One egg

Question
I have a gravid Cali king, I'm not sure exactly how far along she is, i'm pretty sure she conceived march 14th.  I came home today to find one egg sitting on the tank bottom, it's probably over an inch long, but i don't understand why it's there.. would it be developed?  I had an incident a couple days ago, where she was escaping from her tank, and when i went to grab her to put her back in, she fell down, probably 3 feet or so onto the floor.  I was immediately worried about her eggs, could this be the cause of this? Should i put this egg in the incubator?  This is her first clutch, but she'll have more than one egg right?  

thanks for your help,
aaron

Answer
The best way to tell when a snake will deliver her eggs is based on her last shed. Usually when kingsnakes are gravid, they will have a shed cycle and then lay eggs about 10-14 days later. Since you saw just a single egg, my guess is that it wasn't fertilized. If the female has some infertile eggs, they tend to be dropped about 4-6 days after the last shed. Infertile eggs are usually easy to spot because they are more yellowish in color, and feel squishy like a water balloon. Fertile eggs on the other hand are more firm (though not hard like a chicken egg) and are more whitish in color. In any event, you can try incubating the first egg. Most likely it will grow mold within a few days and then you'll know for sure it's bad. btw, this is not related to your snake falling down, it's just part of nature.