Python peeing on eggs. Help!

[barbed_wire_dove]

Hey there, im just after a little bit of advice...

My carpet laid eggs on the 27th last month, one week ago today.
and i decided to leave them with her to incubate, because its my 1st breeding year and im scared to death if i incubate myself i'll do it wrong. and mumma knows best =)

She must have laid in the morning because i checked her before i left and came home to eggs about 6pm. When i found them she had pee'd on them. and ive heard they do this in the wild to create humidity when there isnt enough naturally. (the vermiculite:water was on 40:60, and i upped it to 50:50 after that) and this made some funny green mould on the side of the clutch.

When she laid them she laid 25 and had a retained egg. So i took her out and into a warm bath to see if that would dislodge the other egg. This worked and the other egg came out, and looked healthy and fine. So i put it with the other eggs and put mum back in bed.

She went for a drink, and curled up in the tank (not on the eggs), she looked heaps exhasted so we left her there, hoping she would get back on the eggs soon.
after a few hours of staying in the same spot we decided we should try and put her back on the eggs. We did this and she jumped straight back off. so we gave it another hour and put her on them again, and this time she stayed put. and shes been on them ever since.

But just recently she pee'd on them again. :shock: The vermiculite is still fine 50:50, but most of the eggs are collapsed in and some have puddles of urine on them. there are still 7 - 8 that look to be in perfect condition that havent been touched.

does anyone know why she would be doing this? should i have more water in the vermiculite?
and what should i do about the wet/mouldy eggs?
They are all stuck together, but should i try and remove the ones that look off?
and if not, should i attempt taking mum off the eggs again (and hope she'll get back on em), and towel drying them or something?
also someone suggested putting a little lemon juice on the mould and that will stop it spreading? any ideas?

Sorry if they are noob questions. just being a worried 1st timer.

Thanks all.
<3

 

[barbed_wire_dove]

Also, mum is still in perfect health.
and the fella i got her off said she did the same thing last year.

 

[redbellybite]

Very Interesting thread barbed wire ,(I know some claim me as an 'expert') But I am certainly not ,and will love the follow up read on your post ..BY people that have "expertise " in this area ...

 

[barbed_wire_dove]

out of all the snakes in the world, i got the crazy one that just likes to pee on stuff

seriously though, id like to know if anyone has gone through this before and what was causing it etc.

 

[Sturdy]

pythons will pee on their eggs, to raise the humidity.

 

[mungus]

I'm not expert on this, but can you incubate them yourselves at this stage ??

 

[Jungletrans]

As they are not extinct they probably know what they are doing . l would just leave her to it . The only thing you are in charge of is the temp .

 

[barbed_wire_dove]

pythons will pee on their eggs, to raise the humidity.

thats what i was told before, but the vermiculite is already 50:50 with water.

I'm not expert on this, but can you incubate them yourselves at this stage ??

i could incubate them myself, im just worried about the incubator keeping the right temps. thats why i let mum do it in the 1st place.

As they are not extinct they probably know what they are doing . l would just leave her to it . The only thing you are in charge of is the temp .

and i had this thought too, just thought i should ask, rather than leave her to it and have her get sick or something. mum is most important, eggs come second =)

thankx guys.

 

[barbed_wire_dove]

Anyone else got any ideas?
just leave the eggs with mum and see how it goes?

 

[firedream]

ive got the oppsoite problem at the moment. My eggs are starting to cave in but she is not peeing on them. humidity in the hide rock is 90%+ and the humidity just round the enclosure is 74% but the eggs are still wanting to cave in. i'm nearly at the point of setting up and incubator. maybe the spghnam moss is sucking up the humidity????

 

[orientalis]

Hey there, im just after a little bit of advice...

My carpet laid eggs on the 27th last month, one week ago today.
and i decided to leave them with her to incubate, because its my 1st breeding year and im scared to death if i incubate myself i'll do it wrong. and mumma knows best =)

She must have laid in the morning because i checked her before i left and came home to eggs about 6pm. When i found them she had pee'd on them. and ive heard they do this in the wild to create humidity when there isnt enough naturally. (the vermiculite:water was on 40:60, and i upped it to 50:50 after that) and this made some funny green mould on the side of the clutch.

When she laid them she laid 25 and had a retained egg. So i took her out and into a warm bath to see if that would dislodge the other egg. This worked and the other egg came out, and looked healthy and fine. So i put it with the other eggs and put mum back in bed.

She went for a drink, and curled up in the tank (not on the eggs), she looked heaps exhasted so we left her there, hoping she would get back on the eggs soon.
after a few hours of staying in the same spot we decided we should try and put her back on the eggs. We did this and she jumped straight back off. so we gave it another hour and put her on them again, and this time she stayed put. and shes been on them ever since.

But just recently she pee'd on them again. :shock: The vermiculite is still fine 50:50, but most of the eggs are collapsed in and some have puddles of urine on them. there are still 7 - 8 that look to be in perfect condition that havent been touched.

does anyone know why she would be doing this? should i have more water in the vermiculite?
and what should i do about the wet/mouldy eggs?
They are all stuck together, but should i try and remove the ones that look off?
and if not, should i attempt taking mum off the eggs again (and hope she'll get back on em), and towel drying them or something?
also someone suggested putting a little lemon juice on the mould and that will stop it spreading? any ideas?

Sorry if they are noob questions. just being a worried 1st timer.

Thanks all.
<3

Some clear pictures would help decide what course of action would be suitable.(with regard to helping give you some good advice)

Some mouldy eggs still hatch, but generally mould will continue to spread if there is too much moisture and the eggs should not be wet,ever, they may be no good, have you candled them?

Very hard to tell how healthy the eggs are that have been pee'd on. Could be true that urine act's as a bacteria killer, maybe your vermiculite is far too wet, mould is usually a sign of too much moisture.

Most clutch's that are Maternally Incubated cave in more than artificial incubation, but watch they don't keep descicating too much.

If you post some clear pic's, i can give you further advice as to what to do, but without being there or atleast seeing the situation, it's difficult.

Maybe they can all be saved, maybe you should cut the wet/mouldy one's away, maybe you should set up an egg box and incubator, maybe you should use this as a learning curve and be more prepared when you are pairing animals(i don't mean this in a nasty way either, simply some good advice)

If you post clear pic's, i can try to help you further.

 

[Waterrat]

This is not going to help you now but I think it's not such good idea to let female incubate on vermiculate to start with.
Is she coiled around the clutch now or just laying on the top of it?

 

[barbed_wire_dove]

This is not going to help you now but I think it's not such good idea to let female incubate on vermiculate to start with.
Is she coiled around the clutch now or just laying on the top of it?

shes curled up around them.
is there a reason why vermiculite is bad with maternal incubation?

gimme a min, ill try and get some pics.

 

[orientalis]

is there a reason why vermiculite is bad with maternal incubation?

Too high a moisture level can result in skin related health issues, possibly even R.I.

 

[barbed_wire_dove]

Some clear pictures would help decide what course of action would be suitable.(with regard to helping give you some good advice)

Some mouldy eggs still hatch, but generally mould will continue to spread if there is too much moisture and the eggs should not be wet,ever, they may be no good, have you candled them?

Very hard to tell how healthy the eggs are that have been pee'd on. Could be true that urine act's as a bacteria killer, maybe your vermiculite is far too wet, mould is usually a sign of too much moisture.

Most clutch's that are Maternally Incubated cave in more than artificial incubation, but watch they don't keep descicating too much.

If you post some clear pic's, i can give you further advice as to what to do, but without being there or atleast seeing the situation, it's difficult.

Maybe they can all be saved, maybe you should cut the wet/mouldy one's away, maybe you should set up an egg box and incubator, maybe you should use this as a learning curve and be more prepared when you are pairing animals(i don't mean this in a nasty way either, simply some good advice)

If you post clear pic's, i can try to help you further.

they are far too wet atm, they have puddles in them. but the vermiculite was good before she pee'd.
and i candled 2 of the eggs when they 1st popped out, because the only 2 that werent stuck in the clutch, and i didnt wanna go handling them too much and squishing them about to seperate them.
I have an incubator set and ready, and i was going to use it, but decided last minute to leave them with mum, too much reading and scaring myself into thinking id do it wrong, or that the thermostat would break, or just other horror stories.
i'll try and grab some photos without disturbing mum too much.

 

[candycaine]

my girls doing a good job, she pees on them to raise humidity, they all look great. little stained from pee but no mould. I put damp moss in the bottom of her box and coconut husk for a base. I only spray lightly on the outside of her not directly ontop of her and the eggs. she's sitting on 14 and there 20 days old.

don't remove them from her if she is sitting on them properly, maybe just remove the verm/water solution. and put then back in on a dry substrat she seems to know what to do with keeping them humid. she should hop back on them but if she doesn't then you'll need to get an incubator ready.

pictures will be great.

I'm no exspert though it's my first year MI.

 

[barbed_wire_dove]

thanks candycaine =) sounds like some good advice.
i'll wait til my partner gets home to give me a hand, just to minimise the time i have them out etc, chuck the really bad ones and clean out the tank and stick the rest back in.
good luck with your eggs!!

 

[barbed_wire_dove]

pics arent too good, its a hard tank to move around.
you can see the decent ones in the front and the green ones in the back tho.

 

[CodeRed]

Looks way too wet if you have that much mould. Id get her off that soggy substrate, but its probably too late for most of the eggs.

 

[barbed_wire_dove]

but its probably too late for most of the eggs.

thats what i figured.
no matter, health of mum comes first =)

thanks for the help.