Old School Incubating

[Chris Knowles]

Anybody in here let the mother stay with the eggs until they're hatched? Seems like for a first time breeder that would be the way to go, right?

[spitzu]

I don't think there's really anything wrong with that as long as you understand that the mother can accidentally flip the eggs.

[Chris Knowles]

is that a common thing? could it be resolved by marking the tops of the eggs and doing periodic checks?

[snakecharmer3638]

Check out this thread....

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...light=maternal

[don15681]

when the mother only has roughly 1 foot by 3 feet to find the best spot to lay her eggs, it's up to you to have the conditions right for her to do her job. to me this would be a lot harder than making an incubator which makes controlling the conditions much easier.

[Chris Knowles]

Check out this thread....

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...light=maternal

Maternal incubation?...screw that. I figured "mother knows best". Apparently, when I am ready to breed, there is going to be a DIY incubator project too.

[Subdriven]

there was a thread on here that kept use updated on a maternal incubation the whole way through. it was normal x normal by accident if I remember right and they didn't want to spend the money on a incubator. alot of people on this site helped and guided the whole way and all babies hatched on there own.

Would I do that with a $10,000+ clutch........ no..... lol

[mrsbrougher]

I did a het albino x het albino clutch that way, momma hatched all 6 just fine; got two pretty albinos. It really depends on the snake and conditions though, some mother's won't necessarily care to do that for you and leave the eggs to die. It's best to have a back up incubator.

[anatess]

Quite several of us here do maternal incubation. The first requirement is a healthy mother. The effort in maintaining proper temps and humidity is pretty much the same effort as maintaining temps and humidity in an incubator. Maternal incubation is a little more forgiving because the mother maintains the proper temps and humidity - you're just there to help.

There are pros and cons to both methods. Just like there's pros and cons to the rack vs. tank and live versus f/t methods. One is not necessarily better than the other - they're just different.

Do a search on "maternal incubation" and you should find all the people that are doing it here.

[TrpnBils]

is that a common thing? could it be resolved by marking the tops of the eggs and doing periodic checks?

Yeah but even if you do that it won't matter... if you go in and see one has been flipped, it's still flipped and the egg has probably had it at that point.