With almost all python egg laying, I use maternal incubation with a damp long-fiber spagnum substrate and there are always a few eggs in the clutch pile that have mold growth on the surface when these eggs hatch. I have never lost an egg from what I suspected was a mold issue. Python eggs are laid in nature on soil and/or decaying vegetation substrates and they have well developed antibody defense against most bacterial and fungal species found in the environment. I am not saying mold growth could never kill an egg, but I believe there is a confusion between cause and effect in the vast majority of these cases. In these cases of heavy mold growth and dead eggs, I believe the eggs had already died before the mold growth took over.

Kelly

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