Parthenogenesis occurred

[Bogertophis]

...I don't get why mine has just started doing this from last year, and none of the years before.

I suspect (?) there might be some sort of "last ditch effort" hormonal trigger when females get older & haven't yet reproduced...a way to save the species from extinction?

Years ago I was given an older rosy boa that was doing poorly in a nature museum & she kept trying to reproduce also...she'd laid slugs in the past, but with me, finally had one live neonate that lived 8 mos. before expiring naturally from defects. She had terrible muscle tone, & thus it was very difficult for her to push out slugs, & I didn't want her to do that again, so I made the difficult choice of giving her a healthy mate, & she "re-paid" me with 5 successful years of healthy, robust baby rosy boas, ALL of which thrived.

When I tried to get her to quit (halfway thru those reproductive years) she nearly died trying to push out the slugs...so that's why I let her re-mate for the remainder: live rosy boas pretty much come out on their own- it was actually easier on her & she lived some years beyond all that, to around 26 years (assuming the museum was correct about her age when she was given to me). Nature IS full of surprises! She was truly an awesome snake & while I had NO intention of ever breeding ANY rosy boas, I was glad to have known her.

[colin-java]

Thanks, maybe I can get her up to 30, but this egg business takes its toll every year.
I think the key to long life is to not feed them so much, so their livers don't burn out so quick.
I'd still rather give her more food so she doesn't feel hungry all the time, but they probably don't feel hunger the same way people do.

Your theory seems to make sense, perhaps if she had babies 20 years ago she wouldn't be doing this now

[Bogertophis]

Thanks, maybe I can get her up to 30, but this egg business takes its toll every year.
I think the key to long life is to not feed them so much, so their livers don't burn out so quick.
I'd still rather give her more food so she doesn't feel hungry all the time, but they probably don't feel hunger the same way people do.

Your theory seems to make sense, perhaps if she had babies 20 years ago she wouldn't be doing this now

I hope so (re "up to 30"). Eggs DO take a toll...I'd love to find the "off" switch on mine. I agree that if yours had reproduced years ago, she'd not likely be doing this now.

I think our captive snakes feel plenty of hunger...they cannot thermo-regulate as well in captivity as in the wild...where they'd have more "down time" (cooler temps.)- their appetites are certainly driven by their fairly-constant environmental warmth.

[colin-java]

Thanks, I'm not sure what my bp is doing now, she's been exploring the vivarium for a few hours now on and off.
She doesn't look distressed, but in an exploring mode, flicking her tongue a bit.

I cleaned everything, even the glass, and gave her a bath to get the egg smell off.
Its been about 1.5 days since laying the 6 eggs.

Is it just the new smells or do you think she's looking for food, I was gonna feed her in a few days.

[Bogertophis]

She might well be ready for food now... After mine lay eggs, they're so tired & dehydrated that they often soak in their large water bowls for a couple days...but these
are FL rat snakes, so maybe not quite the same. Anyway, as long as they're adequately hydrated, they get voraciously hungry after egg-laying. You know your snake
better than any of us can guess.

[Bogertophis]

BTW, just to be clear: even when snakes are hungry (or literally "starving" as with a rescue), they MUST first have adequate hydration in order to digest properly.

My rat snakes seem to know this instinctively...that's why after they lay eggs, they soak in their water bowls for a few days sometimes. They're tired & hungry, sure,
but hydration always comes first. Otherwise they might end up regurgitating their food. I can tell by their keen interest (in nearby motion) when they're ready to be
fed...& usually they stop soaking & start looking around also. I'm sure your snake will "let you know" when she's ready for food also...

[colin-java]

Good news, I thought I would share...

She has just had a 200g (approx) F/T rat!

She grabbed it within 5 mins too, didn't have to wait hours like I sometimes do.

Its a good sign she is out of maternal-mode, and a good sign she will continue to eat.
If she doesn't eat again, then at least she's had a good meal now I suppose.

[Bogertophis]

Congratulations, that's great to hear. If she's anything like any snake I've ever had that reproduced (fertile or not) she'll be eating ravenously for a while now,
so now is not the time to run out of feeders...

[colin-java]

Thanks, its been close to 8 months now without feeding.

She dropped from 2900g to 1900g and 3000g to 2200g last year cause of the eggs.

She normally would go off food for maybe 5 or 6 months around winter without losing much weight at all, when she was younger she would usually eat most of the year though.

I have a fresh pack of 15 F/T rats 150-250g, so no problems there.

I'm wondering if they would try to build follicles and lay eggs if their weight was low.
If I get her back up to 3000g, which is her natural healthy weight, is that gonna make her try for eggs again next year?
Perhaps if she wasn't a good weight, she wouldn't try for eggs, but if she did lay eggs I know she would be a skeleton after it.

[Bogertophis]

Thanks, its been close to 8 months now without feeding.

She dropped from 2900g to 1900g and 3000g to 2200g last year cause of the eggs.

She normally would go off food for maybe 5 or 6 months around winter without losing much weight at all, when she was younger she would usually eat most of the year though.

I have a fresh pack of 15 F/T rats 150-250g, so no problems there.

I'm wondering if they would try to build follicles and lay eggs if their weight was low.
If I get her back up to 3000g, which is her natural healthy weight, is that gonna make her try for eggs again next year?
Perhaps if she wasn't a good weight, she wouldn't try for eggs, but if she did lay eggs I know she would be a skeleton after it.

I would NEVER reduce food in the hopes that any of my snakes would forego their attempts at reproduction...just never. In the wild, insufficient food would normally result in snakes skipping reproduction, and it's thought that they may skip every other year anyway, but in captivity, I'd never reduce their food to try to cause that. In the wild, many snakes just don't survive either...along with a low body weight might come some sort of infection that they'd be less able to fight off & recover from. Pets deserve the best we can do...wild snakes are sadly without help, & predators are there to finish them off when they slow down.

In my previously mentioned example of that elderly rosy boa that I had for the latter 11 years of her life, I fed her as much as she wanted, always, & finally her body said "OK that's enough [reproduction]"...but that was after producing healthy offspring for 5 out of 6 years, & the one year I tried to get her to "quit" early by not allowing her to mate, it was actually worse for her; because of her poor muscle tone (from years of poor feeding while she was kept in the nature museum before she was turned over to me to keep). That year she nearly died (& would have had she been a wild snake with no one helping her) because pushing out those slugs was much harder than having live neonates that pretty much find the "exit" on their own. I kept her hydrated & tube-fed while she slowly regained her energy, & in time she was back to normal. While I have no reason to think, much less suggest, that your snake has poor muscle tone as my late rosy boa did, I still just wouldn't try to prevent her production of eggs by reducing her food. She might also produce anyway, but then have trouble expelling them, who knows? She's your snake, so ultimately it's your call- that's my "2 cents" though.