Good Mommy!

[Will0W783]

My gravid female Stimson's python, Maude, laid her clutch of eggs on January 21, 2011. I am allowing her to maternally incubate this clutch, as the last time I used my incubator I had a 0% hatch rate.
That female had had some troubles during pregnancy though- she was rather fat to begin with, and she had a respiratory infection that I treated with 5 doses of Amikacin about 20 days into the pregnancy. The eggs appeared weak and poorly calcified.

However, this female has had a textbook pregnancy- nice full ovulation, pre-lay shed and eggs 21 days later. I haven't gotten a full count, but there appear to be at least 10 pearly whites. There was also one slug that she kicked out of her coils and I removed.

The top egg has a suspicious spot on it as of Monday, but doesn't appear to be getting any worse. I nudge her head aside every other day to take a look. She's set up in her nest box in an 83F cage with a large water bowl to provide humidity. The eggs should be due to hatch between March 4 and March 7. I am just hoping some of them hatch, as I am new at breeding and I know there's a bit of a "learning curve" for us keepers. But I figure millions of years of evolution must be able to provide mommy with better skills than me, an incubator, and hours of research can. *crosses fingers *

Here's my little girl in various stages of laying, then her nice tight beehive coil, and finally the suspicious top egg.