Infertile eggs

Still it's amazing how a perfect good looking egg can be infertile. So what is exactly the difference between a slug and a infertile egg except for the differences in dimensions/colours.
And how can a female know by not coiling them... :confused:

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Originally Posted by MATTI

Still it's amazing how a perfect good looking egg can be infertile. So what is exactly the difference between a slug and a infertile egg except for the differences in dimensions/colours.
And how can a female know by not coiling them... :confused:

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There is a section in the Barker's recent Ball Python book that discusses Dystocia (egg laying trouble). In it they talk about theories about how the female knows when to lay eggs. They believe that htere is a chemical release by the egg (similar to how baby horses tell the mother they are ready to come out) that tells the female that there oxygen requirements are not being met anymore. This is believe to trigger the egg laying process.

My theory would be that if this is the case, it is possible that the female did not get a response from that egg (i.e. no chemical release, scent or some other cue), and that indicates to her that the egg is infertile, and she would not want to waste energy incubating that egg.

Just my .02,

Was your boy young? If she gave you good eggs before it's not her issue.

Too bad the eggs were no good :(

Wow did no one read what was said by the OP? This is the exact same pairing as last year from what the OP says... Same male same female... I actually had something similar to this happen to me this year. The eggs were laid with no outer shell, like one solid window, I could see everything in the egg but mine had veins, they molded within a few days and I knew they were not going to make it. Other than that not sure what went wrong... I hope someone gets some ideas on your problem as well as mine. Good luck on the het. clown x het. clown.

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Originally Posted by muddoc

In regards to your last question in the original post about what happened. My guess would be that the male either didn't transfer sperm to the dame, he is infertile or the sperm never made it to the ova to fertilize them. I don't think it had anything to do with the female.

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Originally Posted by tattlife2001

Wow did no one read what was said by the OP? This is the exact same pairing as last year from what the OP says... Same male same female... I actually had something similar to this happen to me this year. The eggs were laid with no outer shell, like one solid window, I could see everything in the egg but mine had veins, they molded within a few days and I knew they were not going to make it. Other than that not sure what went wrong... I hope someone gets some ideas on your problem as well as mine. Good luck on the het. clown x het. clown.

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I'm guessing that you did not read all of the responses, because I clearly posted 2 other options besides male infertility, that could have produced the given outcome. In case you can't find it, I reposted it above.

In regards to your statement about a large windowed egg, that is a completely different problem. That sounds to me like your female did not feel that she had the stored energy to full shell the eggs. There was a lack of calcium on the eggs, and while your egg had veins, it lacked the protective barrier to keep out infection or disease. The lack of a shell meant that the very permeable membrane that was left holding the egg together could easily have let in microorganisms that detroyed the fertile eggs.

I hope that helps,

muddoc I did read all of your replies and that was not directed at you. As to the information you provided thank you for that. I am going to give her another year and see what happens. I know there are various reasons for what happened to them. I do have other eggs that are cooking so where I did lose one clutch I have not lost any others so I still have hope for this year.