Retained Egg Yolk

[GarterGeek]

I've heard that after baby garters have been born, they often retain a part of the egg yolk inside of their body for a while. Is this true and could it be why it is sometimes so hard to get new-borns to eat? - They aren't hungry because they're getting nutrition from this retained egg-yolk? Is it possible that some litters have more egg-yolk than others, resulting in the varied responses to food?

Any information would be helpful. Thank you

[mustang]

maybe i got mixed answers online

[guidofatherof5]

I've never heard of this. I've seen hundreds born and don't see how this would be accomphished. I think that when they are born they are a complete snake, just small. If anyone has any info. on this question I would like to read it.
Where did you hear this from?

[drache]

whatever is left of egg yolk is attached to their navels (outside), and I believe I've seen a photo of that somewhere
egg yolk is very rich stuff, so even if they have none left when they're born, it will hold them over for a while

[Charis]

Snakes that lay eggs absorb all of their yolk before coming completely out of the egg & go a whole week before you should offer them a meal. But garters (I've heard this two ways) either don't absorb any yolk or very little yolk, so they need to eat way sooner than an egg layer.

[GarterGeek]

Ha, I think I've found the source, here is the link: Raising Baby Garter Snakes: Some Personal Observations - gartersnake.info

And here is the specific text. Infuriatingly, he just mentions egg-yolks casually and in passing. He seemed more like a hobbyist than a scientist.

I’ve had considerable trouble getting baby garter snakes to feed. Part of this may be due to retained yolk. From what I’ve seen from my own litters and those of friends, T. sirtalis tends to have large litters of small babies, whereas other species — in my case, T. e. vagrans and T. sauritus septentrionalis — seem to have smaller litters, but the babies are larger. My T. e. vagrans babies in particular appeared to have considerable yolk reserves and were in no hurry to begin eating.
On the other hand, they may have had some difficulty recognizing that what I was offering was food.