How do I tell if my ball python is egg bound?

Update: she laid her clutch today . :blush:

Hi I have a ball python. that did a pre-lay shed 29 days ago. She has been moving around alot in her cave, acting like she is gonna lay her clutch, I even see her moving her muscles, like she is trying to push out eggs, but so far nothing. How do I tell if she is egg bound? When should I start to worry?

2 Likes

When did she ovulate? Sometimes the shed isn’t the best judge of time.

30 days is a general estimate after the shed. Some will take a couple days later. 33 days would be when I would be more concerned about potential eggbinding.

3 Likes

June 1st was her ovulation

2 Likes

If she only had her ovulation on June 1st then she shouldn’t be due to lay until around July 16th.

3 Likes

I have no personal experiencebut i had just asked a question a couole days ago about when to be concerned about egg binding and this was their response [quote=“cmsreptiles, post:7, topic:52824”]
About a week after the due date is when I’d start to worry, but it depends…

If the female is behaving fine and not showing any concerning symptoms I’d just watch and wait.

If the female is showing extreme restlessness, lethargy, having labored breathing and showing excessive straining without any eggs or laying just a few and then stopping suddenly with no further progress then the female would need to be taken to the vet asap.

The reason why I say to watch and wait if theres nothing concerning going on is because they sometimes like to take their time or the eggs just need to develop longer than others (often with larger clutches and first-time inexperienced moms), either that or the dates for ovy & pre-lay shed might have been marked wrong…
[/quote]

3 Likes

Yeah I was just going by her Restless behavior lately.

3 Likes

They can be pretty restless regardless. Most of my girls have a stage where they get restless while gravid.
The girl I’m waiting on at the moment was fairly restless about halfway through. Then she settled on an area that she looks ready to ‘nest’ in. Moved all the substrate and hunkered down for a couple of days.

Now she’s due any time and she’s changing from a cinnamon bun with her head tightly wrapped in the middle, to a normal coil and then to the almost belly up coils. She’s still hanging out in that one spot she cleared out and that’s probably a better time that you’re getting close.

If she starts getting really restless again when she’s a couple days closer or past that due date, then that’s a bit of a worry.

@samanthabea dropped a good quote in too.

3 Likes

Thank you! Im glad to hear thats normal behavior for gravid snakes. :slightly_smiling_face:

3 Likes

Thank you I appreciate all the information. It was helpful :slightly_smiling_face:

3 Likes