Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This is my first go at breeding balls, my female laid 11 eggs today and they are currently in my incubator. The question I have is, I candled the eggs and all 11 have nice red veins, the weird thing is, they all have spots on them that seem a little thinner than other parts of the egg. I have photos but they aren't very good and you can't really see what I'm talking about. There were three roll outs and the one is a little caved in right now(just moistened the vermiculite a bit more so hopefully it perks up by morning), the weird thing is, you can see the veins in this egg without even candling it. I have searched and searched and can't seem to find any accounts of a ball having thin eggs? Other than that they seem pretty healthy, all big and heavy and have nice veins in them. Also, only a few of them actually stuck together, I didn't think this would be any sort of issue though.

Just re-read this and it's a bit confusing, to clarify, the eggs have spots on them that are the normal opaque white, but between these spots of white there are "thinner" spots where you can see the pink of the inner egg in normal lighting conditions, normal or something to worry about?

What you are describing sounds perfectly normal. Not all eggs look "perfect".

Contracts on a large clutch!
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Best regards,
AlanColesReptiles

Eggs thinner spots are caused by uneven shell calcification, which is normal...Very rarely you'll get eggs without thin spots (or windows, some people call them)
Congratulations on you first clutch!
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Sed et serpens erat callidior cunctis animantibus terrae quae fecerat Dominus Deus...

That's great to hear! I was a bit worried when I couldn't find any info describing what we were experiencing. Is it normal for an egg to cave a bit if it has a fairly large "window" or is that most definitely a moisture problem?

You will get all kinds of strange looking eggs from time to time that will incubate and hatch without a hitch. The windows are pretty normal as others have said as well as what they call boob eggs which will apprear to have a big brown nipple in one end and I have even had a clutch one time that had 3 of the eggs linked together like sausages which of course I left strung together and they all seem to hatch perfectly fine. One thing I do want to tell you and Im not sure what others have had for success on but it seems like about 75% or more of the eggs that roll out eventually seem to die. That is my experience anyways. I would like to hear what others think or have to say about their roll outs.. Jay
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JEMreptiles@gmail.com from sunny AZ.

Lots of cool Ball Pythons along with
0.0.1 Vietnamese Blue Beauty and some great Bull snakes.
1.1 Argentinian Black and White Tegus
1.0 Gotti Pitbull (Tank)
2.0 Beautiful Bengals (Stryker and Cynbad)
12 Tarantulas
Last but most Important 2.2 Children

Yes, I've been told and read that many roll outs don't make it, I figured it couldn't hurt to put them in the incubator anyway and at least give them a shot, so far they look good. I've kept herps for a long time and used to do educational shows, this is my first time breeding snakes though, I do breed parrots however. I'm using a hovabator 1602n, I know, not the best incubator but it seems to be working well. It's the really old model, the one that is square, not round. How often should I be opening the container up for air circulation? every 2 days, 3 days? I have some pics of the clutch in this public album, they aren't very good though, sorry.
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.136019409851575.25120.100003305493717&type=3

I totally agree with giving any egg a chance as long as its not a slug. I put every reasonable looking roll out into the incubator with the rest of the clutch and normally within 3 to 5 weeks you will be able to tell its not good. Heck I just leave them in there usually because I have had guys tell me they have had some pretty bad eggs hatch but they must be talking about the window and boob eggs because I have never had one of the roll outs that started going bad hatch..
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JEMreptiles@gmail.com from sunny AZ.

Lots of cool Ball Pythons along with
0.0.1 Vietnamese Blue Beauty and some great Bull snakes.
1.1 Argentinian Black and White Tegus
1.0 Gotti Pitbull (Tank)
2.0 Beautiful Bengals (Stryker and Cynbad)
12 Tarantulas
Last but most Important 2.2 Children

I guess I've been lucky? And I would say I'm 50/50 on boob eggs. I think some are just too small to support the baby.

Good luck with your first clutch!

Never lost a roll out...I don't buy into the theroy females know they are bad eggs and don't wrap them...

These hatched...

I have had girls sitting on slugs and perfect eggs sitting next to them...They don't have a clue!!!

This girl didn't wrap any of these eggs...None of those were bad though and they all hatched fine!

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Jon
Cold Blooded Addiction

The spots are normal
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