Hi Folks,

I have been breeding pythons for more than twenty years ,but have never experienced this before. July 3, I received a clutch of ten diamond python eggs from a Crutchfield male and a Dan Vermilya female. Both animals were about 2.5 years of age when they bred last winter.

Anyway, the female nested under a large plant drip tray in a deep bed of leaf litter a couple of weeks after a post ovulation shed. The nesting seemed early to me, but it was my first experience nesting diamonds, so I didn't think much of it. When I collected the eggs and candled them, only five showed vascularization. The others glowed yellow like typical infertile eggs. They were full sized eggs, not slugs however.
Two weeks later, I re-candled them and all ten glowed red with blood vessels. I have never had snake eggs develop signs of life after being layed, like monitor and turtle eggs frequently do. I normally get rid of infertile eggs if they are not too deep in the clutch. Luckily, this girl bound this clutch up tight, before I could get to them, so I just left them all together, I'm glad that I did.

Have any of you experienced keepers seen this before? Thanks.

Will

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