eggbound

[MarkAus]

Hi Guys, wondering if anyone has had any experiences with eggbound jungles or carpets. I have a female that is 34 days after shed, she is freakin huge, looks like the back end of her is going to split. She is constantly under the basking light, she moves into the laybox and then back out couple times a day. She looked like she was trying to get the eggs out yesterday but no luck so she came back out and basked. She has never attempted to strike, now she has become a agro monster! I am getting a little worried. what signs should i look out for.I am not stressing her out, i only chack her once a day and have newspaper over her viewing glass so she doesnt get disturbed.

[WJLeary]

Hello Mark,

It's possible that her nest box is either too damp, too dry or "stale." If this is the case, the female won't go inside her box, and will restlessly wander around the cage (they can be very picky! ...especially around the time they are due to deposit their eggs). Once the bedding is freshly changed (& not too wet or dry), the females normally go right inside.

If she doesn't deposit her eggs within 5 or 6 days, you should seriously consider taking her to an experienced herp vet. Oxytocin is the drug most commonly used to treat dystocia, but it rarely has positive results in snakes, and the odds of it working at all decline rapidly after day 40. It can also present certain dangers to the female, such as rupturing the uterus or prolapse. We've used it twice (once with one of our JCP's, and once with a customers huge Retic), ...but neither time yielded any results.

Good luck and hope I've helped!

[MarkAus]

Thanks Will for your help! i held on and she is laying this morning.
http://www.aussiepythons.com/albums/byjungle/PB150006.sized.jpg


cheers

[WJLeary]

Congrats on the beautiful new clutch of eggs!!! I'm glad everything turned out okay for you.

[MarkAus]

Cheers Will, i did what you said and i added a new laybox with fresh bedding last night, and by this morning she laid! Thanks for sharing your valuable experience.