Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I know it is normal for ball python eggs to become soft and start to dimple 2 weeks before hatching, but can it happen before that? There is plenty of humidity. I have water in the resevore of the incubator as well as the eggs being on moist vermiculite. These are my first ball python eggs, so I am a little paranoid. LOL When I candle them I can see the babies moving so they are still alive and the eggs are good. Any thoughts. thank you I appreciate any help.

Kim

They are dimpling because they are drying out some. Don't
worry, if you catch it early enough there is no damage!

It could be that your substrate is simply not wet enough.
Another trick is to place a moist papertowel on them for a
few days (that will really get the humidity up). Note: Make sure
the papertowel is not close to the heating element.

Good luck!
ChrisS - SanJose

I haven't had a TON of experience, but I have read alot and I just had my first clutch of bp eggs hatch out about 3 weeks ago. I had one dimple quite a bit on me also about 3 weeks into it and had another that somehow tore open a little bit and I saw it oozing out liquid with still a couple weeks to go, but they both hatched out just fine no worries. In the book Reproductive Husbandry of Pythons and Boas it showed a severely dimpled white lipped python egg and it looked like there was no way an embryo could be growing in there, but it lived and with a little help hatched out. There are also quite a few other pictures of trashed looking python eggs that hatch out ok. Check it out.

One thing I would try that you didn't mention you are doing, but maybe you are, is weighing your eggs about once a week. I did this and made sure my eggs were not loosing too much weight. Between the picture in the book, and seeing that the weight wasn't dropping too much helped me sleep at night. I too was very paranoid about it all. Good luck! Any other questions let me know.

Sounds like you are getting some good advice. This year, I had one egg that the female pushed aside. 2-3 weeks into the incubator, it began to collapse. I added more water to the vermiculite. Too much in fact. The egg began to discolor. I left it alone for a while and when it dried out a bit, I placed damp sphagnum moss around the egg. It still looked like crap but was the first to hatch. The little guy is eating just fine.

Watch the egg. If it continues to collapse, add some damp sphagnum moss around the egg and in the dimple itself. If it continues to collapse, there's probably something wrong with it (provided your humidity is fine). If the other eggs are fine, then I would say it's most likely the egg.

Good luck and don't panic.
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Jay A. Martin

...back in 1992 when my then 23 year old Sperm-storing/Parthenogenetic female laid 4 good eggs (after not being with another BP for over 8 years), during the first 10 days of maternal incubation they were at no more than 50% rel humidity. When discovered these eggs were DEEPLY dented (dimpling doesn't come close!) and rather flattened, but they were good. They were then set up in an incubator-3 ultimately hatched. The most dented egg went full-term dead-in-egg. So the female was able to maintain a sufficient micro-environment around the eggs for survival. It also shows that these BP eggs were able to survive low humidity early (mid?) on. Remember that when eggs are laid the embryos are already approx 30 days old.
The point here is that BP eggs seem to be rather forgiving and that a few days of sub-optimum humidity should do no harm.
Good luck with yours!! SJM

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