Maternal Incubation

[radiant dragons]

any thoughts on letting the mom incubate her own eggs? does anybody do maternal incubation with ball pythons and care to share their experience

[Clay Davenport]

I've tried maternal incubation a few times with poor results. I haven't done it with balls but have tried with carpets. I think cage humidity is an issue for me, 2-4 weeks in the eggs start to collapse. I've misted, even soaked a towel and put it in the cage near the female. I just can't get something right I guess.

I know a few people that use that method with carpets and really like it. I don't know how prevalent it is with balls though.
Apparently if you can make it work for you the results are very good and it's a fascinating process to witness.

I'd say you should at least try it just for the experience. The first time or two you should do it with a clutch you are willing to risk losing, not one of your important projects for that season.

[radiant dragons]

hmm interesting my mother tried years ago with a pair of gopher snakes no success just wondering if it was possible with ball pythons . thanks clay

[Clay Davenport]

It's definitely possible with ball pythons. Not so much with colubrids though. I have no experience with gopher snakes specifically, but I don't know of any colubrids that can control the temperature.
Most colubrid species just lay them and leave them, but a few will coil around the clutch given the chance.

Pythons have the ability to control the incubation temperature to a surprising degree by means of muscle twitching. It's very interesting to observe. I don't know of any colubrids that can do that, so the chances of success with those species is slim to none in a cage environment.

I was talking to a friend of mine once and he was describing how his carpet pythons took care of their eggs. In addition to the rhythmic twitching, he said they would periodically "walk" the entire clutch to a different area of the cage. Whether that was for temperature or humidity concerns I don't know. You see the twitching all the time, but I've never witnessed a female actually relocating the clutch, something I would like to watch as well.

[radiant dragons]

ya that would be pretty neat to observe a clutch being moved around . another question i would like to know is if you did maternal incubation would the babies feed better than your incubator babies??

[gsrept]

some one on here did it this year i personally would not risk losing the eggs wait to much time for females to be up to size.

[Bob O'Brien]

I have heard of it working but I agree with craig I wouldnt risk it and thats a lot of time the female could be back on feed instead of sitting on eggs.

[Ronda63]

I did it last season with two females. They did fantastic. Each one laid six eggs and all hatched on time with no issues. The first clutch hatched on 06/20/10. Prior to laying her weight was 1850 gm. After the eggs hatched her weight was 1240 gm. She is now back up to 1800 gm. I plan to do it again this year. My second female started at a weight of 1750 gm, got down to 1260 gm and is now at approximately 1400 gm with the eggs having hatched 08/31/10. I do think I have an advantage in that I work from home and so I was able to constantly monitor temps/humidity. Not sure if I would feel as comfortable with it if I couldn't be home to keep an eye on the eggs.

[radiant dragons]

how did the babies feed same as incubated babies notice any difference?

[Ronda63]

This was my first year producing babies so I have never done artificial incubation. However, out of my first clutch of 6 four ate on their one; one of those immediately after shed, and two had to be assist fed. Out of my second clutch of 6 three ate on their own; one of those immediately after shed, and three are still needing assist fed after two months. I can tell you the second clutch did have more temperature fluctuations than the first clutch. Again, I'm new at this and not sure if the temperature fluctuations are relevant.

[radiant dragons]

thanks for the great info everyone!!