One of the downsides to breeding animals.
 

So I enjoyed sharing my 2 breeding attempts last year, and the 2 successful litters. Across both breedings, both females recovered beautifully from the physical toll and look as good if not better than they did before this breeding. Out of all of the neonates, they were nothing but outwardly healthy live born, except for 1 fairly early dead stillborn severely kinked neonate and a handful of slugs.

Now fast forward 6+ months from the first litter being born. I kept 1.1 Leopards from my Sonoran litter and sold 0.0.8 healthy possible hets. From fairly early into the new life of these little Leopards, I'd noticed the female seemed a little bit behind her brother. She didn't seem to be as readily accepting to eat, then she seemed to digest a little slower, taking more time to process the meals she would take. Well, today she passed away. I am pretty damn depressed by this, but have to accept the ups and downs with a hobby involving the life and potential death of these beautiful animals.

I'm sorry. It's amazing how these guys can hide physical issues for so long.

It is pretty amazing how durable and for the lack of a better word, tough they are. But it sure does suck that they can't be read like a cat or dog. Thanks for the condolences. I am pretty upset by this but thankfully her brother is a little gem.

Heck, it happens to all of us. I've had some experiences and seen some awful circumstantial things with my breeding snakes that I try like heck to not think about. Some things where the irrefutably kindest thing I could do was to euthanize the animal. Some were dumb mistakes on my part. Some were things that there was no way to predict and no way to have preemptively prevented them. And every last one of them left a scar in my mind.

Honestly, I am glad (extremely so) that I don't have that burden of self-assumed responsibility on my shoulders any longer.

Yeah, there were a lot of bright spots in the experience, but darn those black spots sometimes just suck the light away.

Rich nailed it. I'm very sorry that little girl passed.
Some years ago I bred my AKC dogs. Had 4 litters in 5 years with 2 females, 1 male. I made good money and had no unhappy buyers. I was almost OCD in making sure all litters were healthy, not exposed to any other dogs except their moms, raised in their own unoccupied puppy room, had vet visits, shots, etc. My last litter, 6 pups, had been sold, down payments received and signed contracts all done. Around 7 weeks, after their last vet visit & shots, and just before I was to start rehoming, one started coughing, then another. It escalated so very quickly. I took one to the vet. Parvo was the diagnosis. They all died. The guilt and emotional toll was overwhelming, especially when I had to contact all their potential new owners and admit my failure. (and yes, I refunded them all). I never bred again; all my dogs were altered. Losing those darling sweet puppies was too much.

I have also lost dragon eggs, and newborn chams. Shite does happen, but sometimes ya just gotta keep on keeping on :)

Thank you Rich and Laura for the heartfelt and personal posts.

Yes it's a real shame when they die down the line for no reason, I was gutted this year when an albino motley was dead in the water bowl a couple of days after it was born, the bowl wasn't even that big, so I shrunk down smaller so none of the others went in their too

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So sorry for your loss Randall. I hope the brother has a long and healthy life.