low amount of eggs.....

[becky_2303]

hi, i have two corn snakes that have recently bread and produced eggs however the female- sammy has only produced 9 eggs in which three where slugs is this a normal size clutch, i followed the rule of three and every other peice of information been given or researched.... is this normal to have such a small clutch or is something wrong with her? there is definately no eggs left inside of her so that rules out that she may be egg bound.. any reason for these small clutches?


i would appreciate some of your knowledgeable responces

with thanks bex

 

[bekers71]

The amount of eggs can vary greatly depending on the female. It does seem pretty common for first time females to lay smaller clutches and even have a slug or two. But some females just never lay big clutches. I have a first time female that laid 9 eggs but another first time girl laid 7 eggs and all but two went bad. Out of my seasoned breeders the smallest number of eggs was 13 and the most was 23. So it just all depends. To be honest, I would rather my girls lay 9 or 10 big eggs than 22 small ones. Seems as though the bigger eggs have bigger babies that want to eat very well. LOL

 

[bitsy]

I agree with Becky - sounds like a pretty normal first clutch.

I usually find that the number of eggs per clutch increases each year, hitting a maximum clutch size when the female is around 7 or 8 years old. After that, clutch sizes either start to decline or there is an increasing percentage of slugs.

 

[becky_2303]

thanks for ur advice just didnt want their to be a problem with her.. she is the first snake i ever bought.. cant stop buying now i said no more after the second corn a tiawan beauty and a 8.5 fot boa later im still buying haha!

thanks