First Time Eggs...laid by my male!

[fyrefairy]

I recently bought a pair of yearling lavenders from a local breeder, and when I went to pick them up, she offered me the parents, as well...said that colubrids just aren't her thing. She'd taken them from a friend but wasn't into them. I took them, understanding that the ghost was a male and the other one (I think it's an amber, she didn't know) was a female. She said they'd mated recently, and she'd been feeding the amber as if she were gravid. I continued to feed them accordingly, and not too long ago, the ghost shed. I assumed that it was because he was due for a shedding or I'd been getting bigger mice than she had used. Well, he became very very active after that. I didn't worry much...they're my first snakes, and I figured maybe he was just feeling his oats. I continued feeding the amber as if she were gravid. Last week, the amber went blue and the ghost was still prowling. I started reading on here, looking for information about what to do when she started laying her eggs...and saw mention of increased activity between shed and laying! I started to wonder if my "male" ghost was really my female! Sure enough, I got home tonight, and "he" was in the middle of laying 23 beautiful eggs!

This leaves me with three problems, and I'm not quite sure how to go about righting them:

1. Momma snake is looking pretty thin. Clearly I need to feed her tomorrow and work on getting her weight back up. How should I go about that?

2. The amber is pretty heavy...so either I've got a pair of females, both gravid, and will have more eggs shortly...or I've got one seriously overweight male snake. How do I figure out which I've got, and if I've got a fat snake, how do I fix it?

3. I've got eggs 3 weeks sooner than I was figuring, and I haven't got any kind of incubation set up yet. What can I use for an improvised incubator?

Thanks for your help!

-K

 

[ghosthousecorns]

It's a little weird that you bought the offspring and the parents were mixed up like that. Maybe the person you bought them from just got it backwards but still how did a ghost and amber produce lavenders unless they were het? Anyways I'll take a shot at your questions -
1- Offer the mom a mouse and then maybe another one in a few days, the females usually recover their weight after a few meals and this early in the year she could still double clutch.
2- Keep an eye on the amber, you could be right and it's another gravid female, you said it went into shed so if it's female it should lay eggs afterwards? A big hint is they usually go off their food when they're due to lay eggs. If it's male and overweight you'd want to cut down on the feeding offer smaller prey items and less often.
3-I suggest using the search button as I have seen a lot of different ideas for incubating eggs on this forum.

 

[cowtownherper]

I used the room temperture way for hatching my first clutch a couple of years ago. As long as the temps stay above 70 and below 90 you will probably be OK. I use an incubator now because it is so much easier and takes some of the worry out of the equation. I found that if the house is too cool a good place is on top of the fridge near the back. The heat from the compressor helps. I do remember scrambling to find spots in the house that were in the ideal temp range, about 84-85. Good luck with your eggs, trust me its going to be a long two months.

 

[JM :o)]

put the eggs in a little damp (not wet, damp) moss (you can get the moss cheap at Walmart garden section) and put it on top of the fridge (Make sure an AC or heating vent is not aimed at the top of the fridge~ you didn't want them aimed there anyway!). Should maintain a good temp for you.

Good luck!