Incubation spiking? Thoughts?

I have a friend of mine who breeds leopard geckos and told me that they incubate their eggs at a certain temperature and then about 7-10 days before hatching, they raise the temp by four degrees to supposedly increase the color and pattern. Curious if anyone has heard/done this and would it work with ball python eggs?

I do not know of anyone trying this with bp's. Frankly I don't think anyone will, just too high of a risk (at least IMO). It's an interesting idea though, how vivid is the difference in coloring? I'd be curious to see some comparison photos.

This is wrong, in so many ways. I'll try not to rant too much on your friend, but here's my take on this:

This is a crappy way to get top dollar for your animals. You are putting the lives of the hatchlings at risk, for what? Higher coloration / wonky patterning? Then selling them to people (presumably) without ever mentioning that this little "trick" is why your animals look so neat and unique, not your blood lines / genes / hard work / quality.

Ball pythons can get some funky patterns/bright colors from a temp spike. They can also get kinks, eyeless deformities and still born. All for what? To make them a bit more unique, so people will buy them, but they hold zero genetic value as far as GENETICALLY improving said morphs/genes/whatever.

/endrant.

Sorry. This ruffled my feathers hearing a breeder would knowingly do this...I'm not trying to attack you at all OP. I apologize if it came off that way.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RoseyReps

This is wrong, in so many ways. I'll try not to rant too much on your friend, but here's my take on this:

This is a crappy way to get top dollar for your animals. You are putting the lives of the hatchlings at risk, for what? Higher coloration / wonky patterning? Then selling them to people (presumably) without ever mentioning that this little "trick" is why your animals look so neat and unique, not your blood lines / genes / hard work / quality.

Ball pythons can get some funky patterns/bright colors from a temp spike. They can also get kinks, eyeless deformities and still born. All for what? To make them a bit more unique, so people will buy them, but they hold zero genetic value as far as GENETICALLY improving said morphs/genes/whatever.

/endrant.

Sorry. This ruffled my feathers hearing a breeder would knowingly do this...I'm not trying to attack you at all OP. I apologize if it came off that way.

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I agree. There is huge risks in damaging their development, and what is the purpose? You are deceiving the customer on the true genetics, by manipulating the incubation environment. That is definitely a morality issue on both levels for me.

As for being possible with ball pythons, yes. If you want to make BPs with pattern deformity, which typically comes with other physical deformities, you can spike the temps. In studying the results of incubation and developmental issues with ball pythons, there can definitely be some deceiving appearances, many people unknowingly view as "dinkers" or potential morphs, that inevitably don't prove out to take on their appearance. After looking at many animals that have not proven genetics over the years, there are definite signs you could call "markers" that show it is the result of an incubation or developmental manipulation. This appearance can also be seen with mutations or combos to an even more surprising appearance. I see them on here quite frequently, but refrain from commenting as not to dampen or spoil someones hopes for their ball python "dinker".

I have never heard of anyone doing such a thing with BP's. As for with Leo's it is a very common practice. Leo's can be temp sexed. 80 for females, 88 for males. The higher the incubation temp the better the color. So some breeders will " cook" a female for roughly 21 days to. " lock in" the female sex then slowly ( usually in 3-4 steps) increase the temps until they are at 88 which will bring in more color. I know of a few " big" breeders who practice this method, but they are also also honest about it. I personally don't practice it and instead strive to increase color through selective breeding. To each their own as long as breeders are being honest :)

I really do doubt that that it would do anything to enhance the colors or pattern on an animal (leopard geckos in this case) 7-10 days prior to hatching.

I also would not do this with ball pythons for any reason until it was proven out to be safe but I certainly would not do it for an enhancement in color or pattern.

I have raised the temps by 4-6 degrees farenheit slowly with C. ciliatus (Crested Geckos) about 7 days before hatching.

However, I incubate at 70-72F whereas alot of folks incubate at 75-77F which in my experience produces weak animals. My main reasoning behind bumping temperatures in the past has been to get them to come out quicker towards the end. This has always been when I had some kind of travel or vacation to do and the animals were due to hatch while we were away. I really do not like traveling with eggs, the constant car vibrations and potential for egg rolling scares me. The other thing that scares me is having hatchlings sitting in hatching medium for a week without being sprayed. When doing this I have had a 100% hatch rate and no problems later down the road at all, the animals were indistinguishable from other clutches.

This year I was lucky enough to have someone volunteer to check my eggs that were due during vacation though. So what I did was I simply took the deli cup with the C. ciliatus eggs and placed it in a larger sterilite bin with paper towels and fake plants. This volunteer would check nightly and then when the hatchlings came out they would spray the sterilite bin through a small screen. This was definitely a preferred method but not always available.