Jaguars laying her eggs! Woo Hoo!

[gonesnakee]

While I went up to plug in the incubator I was farting around with yesterday & low & behold shes laying her clutch. Sorry no pics yet I went too & she became very agitated real quick so I left her be to finish the job at hand. Of course she is laying them on the heat pad DOH! I knew she would so I unplugged that right away. Hopefully everything turns out alright still. She is a pure Coastal Jaguar that was bred to my nice black male Diamond so they will be 50/50 Diamond/Coastal Jaguars (if I end up with any of course). She was huge so I think she is laying the Motherload? I'll see later I guess WOO HOO! Mark

[Paul_Begg]

Nice Mark! Be sure to post some pics asap :)
Cheers
Paul

[gonesnakee]

Well a few issues with the clutch DOH! I saw she was laying at around 1 pm say yesterday. She had dumped one mid cage & was in a hide doing her thing. Early evening she was all nice & coiled around them. Both myslef & Kyle (over to help strip the eggs) figured she was done. Wrong! She just decided to quit part way thru & coil all the eggs. Didn't discover she had more to lay until the big fight took place & she sent all the coiled up ones everywhere We were then seeing her big fat arse end she had hidden from us before the "fight". So all were taken at that point & she was NOT a happy camper at all. I kept her under control while Kyle was stealing the eggs. She started cruising her cage right away & all the excitement inspired her to lay another egg right away which made me feel better because I knew it wasn't an eggbinding issue that made her stop as we had orginally thought. She cruised the cage for the next few hours depositing the odd egg here & there while doing so (another 3). Anyway official count last night was 31 (no slugs) but she still has some in her & laid none over night. I'm hoping she laid some today since I last checked around lunch time. She has been coiled in one spot pretty much all day, a different area from where she laid the clutch. Little stressed anyhow (as she was as well) hoping she pushes all the rest out today. Not wanting to manually express the rest of the eggs too badly, hopefully she does all that on her own right away. Anyway a pic, Mark

http://members.shaw.ca/gonesnakee/JAGONEGGS.JPG

[Aaron_S]

That's an interesting story. Hopefully she passes them on her own! I have a question, how do you manage to steal eggs from a momma snake?

[gonesnakee]

That's an interesting story. Hopefully she passes them on her own! I have a question, how do you manage to steal eggs from a momma snake? Carefully LOL With a bigger snake its best to have an extra set of hands to help if they are available. Momma Pythons aren't too keen letting you have them they have a strong maternal instinct. Many Pythons will maternally incubate their eggs if you let them. The last thing they want to do is let them go from their coils anyway. Mark

[Aaron_S]

I understand all that. I'm curious how you do it? Hook them out? Does the snake ever whip her body around and possibly damage the eggs?

[gonesnakee]

Reach in & unwrap her, risk getting bit & they can & will send eggs flying yep. Usually if the eggs are already all adhered it is easier as they are a big clump. If they are not all yet adhered they can get rolled around but they still do OK. It just makes it more of a hassle. They are usually quite tired after so its good to get them before they are rested up again LOL Mark

[Aaron_S]

hahaha I figured you'd try to get them while they were weak. If they get rested, I suppose it's quite a hassle. Hmm, if I ever get some snakes to breed I think I'll stick with the smaller species.