I've also been hearing about this for years but I've NEVER seen any compelling evidence to back it up. It always seemed to me to be just too handy of an answer, kind of a catch all reason .



Infertile eggs are caused because a viable sperm never made it to the egg to fertalize it. Do you have any evidence to prove that being overweight interferes with the ability of a sperm to make it to the egg? I'd love to see any studies if you have any handy.



Mark



>>It has been known for years that fat female pythons often drop slugs or no eggs at all. It has been documented in bloods, olives, Angolans and womas to name a few. Obesity is a also a common determining factor when boas and colubrid snakes slug out. Obese females simply don't reproduce as well as healthy, well muscled girls. While it is normal for ball pythons to be heavy, I would not be surprised to hear of an overweight female dropping slugs. Actually, I bet it is more common than we realize. People probably don't attribute such reproductive failures to obesity because we assume that since balls are heavy bodied snakes, the fatter they are, the better production will be. That is true up to a point, but beyond that point, we see diminished returns on that caloric investment. Better luck with her next year.

>>

>>Will

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