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Clutch #2 :)

Quiet Tempest

Quiet Tempest

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She was paired with my mojave male and laid 6 eggs total. Her first year she gave me 5, then 4 last year. I'm glad to see the number has increased. :)



She wants nothing at all to do with me and the camera. lol Can you tell? :reddevil:
 
Congrats!! Really nice clutch.

It looks as she is saying, "Look with your eyes not your hands, I'm warning you!!"
 
No fighting necessary (thankfully!). I just wanted some pics of her on the eggs before I pushed her bin back in to its shelf. I let my girls maternally incubate each year. So far I've got 2 of 5 expected clutches down. :)
 
Quiet Tempest said:
No fighting necessary (thankfully!). I just wanted some pics of her on the eggs before I pushed her bin back in to its shelf. I let my girls maternally incubate each year. So far I've got 2 of 5 expected clutches down. :)
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I don't know how anyone else feels about this, but I just think it's incredibly awesome! Good on you!

And yes, she looks very, um...what's the word...UPSET! :eek:

Good mama!
 
I'd also like to hear more about maternal incubation. What are the advantages verus disadvantages? What if she didn't pick a warm enough or two warm spot to lay them? Will she move them?
 
Fonzi1289 said:
Hows the maternal incubation going?
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First clutch is due to hatch any day now. This is my second clutch and so far the mom is still doing really well. She's definitely not thrilled with me intruding on her, though. I don't know what her deal is. This is her third year giving me a clutch and maternally incubating and she should be used to me checking in with her but she's just not having it this year. lol I'll get some new pics up soon, though.


phoenix-cry said:
I'd also like to hear more about maternal incubation. What are the advantages verus disadvantages? What if she didn't pick a warm enough or two warm spot to lay them? Will she move them?
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Hmm..
Advantages - no pricey incubation equipment needed, condensation water droplets aren't likely to pose a threat to the eggs, a study held on maternal incubation/artificial incubation showed that maternally incubated eggs are less likely to desiccate (dry out and cause yolk absorption issues), and watching the brief time that the mother interacts with the hatchlings is just incredibly cute
Disadvantages - you are a backseat driver with less control, if you have a particularly aggressive snake then you may not be "allowed" to view the eggs as often as you'd like, patience is a necessity, cutting eggs really isn't an option because a cut egg can't protect the neonate from the tightening of its mother's coils and/or the contents of the egg could be inadvertently squeezed out and make a big mess in the enclosure

I've been doing it this way for the past three years and haven't lost a single egg yet (knock on wood). Our pythons have evolved over millions of years and the instinct to care for their eggs is well ingrained within them. They will instinctively find a nest site that is best suited for their eggs and will do whatever it takes to care for those eggs until they hatch. Some females have better maternal instincts than others but all of them are fully capable of brooding a clutch to hatch. The problems only arise when the female's enclosure isn't up to par. If your snake behaves normally, feeds well, and sheds well (intact sheds) then her enclosure is likely conducive to egg brooding. :) Hope that helps?
 
This is my third year and so far I haven't lost a single egg. The first year I had one clutch of 5 eggs and the second year I had a 5 egg clutch and two 4 egg clutches. All of those eggs hatched healthy babies. I'm expecting 4 or 5 clutches this year and the first two are doing fine so far. :)

When the eggs start pipping, the mother relaxes her coils somewhat and seems to pay more attention to what's going on beneath her. She sticks around the nest until the last hatchling leaves.
 
I got some pics of the clutch tonight. I had to remove the mom temporarily because A) she had chosen an awkward way of wrapping the eggs and the bottom two were more exposed than I was comfortable with and B) I wanted a chance to candle each egg and see that all had veins and were doing well. She had knocked the thermostat probe out of her nest so I put that back in with the eggs while I was in there, too.


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Thats really cool that you do the MI thing. You don't see that often. I like those candling pics. Congrats on the clutch and I hope you 100% hatch rate continues.
 
Oh I know I've been keeping my eye on all your updates!!

I think sometime in the next few years I may have a go at maternal incubation. I've never ever considered it before but you've made me very interested in trying it some day.
 
Candled the eggs tonight and everything still looks okay. This mom is still very much not in the mood for allowing me to get candling pics/video but I did get a shot of her eating. I had to wait until she was swallowing to candle the eggs and had to work quickly. lol

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