Oh boy! Unexpected surprise of the evening (snake related)

[Stephanie]

A couple months ago, I took in some gopher snakes from someone who didn't want them anymore.

Tonight, I heard some rustling in their cage & went to check on them (it was cage cleaning time anyway).

Turns out that at least one of them is female. There was one solitary egg lying on the floor of the cage. The layer seems to have about a half dozen lumps waiting to come out - one near her vent.

So, I scrambled to get her out of the enclosure and into another one where she can have some peace and quiet and dashed around the house looking for supplies to concoct a homemade incubator.

And of course, I can't forget the one frantic call to my mom (who's been down the snake egg road before) to ask how long it takes for snakes to lay their eggs (yeah, that's right...contrary to popular belief, I do not know EVERYTHING about snakes).

Since I don't know exactly when she laid the one egg, I'm still in heavy panic mode. All sorts of complications could happen - the worst would be if she became egg bound (ie, couldn't pass the eggs). That would require a visit to the vet.

The verdict is that when my mom went through this, it took the snake roughly from 9-5 to lay 8 eggs. She estimates it takes about an hr or hr and a half between eggs.

I'm trying to stay calm and as my mom reminded me, a watched pot never boils.

Oh, and for what it's worth, snake eggs don't necessarily mean snake babies. Incubated eggs don't always hatch.

[vicrock]

What is the incubation time for gopher snake eggs - fingers crossed for snake babies!

What do they call snake babies anyway?

[DaviDC.]

Baby snakes

[Racer X]

woohoo! honorary snake step-mom?

[PeterB]

Leader-ssssssssssssssss!

Steph, is the reason some incubated eggs don't hatch because the eggs weren't fertilized to begin with (like chicken eggs), or is it that they just don't develop properly and the embryos within die?

[Stephanie]

thanks for the well wishes - I'm not going to count my snakes before the hatch.

I think incubation time is about 2-3 months. I need to look it up (I'm still trying to calm down).

PeterB - there are all sorts of reasons snake eggs don't hatch. You're right that some aren't fertilized but those are usually easy to tell (they're smaller and yellow). Other reasons include incorrect temps and humidity. Unlike chicken eggs, snake eggs are soft shelled (leathery). They can't dry out. On the flip side, they can't be wet either. If incubation temps are too high, it can cause defects or just kill the embryos outright.

I think those are the most common reasons.

I knew when my mother's snakes had their mating "accident" a few years back that I should have invested in a proper incubator!

Normally, our snakes are only allowed to live with others of their same kind and sex. That's to help avoid accidents like these. But these are new snakes - hadn't been able to determine who was male and who was female. There are 3 of them and I'm certainly hoping that the other 2 are male. I don't think I want to go through this again!

[blooz]

Good luck Steph, to you and the snake mom!

[Don Kiyoti]

Yes! Baby Snakes!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078820/

That would be so neat if the eggs hatch.

By the way, I took Stumpy the spiny lizard to a friends house. She takes care of all sorts of foundling and unwanted turtles and tortoises. She took a box turtle from me two years ago who's still living happily in one of her enclosures. So Stumpy bunked down with a baby African tortoise and then went off to find a GF.

[Stephanie]

That's great to hear about Stumpy! Is she going to keep him or just make he's ok for a while?

Just keep your fingers crossed that she lays the rest of the eggs without complications. That's my main concern. If any eggs hatch, it would just be an added bonus.

[Black Landlord]

Wasn't most of this covered a few threads down?
http://forums.macresource.com/read/1/504725

Seriously, I hope every last one hatches!