole different subject. Unfortunately, She Who Must Be Obeyed says I’m not supposed to think about that

 

[Jezebel]

I think it is fairly common. I find the guys in Southern California are just simply unattractive. I'm a guy and I guess I shouldn't speak for the women but if it were up to me and I had to choose only from So. CA guys, I wouldn't mate either.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t mean to imply that they guys in Colorado are anything to crow about, because I don’t think they are. My brother lives in Boulder and he says they are all a bunch of granola eating, bike riding, sandal wearing, longhaired friends of Jesus. You know the kind of guys that put a bandana around their dog’s neck.

But maybe I should hold my tongue, as I really am not a judge of men. Now if you want to talk about Southern California girls, that is a whole different subject. Unfortunately, She Who Must Be Obeyed says I’m not supposed to think about that

:laugh01::laugh01:

I must disagree with though as far as SoCal guys are concerned...I have quite the soft spot for them. My boyfriend is in fact a SoCal guy.

 

[bitsy]

I have a 16 year old who insists on double-clutching with slugs, regardless of not being mated. Wish she'd stop as she's a bit old for the physical strain. My best advice is to get as much food into yours as you can - maybe offer two smaler food items at a time, as if she's double-clutching, she might go off her food for a while before laying.

You could also try a supplement in her water. Here in the UK I use a good all-rounder like Critical Care Formula or a specific one to target calcium, like Zolcal-D. Mind you, I've seen patchy egg shells even when using this, so I'm not sure that's the whole answer.

If she hasn't been mated (you don't mention it, but assume not at that age), then she'll have laid slugs, which usually have pretty ropey shells anyway.

 

[acidiccrayfish]

yea, she's never been mated, hasn't even seen another snake since she was 6 inches. so far she's eaten 6 mice (they were a little smaller than i usually try to get her) in the last month since she laid and has been pretty active so i think she's gettin her strength back pretty well. Our water out here is pretty hard, no chlorine or anything but a lot of minerals to the point where i finally got a plastic water dish for her because it was too hard to scrub out the calcium building up on her old rock dish haha.

I think it is fairly common. I find the guys in Southern California are just simply unattractive. I'm a guy and I guess I shouldn't speak for the women but if it were up to me and I had to choose only from So. CA guys, I wouldn't mate either.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t mean to imply that they guys in Colorado are anything to crow about, because I don’t think they are. My brother lives in Boulder and he says they are all a bunch of granola eating, bike riding, sandal wearing, longhaired friends of Jesus. You know the kind of guys that put a bandana around their dog’s neck.

But maybe I should hold my tongue, as I really am not a judge of men. Now if you want to talk about Southern California girls, that is a whole different subject. Unfortunately, She Who Must Be Obeyed says I’m not supposed to think about that

haha, well as i stated earlier, i kept her pretty sheltered (gotta keep the shotgun cleaned you know...). As for colorado, boulder is a special place, filled with special people, you know, hippies... haha, the rest of colorado is a little more sane (less long hair, minimal granola and no bandanna leashes, maybe a few bikes though) and while i also can't comment on cali males, i share your fondness for cali girls (girlfriend happens to be one)