Beginning of our 1st clutch ever! :'(

Well, we were expecting eggs any day now, and this morning, I looked in on her. She had laid a 63 gram slug. At least it looks like a slug to me. She still has a bunch in her that I hope aren't slugs.

How long do they take to lay all the eggs?

She's 11+ years old, 2900 grams, and as far as we know, her first clutch ever. Pairing is Mojave X Normal.

I'll post pics when I figure out why they're not showing up on my computer. AAARGH!

No idea how long it will take, but I wanted to wish you good luck on them! Did the slug candle with veins?

How soon do you candle? I thought candling for veins only works a few days after they were laid...

Anyway, here are a couple pics.
http://ball-pythons.net/gallery/file...0/dscn0494.jpg


http://ball-pythons.net/gallery/file...0/dscn0496.jpg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ClarkT

How soon do you candle? I thought candling for veins only works a few days after they were laid...

Anyway, here are a couple pics.
http://ball-pythons.net/gallery/file...0/dscn0494.jpg


http://ball-pythons.net/gallery/file...0/dscn0496.jpg

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Looks like slug. I would candle it just to be sure. I'm fairly certain you can candle right away. Looking at that momma's face though, I wouldn't reach in there until she was done. Yikes!

I'm sure she has some healthy ones just waiting to come out. She's a big girl.

Big girl is an understatement! She is gigantically beautiful! :) There's gotta be more eggs in that girl. I'm sure soon she'll be wrapped around a big beautiful clutch of nice eggs.

I would get it out of there and candle it. If its rock hard it could be a giant urate (looks like she just peed too). I've seen some big, egg shaped ones! If its a slug then its up to you if you wan to incubate it (just then remove it if/when it goes bad). Just put a small towel over her head when you go to get it out.

Good luck and like others said, there are probably a bunch of good eggies in there ;). From my experience if they are going to completely slug out then they lay around day 22-25.

I'll try to find pictures of a slug I candled so you can see what it would look like.

Slugs

http://ball-pythons.net/gallery/file...28-093comp.jpg


Bad/infertile egg. Like a slug, it candled yellow with no veins.

http://ball-pythons.net/gallery/file...egg_2_comp.jpg


Good egg, pink with veins.

http://ball-pythons.net/gallery/file...egg_1_comp.jpg

Your post makes me chuckle. She's nowhere near ready to bite. Maybe that'll change when she lays the rest, but I've had my hand in there and she doesn't even follow it... Anyway, I hope things come out right, with good eggs!

it can take them hours to lay them all and what weird they seem to know the bad ones mostly and will separate them from the clutch.

Thanks for the replies and help! It's very much appreciated! Wow, I can't believe we're finally actually to this point! :please: :gj: