Double clutching

[tai_pan1]

I bred two of my corns earlier this year. It was the first time for me and both snakes. She laid 20 good eggs and one slug on the 4th of May. She had her post egg laying shed on the 14th. My question is do all females double clutch? If they do, do they need to be bred again? If she is not bred again, will she lay infertile eggs anyway? Any help would be appreciated.

Mike

[Katt]

No, not all snakes will double clutch on their own. Some will and some won't. To increase your chances of a fertile clutch, put her back with the male a little while after she lays her first clutch. Make sure she has enough body weight. Laying a second clutch with little reserves can kill your female.

You have to get to know your females in order to know if they tend to double clutch with or without introduction to the male.

[tai_pan1]

Thanks Katt. I think I'll leave her be and see what happens.

[Stockwell]

Double clutching is hard on snakes... like Katt says, they really need good weight, but the annoying problem I've found is that some will double clutch anyway even when they really don't have the weight to support it. Then if you've purposely NOT re bred them trying to prevent the second clutch, you usually get mostly slugs.
Snakes that I know will probably double clutch, I rebreed the week after the first clutch... I figure if they're going to produce a second clutch anyway, they might as well be good ones.

[Jeff_Favelle]

.....and good eggs are far far easier for a snake to lay than infertile eggs.

[tai_pan1]

Well, I'll wait and see what she does this year (it's her first year) and then go off of that for next year. I was really surprised she laid so many.