parthenogenesis? my female laid eggs without a male

came as quite a shock to me. my 15 years old female ball didn't eat for a long while. I was worried. About to take her to the vets. Then, over the course of this week, she laid 7 eggs. Colour me surprised. How rare is this? What should I do with the eggs? I've had her since 2009 and she's never been near any other snake.

It seems like I see at least one person a year make a similar post in this forum. I think it is uncommon, but not necessarily rare.

There is usually poor egg viability in a partho clutch of ball python eggs. I have read that hatchlings produced are rarely in perfect health and/or live a 'normal' lifespan.

If you want some practice incubating eggs you could try hatching them....or you could just leave the eggs with the mother for maternal incubation (=easier-->more risky method).

Since I have a great deal of experience working with ball python hatchlings born with physical defects: I would probably try and incubate the eggs and then attempt to grow them up. If I did not have this experience: I would probably choose to freeze the eggs and toss them-rather then deal with any potential complications which may require costly veterinary care outside my range of expertise...

I've seen a lot of posts online with people attempting to incubate partho clutches and then no follow-ups...this makes me think a lot of them do not turn out well... In the event you do succeed in hatching a partho clutch: You will have to deal with rehoming and/or keeping them...depending on the morph (or lack thereof): that can be a hassle in itself...

My :2cent:

It's not that rare for snakes to lay infertile eggs- aka "slugs" -one way to know is to treat them as viable, ie. incubate, then candle them to see if they're good. Slugs may look like good eggs at first (or not) but then go bad. Parthenogenesis refers to actual reproduction without fertilization- it's fairly rare, but it happens. If you search terms, you'll find some info & videos on how to tell viable eggs. If they are viable eggs, that still doesn't preclude physical defects in the offspring...in fact, they're more common with parthenogenesis, so if you decide to incubate these & they are viable, make sure you have a plan for them after they hatch. ;)

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Originally Posted by Lord Sorril

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Since I have a great deal of experience working with ball python hatchlings born with physical defects: I would probably try and incubate the eggs and then attempt to grow them up. If I did not have this experience: I would probably choose to freeze the eggs and toss them-rather then deal with any potential complications which may require costly veterinary care outside my range of expertise...

I've seen a lot of posts online with people attempting to incubate partho clutches and then no follow-ups...this makes me think a lot of them do not turn out well... In the event you do succeed in hatching a partho clutch: You will have to deal with rehoming and/or keeping them...depending on the morph (or lack thereof): that can be a hassle in itself...

My :2cent:

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THIS ^ ^ ^ ! With limited experience, your best bet is probably to just freeze these eggs & be done with it. If you live in a rural area, you can bury (shallow) the well-frozen eggs for a critter to dig up & have a meal. When I've done that, some skunk, raccoon, or possum had a very good day. :D They always get dug up & eaten...wild critters have good noses! But don't do this where your own pets will find & dig them up, haha.

Last year one of my normal female ball pythons threw a partho clutch. Of 8 eggs six were duds, two hatched out super normals that are doing well today. I already had an incubator since I'd bred snakes in the past but I had to set it all back up and scavenge a thermostat.

In 2023 my female Dumerils boa had a partho litter with about a dozen kinked/stillborn neonates, another dozen slugs, and two live babies. One of those babies has a slight neck kink and a tail with racing stripes instead of the typical pattern, and both neonates were way undersized. They are still alive and thriving today.

If you have no way to incubate the eggs don't feel badly about freezing them.