Ball python eggs pressurizing in the last couple weeks

So with my last clutch of eggs, I cut them at day 55. The snakes crawled out the very next day but something very unusual happened when I cut them. In the weeks leading up to day 55 I noticed that the eggs weren’t dimpling like every other clutch I’ve hatched. This specific clutch had a lot of Windows and where I had removed the eggs from their paper lining was actually very thin almost making the entire bottom of the eggs a window. As I approached the cut date the eggs seem to get more firm than they were originally to the point where the thin layer at the bottom started to bulge almost looking like they were preparing to burst. When I cut the eggs the amount of albumin that spilled out of them was extraordinary to say the least. I’ve never seen anything like it. I had no fatalities or any issues all eight eggs produced eight healthy babies. so more just a curiosity thing but has anybody else experienced any situations like this or have any thoughts on what could have caused them to stay so firm and retain so much albumin?

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In the last week of incubation the developing hatchling releases an enzyme which slowly decreases the width of the egg shell to aid in hatching. Because your eggs were already weakly shelled, the enzyme further weakened the shells and resulted in the bulging. The pressure inside the egg didn’t change, but the strength of the “container” (the egg shell) holding it weakened, so it bulged outwards. It’s the same principle as a weakened sidewall of a car tire, which leads to blowouts.

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Very interesting never really thought about the egg width reduction causing the dimpling but that makes a lot of sense. I was astounded cuz when I cut into them the albumin literally sprayed out from the eggs I wasn’t too concerned it grossed out my girlfriend more than anything haha, thank you for the info, good to know! I have a video of some of the eggs being cut I’ll have to post them on YouTube and share that quite an interesting cut date for sure lol.

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That sounds a lot like the dam was calcium-deficient. I do not know the correct way to verify or address this in snakes, but I wanted to pipe up as it sounds like something medically significant related to husbandry. I’m going to take a wild guess and hypothesize that the diet that your feeders have eaten is imbalanced and not formulated for rodents.

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At the time this female had only been in my care for about 5 or 6 months when she laid, and all my rodents are either from rodent pro ( supplmental when my numbers are low) and all my personal rodents have only been fed fed rodent feed nothing else. Masuri has been my to to for years and this was an isolated instance. So possibly from previous owners. Since female has laid 2 more clitches including a 10 egg clutch all with no issues!