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Maternal vs Incubation

Tiger Lilly

Tiger Lilly

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Since this will be my first time with breeding bps and having eggs, I was curious what everyone thinks about maternal incubation of the eggs vs putting the eggs in an incubator?
I am planning on leaving the eggs with the female, mostly because I don't have an incubator (and have never used one before) and because I had success with my burm incubating a clutch years ago.
So what's the concensus, and why?
 
Well if you don't have an incubator you really don't have much choice know do you. :D

Both work fine, although I tend to go with the incubator myself simply because I can get the females back on food quicker. Maternal incubation is a fun way to mix things up though and I will usually let at least one clutch a year stay with the female.
 
From my vast experience :rofl: (one clutch last year with one good egg) I would use an incubator, but I am a control freak. For a small number of clutchs you can put together and incubator cheap if you have a spare cooler or can get to a aquarium shop and get them to let you have one of their styrofoam shipping coolers. I think I put my first one together for about $20-$30. I think I still have it, interested :rolleyes:

When I said one clutch that was correct in regard to snakes. I have hatched many pair of leopard gecko eggs in an incubator I put together from a cooler.
 
I am sure that if my hobby grows by leaps & bounds in the future, that I will invest in an incubator. Since I only have one female that I know for sure is gravid (possibly 4 more, but 1 for sure now), I'm going to let her incubate them.
I'll be checking out the show in Tampa this weekend & see if anyone has incubators or possibly plans for DIY. From what I've seen, they don't appear to be very difficult to put together. Most of what I've seen though, have the 'door' at the top; I want the door on the front.
Thanks for your responses guys!
 
Hey Troi,
There are a couple reasons to go with an incubator. First of all, it's easier to control the conditions. Temp is not so hard to control with maternal but the humidity can be tricky. Secondly, as has been mentioned already, if you take the eggs away from mom she'll start eating right away. You don't have to wait another 2 months to start feeding her again. I had a female last year who had rolled an egg away from her "nest". I know that she had no interest in that egg. I incubated it and it hatched along with the rest of the clutch. It may be kinda cool to see the mother incubate the eggs but I think it's better overall to artificially incubate them. How many clutches are you expecting?
 
cahrens said:
Hey Troi,
There are a couple reasons to go with an incubator. First of all, it's easier to control the conditions. Temp is not so hard to control with maternal but the humidity can be tricky. Secondly, as has been mentioned already, if you take the eggs away from mom she'll start eating right away. You don't have to wait another 2 months to start feeding her again. I had a female last year who had rolled an egg away from her "nest". I know that she had no interest in that egg. I incubated it and it hatched along with the rest of the clutch. It may be kinda cool to see the mother incubate the eggs but I think it's better overall to artificially incubate them. How many clutches are you expecting?
Click to expand...

Nevermind, I guess I should type a little faster.
 
if you can control the conditions for your females, and they are absolutely healthy enough to incubate on their own, then i see no reason why not.

An Incubator is simple, and cheap to make though. I made mine for 20 bucks, not including the thermostat. Its a cooler. with some flexwatt, and some waterbottles, and eggboxes.

Simple.
 
After I pulled my girls off their eggs last year, artificial incubation was a no brainer. They are shockingly thin after they lay their eggs. For me personally, I'd rather get them back on food as quickly as possible. That, and I like having more control of the heat and humidity with the incubator. :)
 
I also use an incubator... but there is nothing wrong with maternal incubation. However, If you use maternal incubation... I strongly recommend you read the article below. It's primarily an article on all pythons, but does mention the habits and needs relative to ball pythons. Scroll down to the section "Maternal Incubation."

Maternal Incubation Article


Hope this helps,
Good Luck
 
Thanks again to all who contributed their thoughts on this question.

Larry, I'd already read that article when it came out (thanks for putting the link in though). That article is the reason I was going with maternal incubation. I will see how this one goes and take it from there. Maybe next year I'll be all over the incubators, who knows.
 
Mooing Tricycle said:
if you can control the conditions for your females, and they are absolutely healthy enough to incubate on their own, then i see no reason why not.

An Incubator is simple, and cheap to make though. I made mine for 20 bucks, not including the thermostat. Its a cooler. with some flexwatt, and some waterbottles, and eggboxes.

Simple.
Click to expand...

Question that I cant find the answer too, what purpose do the waterbottles serve?
 
thermal mass (some people call it a heat sink)
Basically, the water bottles help stablize the temperatures. The water is heated, and will not cool as quickly when the incubator is opened.
 
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