Egg count for every year on

[jblack89]

I’m wondering if people would share some examples of the number of eggs a given female will produce over the years. For instance, if my hypo spider laid 3 eggs for her first clutch ever in 2018, and then 6 in 2019. She may be taking this year off but I’m wondering if she could lay 7 or 8 with a bit more weight on (at a regular growth rate). I’m curious to see if people have noted how many more eggs a female may lay per year? If they seem to hit a certain number and then stick with it? Please include if you give them a year or two off between each clutch count. I understand the formula for approximating clutch size but I’m wondering about the more practical application here and how females are actually laying as they go up in age/size vs what a formula says they may lay.

[Lord Sorril]

Female pictured below:

2011 - 5 viable eggs + 2 slugs
2012 - 8 viable eggs + 3 slugs
2013 - Skipped by her choice
2014 - 12 viable eggs + 2 slugs
2015 - 4 viable eggs
2016 - 6 viable eggs + 5 slugs
2017 - Skipped by her choice
2018 - 14 viable eggs
2019 - 5 viable eggs + 1 slug

Even though this female is heavy I'd give her 50/50 odds of producing eggs in 2020. She can skip if she wants.

[jblack89]

Very cool! It almost seems like she is self-regulating and not laying more than she can handle based on her maturity and I guess nutrient reserves. I only had breeding females two years in a row in the past so my experience keeping an adult female who was actively breeding is limited to those two years I got eggs. I have wondered about intentionally giving time off versus letting them do it themselves. Now I’m wondering what retirement age looks like for breeder females as well. That’s a beautiful pastel het ghost! She’s aged very nicely.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

It depends on the animal

I had females that had 6 eggs as their first clutch and to this day still have 6 eggs.


I have some that went from 5 to 10 eggs over the years.

I had some going from slugging out to 8 eggs and up.

I had some starting out with 8 eggs as their first clutch.

Some go every year some don't sometime they lay viable eggs sometime they don't.

Generally speaking egg production will go up with age for many females but overall your average is about 6 to 12 eggs (not big producer by any mean)

[jblack89]

This is great. I wonder if someone who was good at excel could make a spreadsheet and determine the formula for how often any individual snake ate and the occurrence and number of eggs and see if there’s a correlation there. I am definitely not an excel scientist lol.