Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My black blood python laid 7 eggs and 1 was a slug. Its been 10 days now and 1 of the eggs developed a clear area on it. I'm wondering if this is a bad thing or does this happen sometimes. I have candled all the eggs and they are all developing fine (they have lots of veins. Any experience with this matter would be greatly appreciated thanks alot.

Scott Brickner
sbrickner83@gmail.com

Scott,
These "water spots" or "windows" as they are sometimes referred to are fairly common on python eggs. However, from my experience, the size of these areas does not change to a large degree on a healthy egg after laying and during incubation. If there are complications with the embryo and the egg begins to die and decompose, water spots will also form under these conditions, but will spread rapidly around the outside of the egg. As the egg continues to deteriorate, the exterior surface will also become more colorful due to bacterial decomposition.

I have on rare occasions seen eggs being incubated by individuals that had the substrate too wet, and this did cause large areas of water marking on the lower surfaces of the egg next the substrate. However, this usually shows on all of the eggs, and not just one, so I don't believe this to be the case here. Bottom line is wait and see how things progress, as I don't see any signs of decomposition at this point in time.

Kelly

Thank you very much for replying to my post. I will keep an eye out for any signs of decomposition. Also, I unburied the eggs and put them more towards the top of the perlite just in case their is too much moisture sitting at the bottom of the incubator.

As I recall, this is a sign of too much humidity. as long as you lower it, it should be fine.

Search this up on a ball python forum ([url ban]), you should get some good info on this.

I have used maternal incubation with numerous species of python eggs, including ball pythons, and have never seen this occur even in 95% to 100% humidity. However, it will occur with the eggs of any python species if your substrate is saturated and too damp, even in a lower humidity. The main issue here is that it is only one egg. If the substrate were too damp, all or most of these eggs would show a water line on the lower half of the egg surface.

Kelly

>>I have used maternal incubation with numerous species of python eggs, including ball pythons, and have never seen this occur even in 95% to 100% humidity. However, it will occur with the eggs of any python species if your substrate is saturated and too damp, even in a lower humidity. The main issue here is that it is only one egg. If the substrate were too damp, all or most of these eggs would show a water line on the lower half of the egg surface.
>>
>>Kelly

Or water droplets could be coming off the lid of the egg box and landing on that egg