female corns producing eggs without a male?

[bigballs]

i know that some female reptiles produce eggs without the presence of a male but today i was told that female corns do. now i dont know much about corns besides their general husbandry but i was under the impression that all female egg-laying snakes only produce eggs after being bred with a male. so is this true or just a big load?

[dsirkle]

I do not know the answer but my question would be " would the eggs be fertile?"

[Monty]

sounds like chicken theories to me

[joepythons]

i know that some female reptiles produce eggs without the presence of a male but today i was told that female corns do. now i dont know much about corns besides their general husbandry but i was under the impression that all female egg-laying snakes only produce eggs after being bred with a male. so is this true or just a big load?

I had 2 female corns lay clutches(one laid 3 and other 2) after only being bred by my male in one session.So the only way they could drop another clutch is if they retained sperm from a earlier breeding .

[StormDragon]

Yes it's possible for a female to drop an unfertilized clutch. Some females even though they've not bred but are of age /size still create follicles and will carry them to the point of being an egg and then lay them. But most unbred or never bred females will reabsorb the follicles.
Hope this helps.

[bigballs]

so if the female retains sperm for a while then she can produce eggs that may seem like out of nowhere.

unbred females may create follicles but will probably reabsorb them rather than lay eggs? but some may lay?

how common is this?

[joepythons]

so if the female retains sperm for a while then she can produce eggs that may seem like out of nowhere.

unbred females may create follicles but will probably reabsorb them rather than lay eggs? but some may lay?

how common is this?

My females dropped the first clutches after being bred and then a short time after they dropped the second clutches.This was done without being placed with the male again.Then the other laid her third clutch.In each clutch thier were 10+ eggs .In my 12yrs experiance i have never heard of any females just dropping eggs without being introduced to a male at anytime.I would like to see proof of this happening if possible.

[MPenn]

Yes it's possible for a female to drop an unfertilized clutch. Some females even though they've not bred but are of age /size still create follicles and will carry them to the point of being an egg and then lay them. But most unbred or never bred females will reabsorb the follicles.
Hope this helps.

This is all very true and plausible. Remember that female chameleons are known to develop eggs without the presence of a male and become eggbound. That is why most that are sold as pets are males.
A male is needed to fertilize the eggs. If the corn is never with a male, they will be infertile.

[bigballs]

joe i have never heard of it either and i would like to see proof of it as well.

i can understand how it is possible for a female corn to produce eggs without ever being introduced to a male but i would think its more of a reproductive disorder rather than a natural cycle in a female corn snakes like.

[MarkS]

I've had several young females drop eggs without ever being bred. The youngest was 14 months old, she had never been with a male and had never been brumated. One year I was remodeling my house and didn't have time to breed most of my corns. I got over 100 infertile eggs that year.

Mark