Mama BP won't touch her eggs! Help!

Hey all--I'm new here and I've searched in several areas, to include the entire internet (well, almost) regarding this problem, so I am reaching out for help.

I have an adult female ball python that I've had for a year. I have never let her near any other snakes, let alone tried to mate her. So you can imagine my surprise when I walked into the animal room Monday and found 8 (!) EGGS in her tank!!

I candled them all and am certain I have at least one fertile egg (very veiny). My problem is that I tried to let her incubate the eggs for the first 2 days, and she hasn't touched them. I even grouped them all together under her favorite basking lamp, and still nothing. So I put a heating pad under them and set it on low so they would be getting some warmth. She isn't heating up and transferring her heat to the eggs, she appears completely apathetic towards them. ???

So I went ahead and purchased an incubator, in which they are sitting at approximately 88-89 degrees farenheit with 70% or higher humidity, and already the larger eggs are starting to dimple. I also noticed some gnats in the incubator yesterday.

I read somewhere that candling works best with BP eggs if they're given a few days to incubate, so I'm not sure if I should try again, as some eggs are large and white, and others are smaller and yellow.

I'm thrilled and terrified, is there any reason she may be completely uninterested in her babies?

Thanks so much in advance, everyone!! :)

Can someone please move my post or delete it so I can post it in the right spot? Thanks so much!

Post is fine.

White and plump eggs are a good thing, small and yellow are usually slugs.
Photos would be great

The power of Christ impregnated her

either she was with a male before you got her and she retained sperm or it is a partho clutch; which is not very common but I have heard of a lot more of them in the last couple years. She does not have to wrap the eggs to have them hatch out, set them up on some damp Sphagnum moss and cover them with a small tub over a heat pad fill in the outside of the tub about half way up with cypress mulch to insulate mist around them to keep humidity up. Probe the inside of the tub and keep the temps and humidity up and you basically have a small incubator. You can also cut a small hole in the side of the tub for mom to go in and out if you want. they will dry out if you keep them under the heat lamp if they haven't already. You can always buy a small incubator too.

Not being interested in her eggs can be due to various things, first timer (not having a clue), females that knows the eggs are bad, and sometimes for no reason at all, a few years ago I had a female on a loan (proven female) she laid her clutch and migrated as far away from the eggs as possible (all viable and 100% hatch rate)

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If she doesn't want to incubate them, she just won't. So removing them to incubate them yourself was a good move. I hope that some eggs are viable for you. If no veins develop, you can discard those eggs. Good luck.

Also make sure not to turn the eggs over accidentally lol! The embryo adheres to the top and will drown if turned, much different from bird eggs that drown when not turned enough

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Ok, I took a photo of the eggs and I'll post it when I can figure out how :)

Thanks so much for you guys' help and advice, I feel so welcome!

So today's problem is there are maggots ON the eggs. :/ The smaller ones are hard and don't have maggots, but the larger ones, to include the two that I'm positive are fertile, have maggots on the outside. They appear to not have permeated the inside of the egg.

I was thinking maybe wiping the eggs with a clorhexadine solution and putting Vermaticulite in the incubator? I candled the eggs without moving them and two of them now have veins and an embryo with an eyeball that I can see. I really don't want to just toss them.

Thoughts?

http://i706.photobucket.com/albums/w...ake%20eggs.jpg

Those are not good. Sorry.

Those look like slugs to me. It's sort of rare, but some snakes lay unfertilized eggs on occasion. Sorry about that.

The two on the bottom of the picture are slugs. The two top ones look like they are going bad. Most likely, they were never fertile to begin with since she has never had a mate. If you want to know for sure, bad eggs solidify inside and will look like hard vanilla pudding. You could pick one and open it up just to let yourself know that they would never had hatched. Think of chickens, they lay eggs with no rooster present.

This is interesting


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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kibbleswhites

The two on the bottom of the picture are slugs. The two top ones look like they are going bad. Most likely, they were never fertile to begin with since she has never had a mate. If you want to know for sure, bad eggs solidify inside and will look like hard vanilla pudding. You could pick one and open it up just to let yourself know that they would never had hatched. Think of chickens, they lay eggs with no rooster present.

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From the research I've done, balls don't typically lay unfertilized eggs like chickens do. They certainly can, but it's pretty rare.

She hasn't been with a mate in the past year, but she could have retained sperm from a mating with a male before I had her (they can retain sperm for up to 3 years), or its an even rarer case of parthenogenesis.

So, in conclusion, 2 of the eggs have veins, eyeballs, and embryos when candled. They probably won't make it to term, but I'm gonna try anyway :)

I've since made my own incubator out of an airtight container, heating pad, and spring water mixed with vermiculite. Humidity is above 90%, and temp is between 87-89. I'll keep y'all posted!

Those eggs all need to go in the bin. They are not going to hatch. Sorry to say so.


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Mine lay unfertilized eggs quite a bit along with slugs and fertilized eggs. The unfertilized eggs usually start to look bad in about 12-14 days. When laid they will look like a normal egg but no embryo inside. Lizards and geckos do it as well. Way more common than laying an egg with a clone inside. Super possible to lay eggs from retain sperm. Let us know what is inside the eggs when you cut them open. I am going to guess no embryo.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kibbleswhites

Mine lay unfertilized eggs quite a bit along with slugs and fertilized eggs. The unfertilized eggs usually start to look bad in about 12-14 days. When laid they will look like a normal egg but no embryo inside. Lizards and geckos do it as well. Way more common than laying an egg with a clone inside. Super possible to lay eggs from retain sperm. Let us know what is inside the eggs when you cut them open. I am going to guess no embryo.

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Yeah, I'm thinking you guys are right... It's been about 12 days now and the 2 "good" ones I thought I had are starting to not look so great. The veins I could see are starting to darken and they are getting more moldy with every passing day. I just would feel terrible if I opened one and it was viable.

So far all the other ones I've ditched, I've dissected before throwing them away and they have nothing but yolk inside (super sticky and gross!), so that's a relief. I'll certainly keep y'al posted, and thanks again for all your input!

OK gang. I've heard an overwhelming amount of "Your eggs are bad!" so I've been keeping an eye on them and not expecting much... But today I noticed they are getting hard and turning even darker--brownish black. So I figured, it's time...

I went ahead and dissected them and luckily, no babies (whew!) I thought the process was pretty interesting though, so I'm sharing the photo I took and the details for those interested:

The egg I took a photo of here was AFTER I pulled the shell off! You can plainly see the veins I had been seeing. After piercing this shell, about half was thick, like a hard boiled egg, and about half was watery like vanilla pudding. The smell was AW. FUL.

Anyway, thanks so much for everyone's input and encouragement. Now if anyone has a guess as to whether this egg was fertile for maybe the first day or so, pass on a word. I didn't see any fetal development of any kind in either of the eggs.

Thanks again, everyone!:)

http://i706.photobucket.com/albums/w...uit/badegg.jpg