Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Finally, 35 days after shedding my female JCP laid her eggs! six in total.
But they don't look too good IMO... they have red spots...
Does anyone know if they are fertile or not?
Thanx in advance!

Those eggs are weird! I personally haven't seen any like that before. Hopefully someone will chime in and help out with that. I would be interested to know what is up with them.

As far as them being fertile or not, have you candled them (small flashlight to the egg in a dark room and look for blood vessels)? That is how you would tell. Good luck. I hope they hatch out fine for you.
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Ben

Thank you!

Hope so too!

Last year she laid 6 eggs too, and they looked the same. They turned out to be infertile... hopefully better this year!

we'll see...

hey man, it's Derek from hate eternal. 35 days............that's quite a long time to pass before laying. what are your temps like in your cages before and after pre-lay shed?
on a side note, just got confirmed to play up your way this september on our european tour. must hook up and talk snakes. later.

Hey Derek

The temp inside the laybox was at first around 77 degrees, but i raised it to about 89 a few days prior to laying.
Sounds like a great idea to meet up somewhere, and talk snakes! Do you have any exact dates yet? Later

Sietse

sounds like you don't have enough heat for her to develope her eggs while inside her body. my animals......as soon as i notice ovilation or loss of interest from the male, i move the female to a hide box that is NO LESS than 89-91 degrees at all times. think this may be why the eggs took so long for you. just a thought.

Thanx for the advice, next year i'll keep her around that temp as soon as possible! again, thanx! And talk to you soon hopefully!

Sietse

I've had clutches that look very similar in the past. A few of the eggs hatched, but most didn't. Like Ben said, you can try to candle them, or better yet, you can just wait. Time will tell. If they are bad, it will be pretty obvious because they will start to smell terrible are turn all sorts of funny colors (blue, green, yellow, etc).

*More importantly, I think you may want to check to see if she's retaining any eggs. An adult JCP should lay between 15-25 eggs, ...10 at the least. You should be able to either see or palpate them. Try to gently place you fingers on her belly scales and your thumb toward her spine as she crawls thru your hands.

Dystocia (egg binding or difficulty in laying eggs) is somewhat common in pythons. There are several potential causes of the problem, including mis-shaped eggs (which is likely the case considering the abnormal type eggs that were deposited), eggs that are stuck together and eggs that are too large. You may try soaking her in baby-bath warm water, and/or you may also try gently messaging the retained eggs out thru the cloaca. *However, use extreme caution when doing so, or you risk rupturing or prolapsing the oviduct. Dystocia can be fatal, so if she doesn't pass the remaining eggs soon, you may want to take her to a qualified vet.

Hope I've helped and let us know what you find out!
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Will Leary
Reptilicus Reptiles
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Hi Will

Last year she retained 1 egg, and i massaged that one out. This year i'm pretty sure that she is "empty". I checked right after i removed the eggs by feeling like you mentioned, but felt nothing. thanks for the advice though! I don't want to handle the eggs too much, so i'll just wait and see what will happen. I'll post news as soon as there is any!

Sietse

.
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Ben

Unfortunately all the eggs went bad... they started to shrivle (sp?) and changed color to yellowish and even purple-ish... Better luck next year...

Sietse