I am admittedly very new to ball python breeding and last year only bred one pair so that I could try to learn as much as possible and not take on too much. This year I paired two females, one being a 2200 G normal female to a visual pied het candy. The male was only about 850 g and this was his first season as well so they were both new to the breeding game. She just laid a clutch of nine eggs that all have a little calcium buildup and are definitely firmer and not quite as leathery as the clutch I got last year from my other female. When I candled the eggs all nine show very bright visual clusters of veins but about 1/3 of the volume of every egg looks to be a greenish yellow liquid. I do not remember seeing this in the clutch I produced last year but like I stated earlier I am very inexperienced and have only seen the seven eggs I produced last year with my own eyes up until this point. I have seen and read many posts and forums about eggs having discoloration on the outside but I can’t seem to find any information about eggs having discoloration on the inside but still looking fertile and having plenty of veins. Has anyone seen this before or am I just worrying too much as a new breeder? I will include the best pictures I have and as of this post they have been in the incubator at 90° and 95% humidity for 72 hours with no signs of molding or discoloring or dimpling in. I will appreciate any advice or info but I already know to incubate them no matter what LOL
The green ones are probably infertile. Sometimes the embryo development isn’t visible for a couple days though so candle again in 4-5 days, if still green and no red veins, probably want to toss them before they start to mold when they die off.
As a side note, I’d drop the incubator temp. 90 is pretty much the absolute limit you want to be for ball python eggs. I know myself and others have pretty good luck with running our incubators at around 86. Your eggs will take a little longer to hatch, but safer imo!
I’ll agree with @ballornothing, try to give them a few days, and if it doesn’t look promising, you can either toss or the old “incubate until there is no debate” saying. Could definitely set up a separate box for those you’re concerned about.
Best of luck with your breeding plans!
Well it is day 5 now and the eggs still look healthy from the outside and I candled two of them again and they have plenty of red veins. After more thought, I realize that the pair I bred last year were both visual albinos so all seven offspring were visual albinos. The eggs I have now were produced from a normal to a pied so all the babies should look like normal so I think the color I’m seeing is just the darker offspring compared to the lighter colored Offspring from the albinos. Is this a possibility or am I just overthinking things? LOL Thanks for all the help from the community. Like always you guys are the bomb