Quote Originally Posted by Lord Sorril View Post
That is a tough one. I would not want to gain a reputation as 'the guy that breeds stub tail ball pythons'.

Since you are certain this is an incubation issue and not a genetic defect - I would lower the price by 20% and never drop my price any lower. Why? Because lower than 20% would make it seem like you are tying to offload defective snakes. People may be more conducive to purchasing them as they grow larger and have a proven track record of health.

Just curious: Did you notice anything odd about the incubation? Did you use vermiculite as a media?
Thank you for the helpful response, you are pretty much right on with my thoughts.

I had no idea there was any incubation issue. There was 3 clutches in there, the two that were put in within a week of each other both hatched with short tails, the 3rd was about a month later and had all perfect babies. So me and some other breeders I'm friends with came to the conclusion something happened in that first couple weeks of incubation that caused the short tails. I have no idea what could of done it, there is literally no info online about it, at least not that I could find. My one breeder friend actually has a breeder male that has a short tail that is not as severe as mine but noticeably shorter than normal and he's created many clutches with all hatchlings having normal tails so it seems to be the same kind of thing, a non genetic type of defect.

I did use vermiculite but it was from the same bag as all my clutches so far and no other clutches have had this happen. It is pure vermiculite and fertilizer/chemical free.

The only thing we can think of that could be possible is a temp spike. The incubator is controlled by a good brand thermostat, herpstat, so I'm not sure how realistic this theory is but it's really the only thing we can think of. Power outage is possible because I do remember having one but it was such a short period of time, I just don't think it would of been enough to let the temp drop much and I don't see that causing incubation issues. Now if I had a heat spike, we all know too much heat can do damage fairly quickly. It's really our only guess.