I have had this girl in my possession for about 4 years now, this is the first time she has ever laid eggs for me. I have bred her over the past three years and she finally went through and ovulated and then the wait was on. Time usually flies by for me, but this time of year it just seems to run in slow motion, waiting for ovulations, waiting for pre lay sheds, waiting for eggs, and finally waiting for eggs... Anyways when this girl ovulated she was huge she literally had to lie sideways in her container to have enough room for the swelling she went through. At this point I figured it was going to be a big clutch of eggs or at least have some really large eggs. Well 25 days after her prelay shed she deposited 1 egg. I was very excited the time that I had waited for several years was finally here, I went to work that night and couldn't wait to get home to see how many eggs she had laid. To my great disappointment when I checked her 15 hours after laying the first egg, there was still only 1 egg. I started to panic, I thought that she might be egg bound. I called a good friend of mine Mark Mandic of Markus Jayne Ball Pythons and asked him if he had ever had this happen to him. He told me that he had never encountered this in the past and recommended that I call another good friend of mine Brian Barczyk of BHB Enterprises. I called Brian and explained what was going on. One of the first questions Brian had asked me was if the first egg was good or not. I replied yes it was indeed and it was fertile and weighed in 152 grams. At first he thought along the same lines that I was thinking that she was bound or had ripped through the wall of the Oviduct and the next egg in line had went into the body cavity. Just a quick note for everyone else, He had seen the first egg come out and be a slug and then a day or so later she would drop the rest of the clutch. But my first egg was good. The forecast seemed grim, I asked about caesarian birth and to his knowledge no eggs that were ever taken caesarian had ever been successfully hatched. He gave me this phone number to a couple of veterinarians that specialize in reptiles and told me to give them a call to see if there was a new technology that he wasn't aware of. I did just that, I spent about 30 minutes on the phone with Dave Doardy and he said the best thing to do was wait a week and see what happens. The other option was a medication called Argeinevasotocin (to stimulate muscle contractions to help her lay her clutch) However he thought she was too early and said if she wasn't ready to lay this would destroy the clutch. Or a caesarian if she was egg bound, but this also would destroy the clutch, I was back at square one again! Well I called Brian Barczyk and told him basically what he had already told me. Now all I could do was wait! This was the longest 24 hour period I think I had ever gone through. Needless to say when I arrived home from work that next morning there she was a BEAUTIFUL 16 egg clutch! So what happened? Why one day 1 egg and then 2 days later the rest of the clutch? Well all that we can come up with is that she just ran out of room inside her body. This was a very humbling experience for me, because this could have went either way, naturally I was worried for the clutch but more importantly I wanted my girl to survive this breeding. I wanted to share this encounter of mine with everyone and to remind everyone to be patient. This girl weighed in at just over 8500 grams before the breeding season. The picture of her with a pastel was taken last season I attached that picture for a size reference he is a 1500 gram male. Just in case anyone is wondering the father of this clutch is a Cinnamon Pastel. Unfortunately I never got around to taking pictures of them locked up.
Enjoy!
Bryan Kollwitz
www.exoticballpythons.com
