BP laid eggs without a male

We have had our ball python for about a year and a half. A friend gave her to us. All of a sudden she laid eggs! Are they even fertilized if there is no male? Is there only one baby per egg? Please help! We were not prepared for this!

Can you post pics of the eggs and maybe we can tell if they look viable or if they are slugs. If you hold a small pen flashlight up to them in a darkened room, can you see viens? Each egg, if viable, typically produces a single baby, but on rare occasion twins do occur. If these are viable eggs you may want to set up an incubator as quick as possible. There are a number of DIY threads here where you can convert a simple cooler into an incubator.

There are a couple possibilities. First, had she ever been paired with a male before, even a couple years ago or more? If so she could have retained sperm and then fertilized now.

The other possibility is parthenogenesis. Some reptiles have the ability to produce viable eggs without the male factor. IN this instance they will all be copies of the mother as it is effectively cloning itself.

Best of luck

My first question is was she an adult when she was given to you?

Second if she was, was she ever paired?

Now to know if they are fertile just candle them and you will know.

This is what you will be looking for Fertile (Top) vs Infertile (Bottom)


http://i954.photobucket.com/albums/a...g/Candling.jpg

pictures would really help in this case, if you cant post pictures do your best to describe and candle them to help us out. previous responses are great :)

I'm not 100% sure if it happens in BP's, but I know when I had a female iguana she became gravid and laid a whopping 32 eggs having never been in contact with any adult males at all. Here are some pictures (not mine, found via google) of what you need to look for.

This is a photo of good BP eggs vs. slugs.
http://ballpython.ca/wp-content/uploads/31-slugs.jpg

This is what you might expect to see if you candled them
http://rainsreptiles.com/wp-content/...ndled-2010.jpg

How do I get her to move so I can take a pic? She doesn't look real happy about all of us even looking at her. We did get her as an adult so I really don't know if she was ever paired. From the pics y'all showed me though these are not slugs. Can they be white and pretty though but not be viable? This morning I could see four eggs and they looked very white. Almost like chicken eggs. Also when will they hatch? Thank all of u for your help!

She has moved her head now so u can see one egg but I can't figure out how to add pics to this...

Here's a few pics...http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/14...9f8185b093.jpghttp://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/14...45e011aa85.jpg

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Originally Posted by BBCC

Can they be white and pretty though but not be viable?

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Absolutely, you can have a perfect looking egg with no veins which means it is infertile.

How do I get one then to see if there is veins?

You gotta take her off the eggs candle them to see if they have veins if they don't toss them if they do get and incubator and some hatch right and incubate them at 89 degrees


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Put a towel or bowl over her head and gently lift her off the eggs. Usually she wont go after the hamd thays holding her so if you use your other hand to get her attention you can move her without getting struck at. Then you can quickly examine the eggs by shining a flashlight through them . If theres veins they are good. Leave them with the female untill you decide if you want to build incubator or let her do her own thing

My guess is that she may have been bred last year and never developed but kept the sperm. Females can keep sperm and use it the next year

Unless you have an incubator ready, leave the mom alone. If they are fertile, they will hatch in 60 days. If they are infertile, they will start to go bad within a couple weeks and mom will leave the nest. Why chance destroying the eggs, stressing mom, and perhaps ruining your chance of maternal incubation just to "know"? BTW, you can not just grab an egg and take it out then put it back. They are stuck together and if you rotate them they will die. Just my 2 cents.

here is my 2 cents. We maternal incubate. This season we had a 6 year old virgin breed and then lay 10 eggs. She sat on em for a few weeks and then she tossed them. They had to be removed and incubated separately. This was done just as everyone else does except that we just left em on a shelf in our snake room, as our room is kept heated to 86 via an electric oil heater. We use no other heat on our racks. Who knows how much they got rolled, but they certainly did as they were strewn all over her tub. All of them made it but 1. Luck? Maybe. You can take the mom off of the eggs and she will go back on them. They will also eat while sitting on eggs. We have not had one that wouldn't eat and we've been doing maternal for a few years now.
A female ball python can retain sperm for over 2 years. Not sure what the longest time ever is, but it is up there. I don't think that a ball python has ever laid eggs asexually (parthenogenesis), but Boas and Burms have done it. Not sure if a Retic has or not.

My 2 now. Make an incubator,you can find lots of videos on youtube. It is easier and it's less stress for you. Once you set the eggs with right temp and hatchrite, you only need to check 60 days later.
If you need advice on how to take them off the female and the setu and/or how to do the incubator just pm me.

Following

Following. Great advice has already been said

hoping for positive vibes..

Lay a towel over the entire snake then simply lift her off the clutch. This may take a while, she will most likely tighten her grip a little bit but she wont crush the eggs so just lift slowly and the eggs will stay behind.

She will probably be REALLY unhappy about this but as long as you keep her under the towel she shouldn't strike.



Honestly If you aren't prepared for dealing with eggs and don't have a local shop to bring them to for incubation I would suggest candling them just for curiosities sake then toss them.