Calcification of eggs

[Dom]

Hello ..

Very akward event tonight .. As my jungle carpet is laying .. (shes at about 12 eggs now) .. I noticed that a few eggs have again the niples and small brown spots..

Same as when my coatal laid her clutch a month ago .. I was told this is rare and rarely happens but now that two of my snakes have this I am pondering..

My guess would be food related .. they have been in my care for 4 years (coastal) and 2 years (jungle) and are eating the excact food items.. Could it be realated to the food suplies?

Anyone have any other ideas.. any oppinions on how to prevent this and if there is anything specific i should do for my two females that laid such clutches..

Maybe an extra anecdote.. the coastal had a clutch last year and they were all perfect...

Tx in advance everyone

Dom

[casacrow]

Wow Dom. This is getting really wierd. Keep us posted on any suggestions that you end up with. This is getting very interesting.

[Dom]

Well it seems i got 19 jungle carpet python eggs .. candle half of them and all fertile ..

6 of them have the patches and nipples agin and 13 are perfect ..

Ill post pics soon enough ..

Anyone have an explanations for these results?

[Yasser]

The brown spots are somewhat common but usually doesn't hurt the developing embryo too often unless it is over a large portion of the eggs surface. I call them "windows" because when the development get further along, those brown spots become more transparent and you can sometimes see the developing baby inside.
Personally, I have noticed it happening on the ends of the egg where they were touching the next egg in line in the oviducts of the gravid female. Perhaps it has to do with food intake but I think it is moreso due to the female not being stimulated to move more around the cage (or small cage size) during gestation.
Occasional exercise can be very important at this time so the oviducts can be strectched and the eggs can move around a bit instead of being stacked in the duct for a few weeks straight with little to no movement. Gravid females tend to want to stay in one spot but they still should be moving about to find the right temps and such. This concept has been shown in colubrids to prevent complications such as eggbinding.

Just my input on this. Good topic.

-Yasser

[Dom]

Very interesting answer.. Last year the coastal was in an arboreal setting ... this year, it was in a stricly terestrial set up that was a basic 4x2 box.. so not much to do .. So I think u may be on to something..

[Jezabel]

Best of luck with the eggs! Any pics?

[Dom]

thansk Jezabel ..

I got pics of the jungle eggs.. all fertile .. and all doing perfectly still ..

Aswell, the not too badly moldy coastal eggs are still doing really well too .. due in 8 days . can't wait..

I just need to upload the pics.. soon enough