Unexpected ball python eggs!

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Originally Posted by scterial

Hey guys!
So my female has just laid her very first clutch of eggs...unexpectedly! She laid 7 viable eggs. Since I was not expecting this along with that I'm in college, I left my incubator at my home and will not be able to bring it back until two weeks from now. I am allowing her to maternally incubate her eggs. Today is Day 3 since she laid (she laid her eggs in a terrarium). 2 of her eggs are dimpling bad, while the others are just fine. I've been trying to increase the humidity by adding sphagnum moss over and on the sides of the eggs in the hide box as well as around the hide box, but the humidity is still decreasing. I am going to put tin foil on the screen top, but I was wondering if I should just move her into a plastic tub and move her and her eggs in the tub? I will be gone for a week from March 22-29 for Spring break and plan on bringing my incubator from home back. Would it be better if moved her into the tub or should I just leave her in the terrarium? Any help will be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

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Originally Posted by scterial

She is a very bright normal. Her name is Kyra btw!!:) Have you seen Brian Gundy's videos of his normal female who produced gold blush mojaves? My female is just as bright. I bred her to a pinstripe and a mojave, so I am excited to see the outcome!

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How do you get an unexpected clutch from a female you paired with 2 males?...I don't get it!

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Originally Posted by coldbloodaddict

How do you get an unexpected clutch from a female you paired with 2 males?...I don't get it!

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I think he means he didn't know if she was really pregnant, and didn't see an ovulation, so the eggs were just laying there one day.
No estimated lay time= unexpected (or it would say "surprise clutch" or something like that.)
Am I right? :rolleyes:

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Originally Posted by kikkimea

I think he means he didn't know if she was really pregnant, and didn't see an ovulation, so the eggs were just laying there one day.
No estimated lay time= unexpected (or it would say "surprise clutch" or something like that.)
Am I right? :rolleyes:

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Yes you are! Sorry for the confusion! I actually tried breeding her last year with no luck. However, she stayed the same weight for almost a whole year after that only eating about once a month or two. I started to breed her again starting October 2013 and she went off feed until she laid her clutch. She looked the same throughout the whole breeding process, which was why I wasn't expecting a clutch at all...BUT it happened :). I am going to post some pics on this thread of the terrarium as well as temps, humidity, and momma and her eggs!

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Originally Posted by For Goodness Snakes

Here are a couple things you can try.

You might consider taking a large towel and get it wet then ring it out. Place it inside the cage at the hotest place in the cage, then place another ringed out wet towel over 3/4 to 7/8 of the top of the cage. As the towel inside the cage is evaporating it will increase the amount of humidity inside the cage. The wet towel on top of the cage will help to lock the humidity inside.

A few years ago someone e-mailed me with the same scenario. He didn't have an incubator, so I had him build a styrofoam box inside his tub where he could keep a temp of 89 degrees. He built this box made out of styrofoam and placed a shoe box inside of it using a 1 to 1 ratio by weight between water and vermiculite 250 grams of vermiculite to 250 grams of water, make sure you drill an 1/8 " diameter hole at each end of the box about an inch from the top of the box. Once the substrate has reached 89 degrees place the eggs into the shoe box. Remember that the top of the eggs must stay the top of the egg, orientation of the eggs must stay the same as when they were layed. bury the eggs about half way into the substrate and place the lid on. The humidity inside the box should keep the humidity perfect for incubating ball python eggs. The styrofoam box should help to maintain the constant temperature needed to incubate the eggs.

If you have any questions please feel free to call me at 408-981-6694.

Best of luck

Brian Gundy / For Goodness Snakes

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Thanks Brian for all your help so far! I am going to try out your towel method. So far, I put a dry towel over the screen lid and the humidity has been staying rather constant; only dropping 1-2% every 2-3 hours. Temps have been ranging from 86-90F. I am still a little concerned that the eggs are right on top of the UTH...

Here are a couple pics of her and her eggs. Temps and humidity have been fine so far. The two eggs that were dimpling badly are worse and might need to be thrown out. What do you guys think? If they are bad, would it be harmful to leave them with the clutch? She gets really stressed when I try even touch her so I don't want to change anything and try to get the eggs:

Mom sitting on her eggs

[IMG]http://ball-pythons.net/gallery/file...3608_thumb.jpg[/IMG]


Eggs on Day 2

[IMG]http://ball-pythons.net/gallery/file...0834_thumb.jpg[/IMG]

Eggs on Day 3 (Notice the 2 dimpling eggs on the left)

[IMG]http://ball-pythons.net/gallery/file...4633_thumb.jpg[/IMG]

Eggs on Day 7

[IMG]http://ball-pythons.net/gallery/file...1919_thumb.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://ball-pythons.net/gallery/file...1929_thumb.jpg[/IMG]

The smell is tolerable, yet I think the strong odor is coming from those eggs. The humidity was a little low the first 2 days and she left those 2 eggs out of her clutch, which my be the reason why they are going bad. But, when I candled them, they had great vein networks.

[IMG]http://ball-pythons.net/gallery/file...5237_thumb.jpg[/IMG]

I managed to snap a pic when she cooled off for 5 minutes.:(

Ah, I see now why you were worried about the eggs being right over the UTH. That does seem a bit worrisome.

Hey, Im new to BP.net and ball pythons in general so excuse any dumb questions (:

how did that clutch pan out? I too have a surprise clutch maternally incubating whilst I am building an incubator.

Cheers,

Spenser