Egg production

[ConcinusMan]

I have noticed on multiple occasions, I get the impression that there is a general tendency for people to think that their female is "eating for two" (dozen) while she is gravid and that somehow the nutrition, food resources, frequency, etc., she gets during this time somehow benefits the health of the young. I can't seem to find a reason why it would. Snakes are not placental mammals!

After all, that would be like saying a chick benefits from nutrients taken in by the hen AFTER the egg is fertilized and/or laid. That obviously doesn't happen.

I've been reading some things during the past few days. Specifically, research on garter snake reproduction. The studies seem confirm what I always suspected. The mass (all the necessary resources) that goes into making those unfertilized eggs and the nutrients they contain for the young, are acquired by the mother during the period of time before the eggs begin to form inside her and possibly also while the eggs are forming. Maybe this is why you don't see significant weight gain before conception or ovulation?

I mean, that's when the "eggs" are forming inside her, getting bigger each day leading up to maturity and which point they will only then be ready for fertilization, yet there's no weight gain until after ovulation and conception. Why is that? The answer is that she is merely shifting mass from herself and putting it into making eggs perhaps. That means she acquired the resources (mass) for those eggs long before the young are even conceived and long before ovulation occurrs.

Once she ovulates, she no longer has any connection to, or any contribution to the resources contained in that egg (other than gas exchange and water) so a gravid girl is then eating for herself and next season's young, not the current one's she's carrying.

Am I wrong? am I thinking correctly here?