Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi,

I am desperately hoping someone can give me some help and/or advice on my ball python eggs. This is the first time I have had eggs from my female and I have them in an incubator.

It took me two weeks to purchase an incubator (the eggs were unexpected). They stayed at a temp of 84-86 degrees before the incubator. Since they have been in the incubator...they have been kept at a temperature of 90 degrees.

My friend has the soil rather moist that they are sitting in, but I can still see veins in all of the eggs. Two of the eggs have lost a lot of moisture and the other four eggs have soaked up some of the moisture and look rather plump.

Today is the 65th day they have been in the incubator and nothing has hatched. I am starting to get very worried. Is it likely that these eggs will hatch? Is there somethign else I should be doing? Any advice is greatly appreciated.

My e-mail address is: melissascu@aol.com

Thanks,
Melissa

The fact that it took a while to get them in the incubator, combined with the fact that have been incubated at a cooler than ideal temp since then, means they are definately going to take longer than 60 days.

I wouldn't sweat it till after 70 days, the fact that the eggs arn't dead is a GREAT sign that you'll have good news in the end.

Good luck!

Justin

Hi Justin,

Thank you so much for your response. It made me feel a lot better about my eggs. I am keeping my fingers crossed. A lot of articles I have read suggest cutting into eggs before they are ready to hatch. Do you have any experience in this? Should I just wait for them to come out naturally?

Thank you,
Melissa

I've pipped plenty of eggs, but this is when they were kept at a constant 89-90 degrees and I knew they would be coming out right at 60 days, if not a few days before.

Seeing that you have questions on their temps all along, you have no way of knowing for sure how many days they are needing to completely mature.

So in this case. I'd wait, maybe pip one egg at 70 days and poke the baby with a dull tip of something just to see if it moves. You'll still likely have a good outcome from these eggs, just keep your fingers crossed. anything can happen...

Justin

Hi Melissa -

I agree with everything Jason has already said. Just keep checking on them every day, and you should be successful soon. Also, some people think that temperature extremes or fluctuations during incubation can produce aberrant patterns, so be sure to let us know. Such can also produce less pleasant abnormalities, but you can cross that bridge later, or hopefully not at all.

-Joan

Cutting eggs. In my personal opinion, people cut eggs because there is a slim chance that a High end animal might be weak, and not able to make it out of the egg by itself. So, cutting the egg will allow said weak animal to imerge eventually. Do you have million dollar Balls hatching, if so, maybe cut them at day 70. If you do not have million dollar Balls hatching, I would let them go by themselves. I had a 100% hatch rate NOT cutting this year. I had two eggs go bad, but as far as anything dead because I did not cut, nothing!