Maternal Incubation Questions (Also, First Clutch!)

[Penultimate]

I read the sticky, I'm just paranoid about everything. First clutch and all that.

Well, I didn't think my normal female was gravid, but apparently I was wrong. I really should have noticed the signs and set up an incubator, but I just didn't realize what I was seeing. I'll just know better next time, I suppose. Unfortunately, I'm completely unprepared in terms of equipment, and I'm going out of town for a week on Saturday. I have a parrot incubator, but I don't think I can get it set up in time (not to mention I wouldn't be home to monitor it), so I'm going to let her incubate them. I'm very excited about the eggs, and I'm hoping I don't mess them up. I have a few questions to try and survive the incubation process.

1. Should I remove her to count the eggs and remove any slugs, or will she toss them out herself? Do I need to candle the eggs and remove infertile ones to stop them from molding? Will that disturb her?

2. There's a weird transparent-ish spot on top of one of the eggs. Should I be concerned? Is it mold? You can kind of see it in this picture, by her neck.


3. Is her current setup suitable for this? She has a dish large enough for soaking, aspen bedding, a hot spot that is 88-92 degrees, depending exactly where I point the heat gun, and she can stretch out almost to her full length in the tub. She is coiled on/near the hot spot. This question is probably just me freaking out, seeing as she seems perfectly happy in there, but I still need to check.

4. Should I add damp moss to the tub, or mist? Just double checking, here.

5. What warning signs should I be looking for? I won't be there personally to check, but a friend is watching the snakes while I'm gone, so I can have her look for these.

6. Can I transfer the eggs to an incubator later? Is that a good idea?

7. She kind of partially uncoiled when I opened the tub. Is that a problem?

Ok, I think I'm done with the questions. Hopefully. Gah! I don't know what I'm doing, this was all pretty unexpected. Really, I should have thought "well gee whiz, I bred the snake and she's acting funny, might be gravid", but apparently I didn't interpret the signs correctly. Still... I am excited to meet the babies, if the eggs end up hatching. I hope they do.

Also, some background information on mom and her eggs. She weighed roughly two thousand grams last empty weight before being bred. She ate a rat pup tonight (I had an extra, and figured she might be interested). The eggs were laid either today or sometime yesterday.

(My apologies for the potential spelling and grammar errors, it's late at night, I'm a combination of flustered and happy, and I can't think properly right now.)

[AjBalls]

1. There's no need to remove her to count the eggs. If you just want to know how many there are, just visually check as best as you can by looking underneath the tub along with the ones you can see on top. She probably wont be too happy with you trying to candle them, but you can try if you'd like. Right now it's best to not disturb her too much.

2. Egg looks fine to me

3. Tub looks fine

4. Anything you can do to add humidity will be beneficial. Adding moss, some light misting of the bedding, etc.

5. As far as warning signs, not very much you can do about that while she is incubating them.

6. You could transfer the eggs, yes. They will all be stuck together so as long as you don't place them in odd angles they should do fine.

7. If by partially uncoiled, you mean how she looks in the picture, that is fine. It looks like a good sized clutch so she wont be able to wrap them fully. But it's in the ambient temperature is what matters more.

[Penultimate]

Thank you for the information so far. Definitely helpful. How humid should it be in the tub during incubation? Is it a specific number, or do I just need to add humidity if the eggs start collapsing or something? Should I add moss to the area she's sitting in, or the other half of the tub?

[AjBalls]

Generally, in an incubator, you'd like to keep the humidity as close to 100% as possible. I can't say for certain you want to keep it that high with an actual snake in there as I've never let a female maternally incubate. Moss will help with adding humidity so yes you can add some around her.

[Marrissa]

I have my first clutch right now and she's maternally incubating. Only five eggs but her first clutch too. I have a humidity reader in there and about every three days I spray a 4/5 bursts and that brings it up to about 90 or a tad more and then it slowly comes down to 80s or high 70s over the next several days. Two weeks left to hatch and the eggs are deflating some but still look good. I open the tub to check water, offer a rat once a week, spray, and leave her alone. Me looking at her and meddling is just going to upset her. I'll get to see babies soon enough. No point in stressing in the meantime.

I really need to order new heat tape and get the incubator complete just in case the next girls to lay aren't as good as moms.

[Penultimate]

So I just got back from vacation, and I'm afraid the person watching the house didn't take great care of the snakes. The humidity in the female's tub was only about 50%, the tub was messy (there was a large mess near the eggs, which worries me, but it wasn't touching them) and the eggs don't look as good as they did last week. She won't let me take a picture right now, but I'll describe them as best as I can. They're darker than before, kind of off-white or tannish. They're also dimpled or slightly caved in, which I'm assuming is due to low humidity. The transparent patch things also seem to have gotten bigger. I'm pretty worried about these recent developments. What do I do? I bumped up the humidity to ninety percent and cleaned the tub. Anything else I can do now? I know it's hard without a picture, but she's not letting me see and I don't want to move her. I'll get a picture once she allows me to.