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Eggs got spot... are they good??

shakyhand

shakyhand

New member
The mother is a beautiful light colored amel het caramel het motley ( will be 2 years old next month) bred to her father and uncle (both are butter motley). She is young but got good weight and length. She is 450g after laying the eggs.

It was a surprised for me, because I've never seen any interest of lockup. After shedding last week she refused a mice. So I just play around and put in a laybox inside her tub...

After a few days she came out and show no interest. Yesterday morning was a cleaning day and when I opened her tub, everything is thrashed around including the lay box... so I figured I clean up everything and just put a newspaper and change the water. About 5pm, feeding time.. when I opened her tub, it was her 2nd eggs and I was like jumping in the air..

Now the eggs color looks different from what I used to see... at least 2 years ago, I got all 17 clean looking pearly eggs... what do you think???

Got 15 good eggs (in the photo) and 5 slugs...

5587485509_3f02a7eae9_z.jpg
 
Looks like soft spots in the shell to me, often caused if mother doesn't have enough calcium in her system to support healthy egg development. Because of their size and color I would say that they are fertile however as the embryo develops you could run into problems in the weeks closest to hatch date. Often during this period the egg expands, if there are soft spots it could cause the egg to rupture prematurely so you could lose a couple or they might just hatch earlier and still be fine. This is just my take on it, I could be wrong so I don't want to freak you out however in case I am right you might want to think about dusting your mother snakes next mouse or two in a bit of calcium powder so she can replenish any stores of calcium she has lost. Just take a small pinch and give the tail end a light sprinkling that way she wont be thrown off by the taste right off the bat.
 
Yup, they look fertile to me. I've never quite put my finger on what causes those weak spots in the shell. I spend a couple of seasons religiously giving all my breeding females a calcium +Vitamin D3 supplement up to and beyond mating and laying - I saw exactly the same level of shell issues as I had without. And it wasn't the same females each year either. They just appeared to have "good years" and "bad years". I wonder if this is a natural regulation system to prevent the over-population of Corns, whilst providing a rich food source (fertilised eggs that would probably fail in the wild) for other animals?

Anyway, I've had far worse eggs than the ones in that pic, which have gone full-term and hatched rudely healthy hatchlings. They certainly look fertile to me. Corn eggs swell as they develop, so the see-through patches *might* be a weakness and leak. However, thst doesn't seem to be a general problem - just for perhaps the odd one or two and sometimes not at all.

Being able to see the developing embryo theough the "window" is fascinating!
 
thank you for all your input.. it really useful for me as for what I should expect...

here is the old photo of the mother taken in January 2010. She wa

4318819360_d4f0f259c2_z.jpg
 
Happy to report that all the eggs except the 2 at the top right already hatched. The 2 got no vein when I candled them.
 
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