Finally Eggs!!!

[Pirranha]

I dont post much but i had to share.
Ive been reading through some of the posts and i thought i was alone but seems others have had similar things happen.
This is my first year trying to breed ball pythons.Ifirst saw my boy do his thing last nov and hoped for eggs in march,well march came and went,my girl shed in march and i thought maybe in april ill have some eggs,then april came and went and may and june,i didnt write down the exact day but there was a copulation in june sometime,which i was both happy and disappointed about-if they were still breeding then my girls not pregnant yet,but theres still hope right?Well in about july she was lookin very fat and hadnt eaten since may so i thought that was a good sign,then i would come home from work and catch her laying completely inverted with only her head facing the right way up and i started to get excited again,but i didnt wanna say anything to anyone and jinx it.July 15 she shed and i was almost 100% sure by then she had some eggs growing in there and guessed the due date at aug 11.It was a long wait till then and i looked in every day from about 2 weeks before to see if there were any signs of something happening, she just kept to the heat in a nice tight coil with her head in the middle.
Aug 11 came and nothing i had a buck n doe that evening and was a little disappointed and wondered if i was just seeing signs of a pregnant snake that wasnt.I got home about 530 am and still no eggs,well maybe tomorrow night.I was up and about for a bit and looked in just before bed at 630 and is that what i think it is?AN EGG!! i rushed out of the room and woke up everyone in the house
so now i wasnt tired anymore and peeked in through the top of the rubbermaid about every half hr to see another egg.I didnt want to bother her to much or i would have love to get it on film with my camera.i finally went to bed at 8am and there were 4 eggs.After work that evening i went up there first thing and she was trying to get a nice coil around them and i counted 6 eggs-i think,might be 5 but looked like a 6th hiding under her.
So now she has her babies very well covered and i took a pic but could only see 2 lil white spots through all the scales.
All i have for incubators is a hovabator and i cant find anything big enough to fit the eggs and small enough to fit the incubator.
I have her home at 89degrees with a johnson controller keeping it at +/- 1 degree.
I sprayed around her home with some water to help keep humidity up and i might just let her incubate them so i dont screw it up,but i would like to have another option just incase.
I dont really want to fork over a bunch of money for another thermostat though,im feelin pretty broke,i just bought a house and i get possession sept 1st(lots to keep my mind occupied so i dont go crazy waiting for them to hatch!)
Oh and they are 100% het albinos so i have my fingers crossed for at least 1 albino!

thanks for reading my long winded post.

-Pat

[MATTI]

nice..

Wish ya all the best.
Maternal incubation would be nice but will the huminity high enough you think?

[Ginevive]

Good for you! I wish you, and the little buggers, the best of luck. Is this your first clutch or have you bred before?

[Rapture]

Wow another maternal incubation thread. I left my female's eggs with her as well.

[muddoc]

Congratulations on the clutch. Also, we are praying for little yellow and white snakes for you. I have no experience with maternal uncubation, but understand it can be successfully done. Your temps sound like they are set at a good range for incubating eggs. Also, if you can keep an eye on those eggs for signs of to much moisture or to little moisture, and try to keep them happy. I have heard that females in the wild will urinate on the eggs if they feel they are to dry, in an attempt to raies the humidity. Also they will wrap up tighter, or loosen their coils to adjust temperature and humidity. These animals have been incubating their eggs for a long time in the wild, and have become pretty adept at it. My advice would be to keep those temps as close to 89 degrees as you can, and I think you will have great success.
Congrats Again, and good luck,

[JLC]

Awesome story! Congrats on the eggs, and best wishes for a healthy hatching full of yellow babies!

[Schlyne]

If you can find a styrofoam box like the kind petstores get fish in (ask, they usually just toss the boxes), you might be able to find one that is the same size as the hoverbator, which should be deep enough for the clutch.

[Pirranha]

Thanks for all the replies!!

Maternal incubation would be nice but will the humidity high enough you think?

-I thought of this the next day at work and ive been spraying the back of the container a bit every night to help boost the humidity.

Is this your first clutch or have you bred before?

Yes this is my very first clutch,hence the extra excitedness

I have a REPTILES magazine i went over last night that had an article on maternal vs artificial incubation.It seemed to favor maternal if possible-the momma snakes have been looking after there own eggs alot longer than people have been breeding and incubating snakes and there eggs.
I got smart today and looked up at the bottom of the rubbermaid to see how the eggs are doing inside her coils,so far they all are nice and white and turns out theres 7 eggs that was a nice surprise!!!
ill see if i can post a pic i took,the camera had trouble focusing through the plastic but you can easily count the eggs(theres one on top that you cant see from the bottom though)


-Pat

[muddoc]

Congrats on the extra eggs. That is always a nice surprise.

[xdeus]

Congratulations on the first clutch!

This thread has raised some questions about maternal incubation. If one or more eggs go bad, do they get moldy like they would in an incubator? If so, I'm sure they remain stuck to the clutch and is the mold dangerous to the mother?