New snake owner, my elderly snake laid eggs

[chairman]

Corn snakes can lay eggs for just about their entire lives without issues. I would not worry about your snake, it should recover just fine.

What did you end up doing with the eggs? There's a good chance they are fertile. About 20 years ago, my first cornsnake came to me gravid. Back then I incubated them in a plastic shoe box filled about 1/4 of the way with moist, not wet, vermiculite. I had to keep paper towels draped over the eggs to keep them from molding. I kept the eggs at room temperature, just tucked away in a quiet spot. If I recall correctly then most of the eggs hatched. There are certainly better ways to care for eggs, but you may have those materials hanging around.

[SammyLou]

Originally Posted by chairman

Corn snakes can lay eggs for just about their entire lives without issues. I would not worry about your snake, it should recover just fine.

What did you end up doing with the eggs? There's a good chance they are fertile. About 20 years ago, my first cornsnake came to me gravid. Back then I incubated them in a plastic shoe box filled about 1/4 of the way with moist, not wet, vermiculite. I had to keep paper towels draped over the eggs to keep them from molding. I kept the eggs at room temperature, just tucked away in a quiet spot. If I recall correctly then most of the eggs hatched. There are certainly better ways to care for eggs, but you may have those materials hanging around.

I consulted my friend and just disposed of them since I figured they were no good. What does it mean when a snake is gravid? Omg I hadn't even considered that they might be viable!

[Iseitaku]

Originally Posted by chairman

Corn snakes can lay eggs for just about their entire lives without issues. I would not worry about your snake, it should recover just fine.

What did you end up doing with the eggs? There's a good chance they are fertile. About 20 years ago, my first cornsnake came to me gravid. Back then I incubated them in a plastic shoe box filled about 1/4 of the way with moist, not wet, vermiculite. I had to keep paper towels draped over the eggs to keep them from molding. I kept the eggs at room temperature, just tucked away in a quiet spot. If I recall correctly then most of the eggs hatched. There are certainly better ways to care for eggs, but you may have those materials hanging around.

Unless the snake has been with a mate then this is not possible. I had to deal with eggs before with my snakes who are both female and they just happen to lay eggs about once a year. They are dead eggs I know because they haven't been in contact with any males. The best thing to do when your snake has eggs it needs to lay is create a lay box for them to lay them in when they need it and let them cool off (stress wise) after they laid them. Unless your snake is naturally resistant to stress in my opinion it could simply be stress since you took their eggs away from them. I deal with that every year when Red and Ruby lay their eggs.