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Here are a bunch of pictures of my first ever clutch of ball python eggs. Hope you enjoy them

Mark

Mom Julia coiled up around her eggs. She's a very mellow snake. I thought she'd get hissy and snap at me this time, but she was great.

Since these are my first ball python eggs, I was surprised by how big they actually are.

630 grams for an average of 105 grams each.

I had to pull then apart in order to fit them in my incubator, here they are ready to go in. Unfortunatly I tore a hole in one the the eggs while I was pulling them apart (egg on lower right hand side) I'm still going to incubate it and I'm going to try patching it, but I don't have much hope.

Good luck with the eggs and I will pray for the lil ripped one. Nice female. How much? LOL J/K I wish I had a female like her. Is that a white patch of scales? Looks like it. Well anyway, good luck!
My site (Complete 4 now?)

Sell her?? HA, NEVER. She was actually a gift from a couple of good friends so I'd never even dream of selling her. I probably won't even sell her babies, or at least I plan on keeping all of the females. She has such a gentle easy going personality while at the same time eating anything and everything that I put in front of her. It would be interesting to see if those traits could be perpetuated. On the white scales, yes she does have a couple of spots like that on her, she's had them ever since I've had her. I believe they are old scars.

Mark

>>Good luck with the eggs and I will pray for the lil ripped one. Nice female. How much? LOL J/K I wish I had a female like her. Is that a white patch of scales? Looks like it. Well anyway, good luck!
>>My site (Complete 4 now?)

np

Way to go, Mark! It gets even better when you see the first nose poking out of one of the eggs. That punctured one looks pretty far gone, having lost so much fluid, but it never hurts to give it a go in the incubator. The first ball python egg I ever tore (and last until a few days ago) seemed to seal up on its own and gestation proceeded normally, but it hadn't lost such a volume of nutrients as yours.

-Joan

>>Here are a bunch of pictures of my first ever clutch of ball python eggs. Hope you enjoy them
>>
>>Mark
>>
>>Mom Julia coiled up around her eggs. She's a very mellow snake. I thought she'd get hissy and snap at me this time, but she was great.
>>
>>
>>Since these are my first ball python eggs, I was surprised by how big they actually are.
>>
>>
>>630 grams for an average of 105 grams each.
>>
>>
>>I had to pull then apart in order to fit them in my incubator, here they are ready to go in. Unfortunatly I tore a hole in one the the eggs while I was pulling them apart (egg on lower right hand side) I'm still going to incubate it and I'm going to try patching it, but I don't have much hope.
>>
>>
>>

Joan, thanks for the encouragement. It did lose about a teaspoons worth of albumen when it started leaking so that may be too much. But when I looked in on it last night I could actually see veins inside so it's not dead yet. I was actually thinking about sealing it up tonight with a band-aid, it may sound crazy but they are supposed to plug up the wound and protect against infection while still being breathable enough for air flow. I guess I'll find out.

Mark

>>Way to go, Mark! It gets even better when you see the first nose poking out of one of the eggs. That punctured one looks pretty far gone, having lost so much fluid, but it never hurts to give it a go in the incubator. The first ball python egg I ever tore (and last until a few days ago) seemed to seal up on its own and gestation proceeded normally, but it hadn't lost such a volume of nutrients as yours.
>>
>>-Joan
>>

if you are going to breed snakes, then you must hatch snakes! why go through all the hard work and then shortchange yourself in the end?

it is the nature of python eggs to be stuck together, you should use an incubator that allows for the clutch to be placed in without unnecessary separation.

you can buy a commercial unit for a pretty penny, or you can build a fine incubator yourself for just a few bucks and a little bit of research.

your eggs need proper temperature and high humidity. using a little tiny container in a little tiny incubator gives you no thermal mass whatsoever and VERY little room for error.

breeding monitors, incubation is said to be 30% of the successful breeding process. it isn't QUITE as critical with snakes, but i would say it is at least 15-20% of it. that means you should committ 15-20% of your time and resources to HATCHING the eggs, otherwise what is the point of breeding the snakes only to watch the eggs go bad over a 2 month period?

best of luck to you and your eggs, but i promise the process will be much easier with a good, reliable, decently sized incubator! : )
-----
robyn@proexotics.com

Pro Exotics Reptiles

Thanks for the reply Robyn. I actually went out and bought a brand new incubator that I am using for the ball pythons. I guess I just made a bad choice. My original plan was to use an incubator that I've been using for years hatching colubrids, unfortunatly I found out that I wasn't able to get the heat up high enough. Instead of upgrading the heater, I went out to a farm supply store and bought a little giant chicken egg incubator (same thing as a hovabator) Which I have seen recommended by others on here. I didn't realize they were so short and I had a hard time finding plastic boxes that would fit inside without touching the heating element. When the eggs were laid, I was taken by surprise by how big they actually are. I've never hatched any kind of pythons before, all of my experience was with colubrids and the largest eggs I've dealt with in the past were northern pine snake eggs which were about half the size of these. The ball eggs I had just gotten were just not going to fit unless I pulled them apart, which I didn't do a very good job of. I'll have to design a different kind of incubator for next year. You learn something new everyday I guess, thanks for the advice.

Mark

>>if you are going to breed snakes, then you must hatch snakes! why go through all the hard work and then shortchange yourself in the end?
>>
>>it is the nature of python eggs to be stuck together, you should use an incubator that allows for the clutch to be placed in without unnecessary separation.
>>
>>you can buy a commercial unit for a pretty penny, or you can build a fine incubator yourself for just a few bucks and a little bit of research.
>>
>>your eggs need proper temperature and high humidity. using a little tiny container in a little tiny incubator gives you no thermal mass whatsoever and VERY little room for error.
>>
>>breeding monitors, incubation is said to be 30% of the successful breeding process. it isn't QUITE as critical with snakes, but i would say it is at least 15-20% of it. that means you should committ 15-20% of your time and resources to HATCHING the eggs, otherwise what is the point of breeding the snakes only to watch the eggs go bad over a 2 month period?
>>
>>best of luck to you and your eggs, but i promise the process will be much easier with a good, reliable, decently sized incubator! : )
>>-----
>>robyn@proexotics.com
>>
>>Pro Exotics Reptiles