She's acting funny

[aplusreptiles]

My jungle, Peaches, has been acting very strange lately. As a baby she was a picky eater and would frequently not eat. We finally got her out of that and she was eating weekly, for about 1.5 years. We paired her up with our Amel corn and saw them lock up a few times.

She ate one time right after they mated, but hasn't eaten since. She already shed again, so we setup a laying box for her. She played around in it for a few days, but laid no eggs. Then she got very active. And she is still very active. Crawling all over her cage, trying to get out. She hasn't laid her eggs and doesn't even seem to want to. She is starting to look skinny everywhere except the last 1/3 of her body. But I can't feel the eggs, or see them at all. I even reintroduced her to the amel male and he didn't care at all. He just looked at her and did nothing. What should I do?? I'm worried about her and the eggs. She only ate the one time and she's due to be laying now. She makes me crazy!

[EeekSnakes]

Corns are generally fairly active before laying. Leaving her alone with her laybox is the best idea.

How many days has it been since she shed?

It's common for them to not eat while gravid.

[Uk-Hybrids]

Hi
the hightened activity would normaly suggest she is getting ready for laying, searching for a good place so thats quite normal.
the fact that she has only had one meal since the copulations is not to good but would be the reason she is drasticly loosing weight if she is carrying eggs they will be depleating her fat reserves, you said she still looks plump in the last 3rd of her body length, so could well have eggs their, you cant always feel eggs if they are small and are being held up high to the back bone so i wouldnt worry too much about that, try not to stress her out to much , cover the front of her viv with news paper to give her more privicy and remove the water bowl if you havnt yet, just incase she decieds to lay her eggs in it and they drown. you could also leave a small meal in her viv over night , say a couple of fluffs , she may eat them, many of my females will eat on the day of laying if the food size is right.

dont panic and give her time, it sounds like she is ready..

re absorbing her eggs could be in play, it does sometimes happen with females that havnt eaten while carrying. but hopfully she is just carrying small eggs.

Hope that helps and i hope she lays eggs for you.

Paul.

[aplusreptiles]

Oh thank you so much! I was so worried about her. She looks fat, but there's a line going lengthwise going all the way down her sides. That says to me that she has lost a lot of weight, or is at least putting it elsewhere. It's probably been 1-2 weeks since she shed.

And what really bothers me is that while she's being active and trying to escape, she keeps falling down. And she falls hard! She climbs up the sides of her 30gal and then just falls. Won't that hurt the eggs?

[EeekSnakes]

The average time from shed to laying is 1-2wks, but it can go longer sometimes Relax. When she's ready, she'll go into her box and lay.

We all worry the first time. Trust in that your snake knows what's best for her

[aplusreptiles]

I was worried that she wouldn't know what to do, since its her first time.

This is our second breeding. The first one, last year, went much more smoothly. Dahlia went by the book, but Peaches is playing games with me!

What about her falling down when she's trying to escape? I'm really worried that might hurt the eggs.

[Uk-Hybrids]

Dont worry those eggs will be fine, although she is falling down its from a small hight. snake eggs are amasingly resiliant to this kind of thing, did you know that its been proven that you can even turn a snakes egg upside down the day its laid then the next day right it then carry on doing that for a week and it will hatch, ( dont try it though, experiments are experiments and not the rule so some eggs may fail ). Breeders used to sell snake eggs and send them by courier, imagin the vibration those eggs go through in transport, they will still hatch.. and im sure their are still breeders that still sell eggs on.

dont forget to post some pics for us when you get those eggs, then some of the hatchlings when they hatch.

Paul.

[aplusreptiles]

Oh don't you worry... I'll be posting plenty of pics! We're very excited that she is finally old and big enough to breed!

I'm still a little confused though... Would she be an amel jungle corn or an amel super corn? Her mom was a Cal King x Ghost Corn and her dad was an Amel Corn. At least that's what the breeder said. And then what would her babies be called, since she bred with an Amel corn?

[Uk-Hybrids]

Super Corn ? never herd of that one.

your snake is a jungle corn with the higher percentage being corn.
now you are breeding her back to a strait corn the offspring will also be jungle corns but with an even higher percent of corn in the mix, really you would do better getting more king back into the hybrid babies next season because the babies will be at a point of allmost looking like pure corn from the eggs you are expecting now, which can create confusion when those babies are sold on, eventually they will end up in the comunity and could be thought of as pure which is not the way to go, if they look pure then most people will treat them as pure if they dont know or cant see a difference.

your better off creating hybrids that look different, get your self a nice male cali and get some more king back into the mix next season, it will save on confusion down the line.

Their are however reasons why some may breed into a percific species, this would be part of an end result creation. ie you would create a hybrid capturing a trait/morph then line breed to clean things up, once that is done you would hybridize back out to your chosen species make you finished hybrids.. a goal is what you want with hybrids, to create something different. you wont see many of those line bred babies, most being culled or used as feeders except for the few that go on to create the goal. that way no one gets anything that will create confusion and only the resulting hybrids are sold on.


Paul.

[aplusreptiles]

Ok. We are supposed to be getting a choc. banded cal king next week, but we don't know sex yet. I guess either way we can throw that into the mix when the hybrid babies are big enough. If its a male, we can breed him with the amel jungle and our anery pearl (leucistic rat x amel corn). We are registering all our babies with ACR, so that helps to minimize confusion (since they'll have paperwork that shows the family tree).