The saying goes that every breeding season brings surprises. This is definitely the case here! Sceptre has decided she’s not ready for retirement, no matter what we mere humans may have thought. She was NOT bred this season. I didn’t think she had been bred last season either, but Dan said that he thought she was paired with somebody very early last year. I’m obviously going to have to dig out the records and check.
Last year she absolutely didn’t lay. (Already double checked those records in case I’m going crazy.) She did get that “string of pearls” feel, but nothing ever came of it. No eggs, no slugs, nothing. This year we decided to retire Sceptre. She’s been a great mother over the years as well as a wonderful classroom pet and educational outreach animal. We figured she’d earned her retirement.
This season she’s been fed about every 10 days, like the other females who weren’t being bred this year. She’s been in good condition. I noticed she felt kinda full, but didn’t think too much about it until she refused food after her recent shed. She only does that when she’s about to lay. I figured better safe than sorry and gave her a nest box, still not really expecting her to lay. Wrong.
Last night when I checked on her, she’d cleared one end as they often do when they’re serious. It’s been an insane day, and I didn’t get home in time to do everything I’d planned. When I was all but ready for bed, I thought about Sceptre. I was totally shocked to find her actually laying! So far, there’s one teensy slug, one typical slug, and one egg which actually looks normal. Somehow. Nature can be so weird!
I believe boas can too and they can get pregnant from 2 fathers almost as strange as cats can have multiple fathers. The animal kingdom is awesome. There was one boa they discovered that she could reproduce asexually and she has only ever given birth to female offspring with her genes. Heck some fish have been able to completely change its sex based on the needs.
Me too, lol. There are two more eggs this morning, and she doesn’t appear to be done. I think this is taking a longer time, though I don’t actually know when she started. All I know is it was after 9 AM yesterday.
Lots of creatures can have multilevel babies with multiple fathers. It’s even been documented with human twins!
There are some interesting threads here about snakes and asexual reproduction. I have read several, shaking my head in wonder.
Gender changes in fish are pretty common. Most people with common freshwater aquarium species will probably see it at some point. Guppies, swordtails, mollies, so many others. It always fascinated my students when the classroom fish did it.
Im glad they get the opportunity to see and appreciate animals as well as education about them.
When we take the time to understand and appreciate animals we see a value in protecting them etc.
I remember one particular time when my brother brought home the class pet of silk worms. He made the wrong choice to put them next to my rat cage. My rats the male and female were escape artists who regularly made jail breaks, but in the morning they would return. I notice 1st my female and i was like wow shes pregnant again ( i raised lots of rats) but then i noticed the male and he was super fat too. For some reason i decided to look in my brothers shoebox where the silk worms were, omg it looked like a massacre in the box blood all over it and not 1 silk worm was left not even a piece. Needless to say my brother was never allowed to take any school pet home ever again
My goodness, what a story! I’ll bet Evelyn concerned felt awful!
I’m no longer teaching (long story, had a disabling injury a few years ago) but I always tried to bring a lot of nature into my classroom. Lots of plants, assorted aquaria, and a variety of pets. At various points we had classroom pet mice, gerbils, corn snakes, water snakes, a milk snake, and a litter box trained bunny who often had the run, (or is it the hop?) of the room. That’s not even counting assorted short term visitors from lizards to stick bugs, spiders to sugar gliders. I’m a big fan of helping folks to understand the wonders of the natural world.
I think Sceptre is done. I think. The final count is 3 eggs which look pretty fine, all things considered, and two definite slugs. Not much of a clutch until one considers that she wasn’t bred this season.
I still need to locate last year’s records. The trouble is that we were supposed to be moving, then that fell apart. I’m still hoping to relocate so I didn’t unpack the boxes which got packed for moving. I have to find the box with those particular records.
I was aware that corns can store sperm from year to year, but being intellectually aware turns out to feel rather different from actually having eggs from a female I didn’t breed this year. Lol
I don’t know if these are actually fertile, but they’re in the incubation room. I found last year’s records. Turns out that Sceptre was with Artephius for a couple of days at the end of March. I confirmed a visual lock on 29 March, 2021. Nothing resulted from that pairing last year and I pretty much forgot about it. It was 428 days ago yesterday. Sheeesh!
The more I think about it, the stranger the whole thing is. The unpredictability of it is especially strange to me. In Sceptre’s case, last season she was fed about every 6 days, got her bi-monthly calcium and vitamin D3, and was put with a handsome fella in the spring, with whom she mated. Then nothing. Nothing for over a year.
This year, she’s been fed like other non-breeding adults, not paired with anybody. Matings here happened in February and March. My first two clutches are due in a couple of weeks, so I’m looking at potential second clutches being laid soon. Why did Sceptre’s body decide the time is right to lay eggs? Why not last year? Seems like this tiny and possibly infertile clutch wouldn’t be the best strategy to increase one’s share of the gene pool.
Nature is indeed weird and wild and wonder-filled.
So, Sceptre isn’t bouncing back as she usually does. She has continued to refuse a postnatal snack, which she has always accepted in years past. I am feeling a couple bumps like potentially retained eggs, very far forward. The highest is about 16 saddles forward from her vent, the other is about 11 saddles forward. She was lying outside the nest box yesterday, seemed pretty relaxed. I gave her a warm swim late in the afternoon, which she seemed to appreciate.
After her swim she went back into the nest box. Still there this morning, no movement of the bumps. She seems less comfortable. So we’re off to the vet.
So far, there’s one teensy slug, one typical slug, and one egg which actually looks normal. Somehow. Nature can be so weird!
ol Maury Pulvich would really have a show 
