As some might recall, my wild born female Kayuadi that bred and produced very nice babies in 2002 got egg bound last breeding season and slowly leaked out progressively slimy fertile looking eggs one by one over serveral weeks last year- none were good- once she had laid all the eggs, she went back on a voracious feed cycle and was fat and happy come the fall. I put the same male back with her and she- like my other 2 females was acting gravid- off feed, otherwise acting well, alert active and sitting funny, all and seemed to be producing maturing follicles. My other girls are in the ovulation cycle and she also seemed to have ovulated. Like the others, I was observing inverted posturing the last 3 weeks. Last night i went down to the room and noted that she looked slightly less vivid silver. I had cleaned her cage last week and she seemed fine. I opened the cage and found her dead.
I can only assume- too cold to take her out for an autopsy and my wife wont let me do it in the kitchen-
that she ovulated, had no oviducts to accept the fertilized eggs which were sitting in her ceolomic cavity loose- and they caused shock and death as they decomposed. She never seemed in pain and seemed quite comfortable sitting in her cool area coil just hanging out. It could also be that she ruptured an artery or vein with ovulation and bled out rapidly and therefore never showed any signs of stress or distress-
just thouhgt i would share the experience- anyone else bred a female python after the eggbound experience above that had sucess?
Winslow
