Egg bound?

[babyknees]

How common is it for female ball pythons to become egg bound? If you breed BPs have you ever had any females become egg bound? What can be done for a female that this happens to? Are there any risk factors other than the female being skinny?

[sookieball]

Not that common or uncommon
Just make sure you have no doubt that she will be OK.
First timers should be old enough, big enough, and you should be golden.
There was a thread not to long ago of a BP that died egg bound but her clutch seems to be doing well last I read. They dissected the eggs out.
I would die if this happened to me.
I couldn't imagine losing one of my baby's.
http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showthread.php?t=173068


Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

[RobNJ]

Could be a twisted oviduct that causes it or the eggs can actually be attached to the oviduct lining. I think size is a lesser factor that would cause it, as it seems that good size females can just as easily become egg bound as smaller ones.

[sookieball]

Could be a twisted oviduct that causes it or the eggs can actually be attached to the oviduct lining. I think size is a lesser factor that would cause it, as it seems that good size females can just as easily become egg bound as smaller ones.

Possible. But I would think less often it would happen to a mature and/or larger female.
I personally have only one season under my belt
But this season I have 2 and both are over 3.8 foot and one is over 2000grams and the other just at 2000.
Ones a few-4 years old and the other is 2 years old.
So I may not be an expert but I've been on this forum a while and no one on here would recommend breeding a young or underweight female.
Granted there are some small females that never get bigger than 12-1500 grams. And still lay healthy clutches just fine. But they are also more often than not, a few years old. Its just a gamble for sure.
Even a big mature female is at risk. But IMHO is still less likely I believe.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

[babyknees]

There was a thread not to long ago of a BP that died egg bound but her clutch seems to be doing well last I read. They dissected the eggs out.
I would die if this happened to me.
I couldn't imagine losing one of my baby's.
http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showthread.php?t=173068

I saw that thread and that was what got me worrying and thinking about it all.

Could be a twisted oviduct that causes it or the eggs can actually be attached to the oviduct lining. I think size is a lesser factor that would cause it, as it seems that good size females can just as easily become egg bound as smaller ones.

I would have no plans of breeding an under sized female but does that mean that there is nothing that can be done to avoid it? Are there studies or research about this?