# Unexpected Royal Python Eggs, Please Help!



## ChaosSeeker (Jul 9, 2013)

Hey everyone,

I recently took my oldest Royal to the vets because she wasn't eating, and I was told she was just being stubborn and she was tube fed and given a injection of antibiotics.

2 weeks later I check on her in the morning to find she had laid 3 large eggs, I left them and went to work because I could see she wasn't done laying. She's laid 4 in total.

Because I was completely unprepared I have a make shift incubator. Which is a spare viv with a heat mat (controlled by a thermostat), some bark chips to help it get humid, and the 4 eggs in a plastic tub with vermiculite, live moss, the eggs on top of that, and then another later of moss suspended just over the mat on some some small planks.

The temperature is just over 30c, and it's a little hard to control. If the heat just stays at a steady 32 will the eggs still be okay? The tub is nicely humid, and when i feel the substrate is isn't alarmingly hot, around the same as in a viv.

If anyone has suggestions, please share


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## markhill (Sep 22, 2006)

what type of stat are you using?
A mat stat or on/off stat wont be any good, they give too much variation.
You'd need a pulse stat to get the temps to stay stable.

See if you can get a large polystyrene box from somewhere (fish mongers/butchers) and use that instead of the exo-terra viv you have.
This will hold temps much better than what you're using now.


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## ChaosSeeker (Jul 9, 2013)

Thank you,

The temp is fairly stable for now but I'm getting a polystyrene box tomorrow.

One egg is a little dented, is this normal? I think it may of been hatched ontop of but it doesn't look unhealthy, the other 3 eggs are very white and look firm, just the one has a few lines in.


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## Aqua_jeeper (Aug 17, 2009)

How are these progressing? Mine are due to hatch next week mega excited :flrt:


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## ChaosSeeker (Jul 9, 2013)

They're now looking wonderful! 

I've got them in a cool box with the heat mat at the bottom and them in the box as before suspended over it. I was worried about one egg but it plumped up once I set up this system. 

I'm still a little worried about this egg because he has some greyish splats on his shell, but I think he's just got a little too wet so I haven't sprayed the moss for a couple of days now, but it's still nice and humid in there. Hopefully he's alright, I think he'll either not hatch or be a difficult snake.

All in all, wonderful, I think it'll be a success


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## mikerichards (Nov 19, 2008)

The dimpling in the egg is probably just a humidity thing, a little on the dry side. 
With regards to the grey spots, is difficult to visualise what you mean, but funny looking little star shapes I am pretty sure are calcium deposits, a sign of a good egg shell! 
God luck with them. 


_Posted from Reptileforums.co.uk App for Android_


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## ChaosSeeker (Jul 9, 2013)

Yes the dimples have improved since I got it in this set up because the humidity is more stable too. And the marks are like, the colour when you get a splash of water on a white shirt.

I'm confused as to what to do, because the top left one is a little wrinkly again, suggesting its not humid enough, but the marks look like it's too wet?

In fact, as I write this I just found some light blue mold like growth on it. Should I throw it away? I feel terrible, but the other 3 eggs are perfect.


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## yardy (Sep 9, 2009)

First thing is that royal eggs can easily survive a bit of mould. Second is that although they need to be in a humid atmosphere they should never actually get touched by water; this can kill and is possibly what has caused the mould. You need the eggs to be in a situation where condensation or water drops can't fall on them. If you can get any athelete's foot powder (not the spray) then you can lightly dust the mould patch.Healthy eggs are seldom affected by a dead egg being attached. It sounds like your make shift incubator is basically doing the job. I use a polybox type incubator with a standard on/off habistat stat but there is a flat plastic box full of water under the RUB with the eggs in plus a couple of litre bottles of water to keep the temps stable-this set up works well. I use perlite as the incubation medium and clingfilm under the RUB lid to help prevent condensation but have a hole in one end for the stat probe and one the other for air plus the lid gets opened and the cling film wiped down or replaced when any condensation starts to develop. Got 7 eggs cooking at the moment in this set up-they are 2 weeks old, all have healthy veins and the temps are stable. My eggs last year were a pretty awful looking clutch (not like this year's beauties) and I still got 4 babies out of a 6 egg clutch including one out of an egg that carried a patch of mould for weeks. One was shaped wrong and I think dead from the start the other dead one failed early too. Best wishes for yours and let us know how they get on. BTW my 2012 clutch dimpled from day 3; I wouldn't worry too much about that, excess wet is much more serious. your moss should protect the eggs from water drips but I wouldn't spray them at all.


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## ChaosSeeker (Jul 9, 2013)

Thank you, that's really helpful! This one egg seems to have been fussy from the start. 

Since my last post I've refreshed the moss and Vermiculite in the 3 healthy eggs tub, and I've seperated the one egg with new moss and Vermiculite also. I lightly dabbed the mold off with ear buds and made sure the moss and such wasn't too wet or dry. He's now resting beside the others, and they're all covered nicely with the moss so any water drops cant directly fall on them.

I didn't get my hopes up about them all surviving from the start, as this was completley unexpected and I didn't even know if they were fertile to begin with. I'm happy that the three are okay, and hopeful that the 4th baby will be okay. 

It's almost week 2 of incubation and I'm glad I've managed to do well with them so far


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## ChaosSeeker (Jul 9, 2013)

The eggs as I found them earlier, they're now separated but you can see the difficult egg there. Can anyone tell me whats wrong?


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## mikerichards (Nov 19, 2008)

ChaosSeeker said:


> image
> 
> The eggs as I found them earlier, they're now separated but you can see the difficult egg there. Can anyone tell me whats wrong?


Looks like the shell is just a little thin there, i wouldnt worry too much about it.
They look like healthy eggs, healthy eggs are best left alone really.


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## ChaosSeeker (Jul 9, 2013)

Thank you, that's reassuring. Should I powder a little chalk over the weaker egg to stunt the mold growth, or just keep dabbing it off as it grows?


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## eightball (Jan 1, 2011)

ChaosSeeker said:


> Thank you, that's reassuring. Should I powder a little chalk over the weaker egg to stunt the mold growth, or just keep dabbing it off as it grows?


I've not seen chalk used however athletes foot powder or anti-bacterial powder is said to work but putting too much on especially smoothering would block pores of the egg which i believe is used for oxygen to pass through into the egg. Id dab mold off it as it grows if i didn't have any powder : victory:


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## alan1 (Nov 11, 2008)

ChaosSeeker said:


> image
> 
> The eggs as I found them earlier, they're now separated but you can see the difficult egg there. Can anyone tell me whats wrong?


Top right egg is dying/dead - Either: too much water has got to it, or something was wrong inside
from your pic, i'd put money on excessive water being the culprit

DO NOT add any more water (or spray them anymore) unless the eggs are seriously indenting
only then should you be topping up the humidity


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