Hi all,

New member here and first post. I first bred ball pythons in 1983 and still have a male I got in a pet store in 1979.

I came to this thread through a search for parthenogenesis in ball pythons. This is a very interesting story, indeed; not just because of the genetics, but due to the human interest angle, as well: long-time pet purchased to help pay off someone's utility bill, etc.

Here's a link to the case of the zoo animal that Randy Remington referred to above: It's in the journal, Heredity, "Molecular genetic evidence for parthenogenesis in the Burmese python, Python molurus bivittatus" http://www.nature.com/hdy/journal/v9.../6800210a.html

The problem with our anecdotal information is that we can never be sure (or at least, never really convince everyone) that these are truly cases of parthenogenesis without some sort of specialized DNA testing of the offspring. It would be nice if the original poster could find some academic specialist willing to do this.

Anyway, the same sort of thing happened to me just ten days ago. A virgin female ball python I produced myself seven years ago deposited a small clutch of eggs. If anything comes of it, I'll post more.