Snakes and Stones

[Lord Sorril]

So sorry for your losses, Lord Sorril, but that's awesome that you shared this with us here- it gives others a heads-up as to what can go wrong- something they may not otherwise consider. I also hope the only damage for your snakes is this year alone.

Sure, you bet!

I'm not certain if this is the actual issue or not...I have not noticed anything unusual with the health of my ball python collection.

Arsenic likes to bind to Keratin in mammals (hair, fingernails...etc), most animals can easily remove it in low doses. I have no information on ball pythons: hopefully it binds to the scales and is shed out...

I have glanced at highly technical articles that have mentioned that arsenic may interfere with the Homeostasis (balance) of Calcium in a mammalian body. If it is messing up the Calcium balance in my ball pythons this may explain why my follicles are not advancing. This is not to say that I won't be getting any more eggs this season...I see several females still developing eggs, but, there is a huge delay in formation time, and so far egg mortality is much higher than usual... At this rate I will be incubating eggs into January...