Reptile & Amphibian Forums

can adolecent female ball pythons lay infertile eggs?

yes

ANY ball can lay infertile eggs no matter of age ,times bred or not bred at all........I have never had a ball lay eggs that was not bred at all.,,but I expect it could happen.,it happens in corns and kings and all........

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and I am still waiting for that "magical" check......
mail isn't that slow.....come on man....write it out.....!50

Any female can have infertile eggs!

If your definition of "adolescent" means pre-sexually mature, then no.
Sexual maturity is the ability to produce viable gametes (sex cells = sperm for males, eggs for females) - for example, immature males of many species can still produce sperm, but that doesn't mean it's viable and will actually produce offspring. Females have the organs that eventually produce eggs their whole lives, but the organs don't actually go into egg producing mode until the females are sexually mature.

My understanding of ball python anatomy is that they will not produce unfertile eggs when they have not bred (like a chicken would). For them it would be too costly, energy wise, to do so. This would be true even more so for a younger snake which is still allotting energy for growth.

Balls and corns are two completely different species, so what one might be capable of doing, the other isn't necessarily capable of. They evolved very differently

~jenny
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1.2 normal ball pythons (Cindy, Darwin, and Periscope)
0.2 rescue chinese water dragons (Yoni and Linga)
1.0 rex rat (Scurvy)
1.0 gerbil (Yerbul)
0.1 bunny (Spazz)
1.1 betta fishes (Vicious and Killer)
2.2 great danes (Shasta, Odysseus, Merlot, and Watson)
1.0 fat fuzzy mutt (Smokey)
1.1 cats (Thidwick and Turtle)
2.0 horses (Buddy and Sam)
1.0 goat (Billy Jack)
1.25 chickens (Ugly the rooster and his harem)

"The problem with America is stupidity. Now, I'm not saying we use capital punishment, but why don't we just take the safety labels off of everything and let the problem solve itself?"

thank you, that answers a lot of questions about my ball python sally. it's great to readily have answers from herpers with experience. thanks again!