Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Here is my second set of BP eggs for the year. This will be the last ones I get for this year. At least I didn't screw these ones up.

Here's Margaret sitting on her eggs.

Here is a picture of the eggs stuck together in a clump. There are 6 of them again.

Here is a pic of them sitting on the scale. Total weight of eggs is 655 grams, Margarets weight after she laid was 1400 grams. I had weighed her 4 days ago and she was 2010 grams so somehow she picked up 45 grams of weight in only 4 days

Here is the last pic of the eggs all sitting in their incubation container. I pulled them apart again but thankfully didn't break any this time.

Thanks for looking.

Mark

It's amazing to me how consistent they are at laying about 1/3 of their pre-lay weight into their clutch. This one was 32%. I haven't seen a huge sample size but just following the posts here and my own limited experience it looks like the vast majority fall in between 31% and 35%.

Are any other pythons so predictable or just ball pythons? Also, do other species put this much into their offspring regardless of consistency?

Thanks Randy. I'm just starting out with the Balls, but I plan on (at least trying to) keep good complete records. Of course I tried that with the corns as well but that seemed to fall by the wayside after a few years. I wish I could develope a good easy to use record keeping system. Something so simple even *I* could remember to use it LOL

Mark

>>It's amazing to me how consistent they are at laying about 1/3 of their pre-lay weight into their clutch. This one was 32%. I haven't seen a huge sample size but just following the posts here and my own limited experience it looks like the vast majority fall in between 31% and 35%.
>>
>>Are any other pythons so predictable or just ball pythons? Also, do other species put this much into their offspring regardless of consistency?

Congratulations Mark! 6 is a decent clutch.
I have a question for you...What substrate are you
using? It looks a little 'different'.

Later,
Chris

I appreciate the congrats. The substrate that I use is Perlite. You find it in plant stores right next to the vermiculite. It's used as a soil conditioner for better aeration of the plant roots. It's sterile, holds moisture real well so the eggs are in a high humidity environment without getting wet and allows for much better air flow around the eggs then vermiculite. I've been using it for years with my colubrids so I thought I'd try it out with the ball pythons as well.

Mark

>>Congratulations Mark! 6 is a decent clutch.
>>I have a question for you...What substrate are you
>>using? It looks a little 'different'.
>>
>>Later,
>>Chris