Unnecessarily Graphic Egg-Laying Pics

[MouseKilla]

This is just the logically gruesome follow up to my snake humping pics. Eight painfully long weeks later I was checking on her for about the 4000th time in the 7 days since she had shed. I was looking in on her, ready to plead with her some more to just lay the goddam things, when I saw this:

http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/500/2511Im000096-med.jpg

I stood there staring at her for a while but she wanted her privacy so I left her alone for a bit. She really got to work in the mean time and didn't seem to mind my intrusion as much when I checked back.

I was afraid she would be too shy for me to get shots like these so I was pretty happy when I did.

http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/500/2511Im000103-med.jpg

http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/500/2511Im000104-med.jpg

http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/500/2511Im000105-med.jpg

http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/500/2511Im000106-med.jpg

Looks like at least a dozen of them there, including a couple that don't look right. Now the REAL waiting begins!

[BoidKeeper]

Very cool pic man! I'm next! My amel should be laying with in the next two weeks.
Let us know what the final count is,
Trevor

[Jeff_Favelle]

Snow corns are definitely cool-looking snakes!! :D

[Matt_K]

Awesome pics dude, congrats on the eggs, now the fun part starts.. Good luck waiting for them to hatch.. LOL

[Clownfishie]

Great pics, very cool! :) Congrats on all those eggs -- best of luck with them, hopefully the wait doesn't seem TOO long for you..... ;)


Jen

[Simon]

Nice shots~~

good luck with the eggs!!

Congrats!!

[Vanan]

Prepare to lose hair. :D

[MouseKilla]

Tell me about it! The hardest part is not touching them or otherwise frigging around with them... this isn't a normal thing for me to do, I'm usually the type of guy that frigs. lol!

[Invictus]

Well, frigging just leads to fricken frack, and freakishly fragged up frigs. :P

Congrats man! Who was the father of this clutch?

[gonesnakee]

I find that it is best only to bother them once a day when they are trying to lay. Sometimes by bothering them as much as mentioned only delays the whole process by making the female insecure & nervous, not wanting to lay or pausing in the middle of the clutch. She needs a safe, secure, quiet undisturbed enviroment to be at her best to lay. Hard to have peace & quiet whe you are being continually pestered DOH. She didn't seem to mind too much though Heh heh & to be a hypocrit I too with my first Corn continually checked. Heck I was timing between eggs to see how long it took for each one. Good Luck for now the harder part of the incubation of them. I'm sure they will turn out great though. I guess you'll be an official breeder soon eh LOL Cheers Mark

[Optimus Prime]

Nice shots man :)

[MouseKilla]

Invictus,

Friggin right man! lol! The father is the normal featured in another thread. I don't know anything about him genetically so I could end up with a bunch of hets or if I'm lucky maybe an amel or anery will turn up, who knows? As long as something slithers out of those eggs in a couple months I'm happy.

Mark,

I was pretty sure that I should be leaving her alone but the problem with that, when it's your first time around, is not only are you super curious but you also have no idea how long it's going to take. Those pics were taken over the course of a few hours, the last time I checked her she was in the process of pushing one out and didn't seem to notice me so I had to snap the pics, just had to.

I've been tweaking my incubation set up for the last couple of months and I'm as happy with it as I'm going to get until something hatches for me. It'll work or it won't, it's all waiting now.

[urd]

congrats man:)

[gonesnakee]

Ya its hard not to keep checking especially when it is your first clutch WOO HOO eh! I just wanted to state it for all to see even though we all just can't wait to peek. I'm spending my time on the Comp right now so I won't be tempted to go bug my female Vietnamese Blue Beauty as she is sitting on a clutch of eggs & I want to make sure she is done before I bug her again. Not my first clutch, but the first one of the season, so its just as tempting LOL I really had to restrain myself from going back in with the camera too. I'll try to get some good pics when I steal them from her later Heh heh Good Luck with your incubation & remember don't always be messing with them eggs they'll do just fine LOL Mark
P.S. Oh ya nice pics BTW! :p

[TheRedDragon]

Congrats! Good luck with the future little ones. Snow corns rock! :) Awesome pics too, I can't wait until our corn drops some eggs for us. :)

[MouseKilla]

Here's a picture of the clutch in the incubator. I'm very reluctant to disturb them at all so that makes them hard to count. Any guesses?

http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/500/2511Im000157-med.jpg

Looks like 15 or so including 3 obvious slugs and a couple that I'm not sure about. Any opinions based on experience would be appreciated.

[gonesnakee]

I'd say 12 + 3 slugs unless theres a 13th good one hiding underneath. The slugs can be removed quite easily usually also. After the first week they will usually pull right off quite easily & be disguarded. Just be gentle. Don't risk the good eggs if they want to stay stuck. Sometimes the slugs will get real nasty though & its better IMHO to remove them if you can. Don't need nasty mold etc. growing right beside your good eggs if it can be avoided. Sometimes they just shrivel up & don't get nasty, but I always remove them if I can. From how they look I'd say 2/3 slugs will come off real easy & the 3rd should with a little help. Good Luck Mark
P.S. the ones you are not sure about you will be able to tell as time progresses. If they start to go nasty they are probably bad, but don't remove them unless you are sure as babies can come from some real nasty eggs sometimes. Bad eggs won't usualy make good eggs go bad either.

[Linds]

That's totally cool that not only she is your first, but you got to catch her in the act as well! Best of luck!

[MouseKilla]

Thanks Linds, I was lucky enough to be home that day and when I'm around the house I spend a lot of time (some say too much time) in the snake room. She was driving me nuts for a couple of days making all kinds of noise customizing her nest and tricking me into thinking she was laying. When it was finally happening for real I had my wife making fun of me for being so excited. lol!

Mark,

I tried giving the slugs a little wiggle but they seem pretty firmly stuck and I'm not about to get rough with them. I have a long history of breaking nearly everything I lay my hands on so I'm thinking I should just stay far away from the eggs. If bad eggs don't usually harm the good ones they're probably less of a threat to my future snakes than my clumsy meat hooks. lol!

[Hurley]

http://serpwidgets.com/freepics/hurley/mar04/egg.gif

I just happened to catch one in the act this year, too. Made a little gif of the event. :D