my BP laid eggs after 11 years. help?

[movingthestars]

It's entirely possible that any eggs that look "good" (white, not deformed or slimy) may be viable. It's unlikely from mating (back in the pet store she was likely in with other snakes, but that's a long time ago), rather it's more likely parthenogenetic eggs ("partho" for short), accomplished solely by the mom snake & prone to defects, even if they hatch.

Your call if you want to try incubating them- I've done that before, & I currently have a couple snakes that are laying a bunch of eggs- they do this every year. Most are obvious slugs, but I've hatched 3 of them in the past. These snakes are now about 16 years old, & as they get older, fewer of their eggs look any good, but every year for the last 10 or so, they've each done double clutches- these girls are determined to reproduce! BTW, mine are Florida rat snakes (Yellow x Gulf Hammock x Everglades).

If you don't wish to incubate any, just freeze them all for a while to make sure they're non-viable before discarding. You might watch them for a while first, if you want- "good" eggs will develop veins that you can see when you candle them...it's pretty cool. But then it gets REALLY tempting to go all the way & see if they'll hatch- fair warning, lol.

BTW, in the past, I have deliberately bred various kinds of snakes & successfully hatched many offspring (not BPs). I strongly suggest that IF you want to incubate the eggs, that you separate them very gently & only keep the good ones. When freshly laid, they separate much easier- you have to keep the same orientation (don't turn or roll them); if you drip just a drop of water on the point of contact between eggs, it's much easier to separate them, but go slow. If all the eggs are left in a clump, the bad ones start to stink & draw flies, which can also affect any good ones.

I appreciate your advice (and all the advice in here, so quickly-- this forum rocks)

I got so scared when she wasn't eating for such a long time, right before I saw the eggs I was googling reptile vets in my area. So my #1 priority is the snake I have, I did take her out, wash the entire enclosure, wash everything in it and air dry outside, and finally I just finished washing her (hissing at me the whole time, which she never does) and I'm letting her relax for awhile in a bin before I put her back in the enclosure. I didn't want to risk her not eating for longer.

From your advice above, I did end up separating the eggs (while gritting my teeth and with one eye cracked open, terrified to burst them open) and somehow I got them all separate without doing any visible damage and while keeping them in the same position they were in. Out of 9 eggs, 6 were definitely not good so I put them in a plastic bag in the freezer and I'll throw them out tomorrow. 2 of the eggs are big and white, and they go pink with lots of visible veins in the dark. The last one is like half white, with lots of visible veins/pink in the dark. I kept these 3. I put them in something I built quickly from stuff from Home Depot and Walmart which I got the instructions from this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0X67w_JWnsQ

So, I do understand that most likely nothing will happen with these eggs. Or, maybe they will hatch but not live. But weirdly, I also became a mother not too long ago for the first time in my life. And this snake stopped eating around the same time. So maybe if I didn't recently have a baby, I would have froze them all and been done with it, but I'm feeling a little too close to this one. If they pass away I don't think I'll come back and post about it, but if any of them live I'll let you know. If nothing happens, I cut the eggs in 60 days?