My new pet lizards!

[lao tzu]

Would you call anaphylactic shock combined with respiratory arrest severe?

[Crow]

Of course. You know that I know the story on that.

[Jedidiah]

Status update?

[Jedidiah]

When are we expecting those eggs?

[Crow]

Whenever the snake gets good and ready to drop the clutch.

In the meantime, a pic of one of the 2012 girls, Luna.

luna 002.JPG

[Crow]

Teh lovebirds! The female, Marilyn, is starting to look .... lumpy.

lovebirds darth and marilyn 001.JPG

[Jedidiah]

Keep us posted. Every time I see you post here I expect a picture of eggs.

[Crow]

No eggs yet. #@#%&!

She's getting more and more rotund. Her disposition has changed as well. Before she was very pleasant and would climb out onto my arm when I opened the cage. Today she hissed at me and recoiled. She was unpleasant to the male snake as well and chased him to behind the water bowl so I moved him back to his own cage. I hope this is because she's gravid because that is a self-limiting condition and I don't want to have to deal with this anymore.

Marilyn again 001.JPG

[DesertBerean]

Somehow I thought snakes gave live birth. Guess it's not all snakes that do?

[Crow]

Some do, some don't. Pythons, colubrids lay eggs, vipers and boas give live birth.

[Crow]

My newest one, little Cissy, who is looking evil in this pic, because she's deciding whether or not to bite me.

Cissy 002.JPG

[DesertBerean]

STILL no eggs?

[Crow]

Nope. The problem with these legless lizards is that they can control when they lay their eggs to some extent. It's a survival skill that makes a great deal of sense--if things are tough right now I'll hold onto them a bit longer. One of the theories as to how some snakes give live birth is that females who retained their eggs the longest had the greatest reproductive successes and natural selection ended up producing snakes which hatch their eggs internally. And that is what "live birth" in snakes and lizards essentially is. The egg leather is reduced to a thin membrane. The young snake is not connected to the mother.

Snakes, by the way, have an umbilicus and umbilical cord which is attatched to a navel and drops off shortly before they leave the egg. In the pic below, the small python is visible in his egg, his head and tail are at either end, his back can't be seen because it's curled around the back of the egg. At the bottom of the egg is a red area--that is the placenta. It's not a true placenta as in mammals which is attached to the mother, it is attached to the egg membranes. You will be able to make out the "placental" blood vessels too. Sorry if I ramble on, but these things fascinate me.

python egg.jpg

[Crow]

Miss Maenad x Darth Jackass 002.JPG

4/27/13. Clutch of eight eggs and no slugs from Miss Maenad. Mom and clutch are doing fine.

[DesertBerean]