Virgin BP laid 6 eggs!

[Juicer82]

I have a 14 year old BP who has never been near another snake. I bought her when she was a baby. I came home last night to find her wrapped around six eggs! How did this happen? Am I right in that the eggs cannot be fertile? Thanks in advance!

[satomi325]

Reptiles have a neat little evolutionary trick to survive called Parthenogenesis. It is a form of asexual reproduction that does not need fertilization to occur.

Females can basically clone themselves and produce viable eggs that can hatch.

[JLC]

Most of the time, they will reabsorb their follicles if no mating takes place, but sometimes they still develop into unfertilized eggs and get laid as slugs.

On very rare occasions, though, ball pythons have been known to spontaneously lay fertile eggs without having been with a male. The process is called parthenogenesis and is more common among a few other reptile species, but not entirely unheard of in ball pythons.

It's such a rare event though, that documentation of it would be valuable. You can use a small, bright flashlight to "candle" the eggs and look for veins. If you see veins, and if the number of veins increases over time, then the eggs are fertile. If they are infertile, then the eggs will look more opaque against the light.

Please keep us updated on what you find!

[ROACH]

Reptiles have a neat little evolutionary trick to survive called Parthenogenesis. It is a form of asexual reproduction that does not need fertilization to occur.

Females can basically clone themselves and produce viable eggs that can hatch.

WOW...I did not know this. I looked it up and just WOW! Pretty cool.

[Juicer82]

Thank you for the info! I'll keep you posted. The eggs are almost completely covered by Ramses (the mother), but I'll try the light trick. The eggs are very white, almost marshmallow like.

[brettfong]

just to chime in, technically they could not be exact clones of the female! Hope they hatch

[Juicer82]

When she left the eggs to get a drink of water, I tried to see veins by shining a flashlight through them the eggs, but I didn't see any. Maybe I should try a brighter light?

[carbn8]

Wasnt there a thread on here about a BRB doing this?

Sent from my SCH-S720C using Tapatalk 2

[grcforce327]

Maybe I should try a brighter light?

Dark Room!

[Juicer82]

I'll try a darker room. I'm very new to this stuff, so don't feel bad if you feel you're stating the obvious.