Hi everyone,
So my MBK laid a clutch of 13 perfect eggs last year but has recently laid a clutch of entirely slugs, can anyone tell me why this might be please?
Thank you
3 Likes
Could be any number of things, honestly. How old is she? Did you use the same male this year as last year, or a different male? How’s her body condition?
4 Likes
Hi,
She is 4 years old. I used same male as last year and I thought she was and is in great condition.
She’s not skinny or fat and hopefully they have locked again since, I can see damaged scales on the back of her neck but haven’t witnessed a lock.
Probably just bad luck.
3 Likes
I’m sorry this happened. It’s frustrating. There are so many things that can go wrong in reproduction, it’s actually amazing that things so often go right. You said their body condition is fine. Did you actually witnessed a previous lock? If so, it’s possibile that she had already ovulated well in advance of when they locked. It’s also possible though unlikely that temps were a bit high for your male to produce good numbers of sperm.
I’m going to sound a note of caution here. It sounds like you’ve got them housed together unsupervised for at least some time. This is risky. King snakes do eat other snakes, even mates at times. They should always be supervised when together. You may find yourself short a breeder. It can happen very fast.