So I recently got into breeding ball pythons, and I have acquired a few breeders recently for this project. I've kept pet ball pythons for years (my oldest is now 7 years old) and wanted to step it up, never had any problem with my pets. While I was searching for local ball pythons for our breeding project, I found a guy selling a gravid female. Thought this would be a good opportunity to practice with one clutch before all of our other females began breeding and laying. She seemed normal and healthy at the time of purchasing, and actually was going into a pre-lay shed. I don't have a weight from before she was bred, but her last weight was 1800g. She shed one complete shed on September 27th, passed some urine on October 12th, and passed sometime today, October 13th. I thought it was just inverted laying at first, but when I went to touch her she was entirely unresponsive and has not moved since.

Based on what I've researched, she shouldn't have been quite due to lay yet based on the timing of her shed, so I wasn't looking especially for any signs of dystocia. I would check on her, and she seemed fine when I went to clean her tub following her urinating. She was active and flicking her tongue. She actually had some more activity exploring her cage yesterday. I hadn't seen any coiling behaviors like she was trying to lay either. She was being kept on paper towels because I've always been terrified of my balls ingesting substrate and I knew that if somehow paper towels were ingested it would be obvious. Everyone else in both racks are doing great, with hot side temps of 90 degrees (using a thermostat with heat tape and double checking with laser thermometer) and the room temperature being 70 degrees. I spray the tubs occasionally to help maintain humidity. Many of them ate yesterday as well, including some that I've had longer than her as well as some of the ones I got in a week ago. Those that didn't eat only didn't do so because they've never eaten f/t before, which is what I offered yesterday. This particular female was not offered food because she had not been eating, which I had assumed was due to the eggs being so far along.

So my question is, what went wrong????? I'm so clueless as to what happened and I haven't seen anything so far on gravid ball pythons suddenly passing. I've had my pets for years and many new breeders in this rack for much longer than I've had this gravid girl with no issues occurring with anyone else. I do know that this guy seems to smoke in his house (which I figured out after I purchased her) but like I said she seemed normal up until her passing. I'm so afraid I've done something horribly wrong and I don't want this to happen to any of the other girls I'm planning on breeding.