mother lost an egg

[parisjackson]

I have 2 pythons- a male and female. The Female just laid eggs a few days ago. Everything seemed ok but today I noticed that for some reason when the male curled up with the female it caused one of the eggs to get moved away from them so that the egg is sitting by itself outside of the Female's coiled up body which is surrounding all the other eggs.

What should I do about this? Should I try to move the egg back in with the others or does this mean something is wrong with that egg? If i touch the egg will that cause the snakes to think its "tainted" somehow like I've heard happens with bird eggs?

Thanks in advance for any help.

[PweEzy]

I guess my first question would be, if she already laid eggs, how come the male is still in with her?

[lk_holla]

ditto to the previous post, but no, its not like a bird where touching it will cause her to 'reject' the egg.

and are you prepared for a maternal incubation like it sounds like you are doing? If you've still got the male in there with her, then you may need to be doing some more research or find an incubator.

[RichsBallPythons]

Umm WTH is the male still doing with the female.

Cant properly house, why are you breeding.

[Quiet Tempest]

The male shouldn't be sharing the enclosure. He's finished his job and the mom will be much more relaxed without him in her space.

If you're going to all the mom to brood the eggs, double check your humidity levels and temps. Low humidity can mean death for eggs. You want it to be no less than say 65%. I prefer sticking in the 70-80% range for brooding moms. Egg boxes in artificially incubators, on the other hand, need to be kept as close to 100% as possible throughout incubation.

As for the roll out, just place it back in the pile with the others. The mother isn't going to reject it if it's a healthy egg. A word of caution, though.. Brooding moms generally don't like hands messing with their nests and a bite is certainly a possibility.


BTW - that bird egg/baby rejection thing is a myth.. if you find a baby bird has fallen from its nest, you can safely return it to the nest and its parents will be none the wiser. Their sense of smell is very poor and unless they actually see you meddling with their nest and feel it's unsafe, they aren't going to abandon it or any of the eggs/hatchlings in it.

[Foschi Exotic Serpents]

With maternal incubation, if the humidity is not very high, closer to 80% or more, and the ambient temperature at least 85 degrees, you will lose all the eggs. They can not properly incubate in their enclosure without greatly tweaking the stats.

BPs should never be housed together. Period. Once the male has bred the female they are to be separated.

After the first day, if an egg rolls or gets tipped, the baby will most likely die. They are not like chicken eggs. They need to stay upright once they are On the ground.

Oi.

[Quiet Tempest]

With maternal incubation, if the humidity is not very high, closer to 80% or more, and the ambient temperature at least 85 degrees, you will lose all the eggs. They can not properly incubate in their enclosure without greatly tweaking the stats.

BPs should never be housed together. Period. Once the male has bred the female they are to be separated.

After the first day, if an egg rolls or gets tipped, the baby will most likely die. They are not like chicken eggs. They need to stay upright once they are On the ground.

Oi.

You shouldn't have to greatly tweak stats if you're already maintaining a habitat that closely simulates what they'd be living in if they were in some African termite mound. If the enclosure is conducive to healthy behavior and intact sheds then it's likely going to be conducive to brooding as well.

Egg rolling isn't an automatic death sentence, either. I know others here on the board have experimented with this to see what effect it had on the eggs to turn them at various points during incubation. The result was that every egg hatched. No problems. I had an egg that rolled out multiple times last year because it just wasn't adhering to the rest of the eggs in the pile and it still hatched without issue.

Not trying to tear down your comment here but if it can spare others the anxiety of finding a roll out and fearing the worst, it's important info to share. I know I was pulling my hair out when I found my roll out the first time and trying to figure out which end was "up". In the end, it really didn't matter. Eggs are incredibly resilient and they are capable of "self-correction" in the event of being rolled or turned during incubation. It's forceful trauma like falling that can mean sudden death for eggs.

[Foschi Exotic Serpents]

If the female laid a few days ago and just now had a roll out, most likely due to the male being there, it would have less of a chance of surviving if it wasn't placed back immediately and the right side up.

BPs fight. We all know that. Being stressed about another snake getting close to her eggs could easily cause her to jerk and possibly damage or lose eggs. Possibly even get so annoyed that she abandons them.

I'm sorry but I can't assume that the husbandry is spot on and appropriate for maternal Incubation if the OP was not aware that they should not be kept together. Hence my post about tweaking the heat and humidity.

Maybe the OP can clear it up and tell us what the enclosure consists of. Their methods of heating and keeping humidity high etc.. All being controlled by a thermostat, thermometer, and hygrometer.. If the conditions are right for maternal incubation (similar to the very warm and humid environment of a termite mound) then I will retract my previous statement.

When we incubate our eggs, we set the incubator to 88-90 degrees with up to 100% humidity (in the case of substrateless method). Knowing that a BP can not produce any heat to artificially warm the eggs, and that they are only capable of loosening coils to let them cool down if they are too hot, then the average tank style enclosure that most people start out with would be inappropriate without some tweaking. Especially if the owner did not do research on the proper husbandry for BPs. Not pet store husbandry either.

[D&J Reptiles]

Honestly with only 1 post. This sounds like someone that should not be breeding.

[Quiet Tempest]

If the female laid a few days ago and just now had a roll out, most likely due to the male being there, it would have less of a chance of surviving if it wasn't placed back immediately and the right side up.

If not placed back it would likely not survive, but the roll itself wouldn't be the cause of death and not being placed back in the exact position laid isn't an issue.

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...Egg-Experiment

^ This is one of the experiments I mentioned earlier.