First eggs of 2013!

We had our first clutch of the year on Sunday! Lulu (Normal) X Maxi (het albino het pied) gave us 5 big beautiful eggs mid-Sunday morning. We are also expecting eggs from Sara (Normal) X Loki (YB) this coming Monday.

We also just got a prelay shed from Taki (het pied) X Maxi and hope to have eggs from then about July 17th and Ivy (Pinstripe) X Voldo (Honeybee) is deep in blue so possibly July 20-24th? Silly snakes are all bunching up apparently?!? Sadly looks like Mariah (Pastel) is going to pass, she was (we think) building but reabsorbed earlier this year.

Beyond that we maternally incubate if the moms are willing and Lulu is doing great! We offered her a rat crawler late Sunday and she took it without hesitation and was back on the eggs immediately. Last year we had 2 clutches and both Taki and Sara maternally incubated however only Sara ate while on the eggs, so it's nice to see another first time mom eating so soon!

http://i1201.photobucket.com/albums/...psaec322cd.jpg

Very cool and good luck on the maternal incubation! It's always neat to see different methods for doing things.

Go Loki Go :D

i have my first clutch from an albino female bred to my pied het/4 albino male.....she is wrapped all around them but has them on the floor of the tub just like your girl does.....is it ok to leave them like that? also can you share some of your experience as to why you incubate maternally and pros/cons and what to look out for? Im sorry to be such a noob but i sure dont want to lose these eggs.....thanks in advance.

Iv personally always preferred artificial incubation because you can keep your desired temperature and humidity fairly easy. Also your female will continue to refuse food until they hatch. Seeing how most females dont eat during the breeding season and non do after ovulation, and i like my girls eating as soon as possible after the clutch is dropped.

With that said iv never even tried to maternally incubate any python eggs, how ever i do have a friend who prefers to maternally incubate but only with 2500g-3000g+ females that continue to feed during the breeding season. However i think her main reason is because she thinks its more natural birthing process for the animals.

Sorry 2500-3000gs going into the breeding season. (not after droping the clutch)

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Originally Posted by BillyChainsaw

i have my first clutch from an albino female bred to my pied het/4 albino male.....she is wrapped all around them but has them on the floor of the tub just like your girl does.....is it ok to leave them like that? also can you share some of your experience as to why you incubate maternally and pros/cons and what to look out for? Im sorry to be such a noob but i sure dont want to lose these eggs.....thanks in advance.

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This is only my third clutch but I had great success last year with maternal incubation. So far in every case the girls have moved the bedding aside and layed on the tub, I use the cypress more to hold in extra humidity. We had 100% hatch rate last year of all 12 eggs. I tend to trust that them moms will know better how to care for the eggs and being raised with chickens I have seen to many incubator glitches. I have read Quiet Tempest's post on maternal incubation dozens of times. As long as the cage is right for mom and she is willing to wrap you should be good, however do what you think is best. I offer smaller food every week same as normal and both my first time girls ate. Sara took 2 weeks to get settled but ate every week after that and had gained back almost all her weight by the time the eggs hatched! My girl that I bought and had her eggs incubated for her her first 2 clutches was perfectly willing to maternally incubate but did not eat till after they hatched. Sorry for the book, hope I answered your questions. I will try to get a good picture of her eating if she will this Sunday.

@SnakeRkewl lol, we love him, he is a great boy and we where very happy with his clutch last year. Hmm, maybe pastel ybs next year?

We let our females maternally incubate last season, and it went well so they are maternally incubating again this year. I'd say pretty much all of them push the bedding out of the way and let the eggs sit on the tub floor but it doesn't seem to cause problems.

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Originally Posted by DJF1990

Also your female will continue to refuse food until they hatch. Seeing how most females dont eat during the breeding season and non do after ovulation, and i like my girls eating as soon as possible after the clutch is dropped.

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This isn't entirely true. Our experience has been that most of our females eat while on eggs. And FWIW, every one of our females that maternally incubated last season gained all of her weight back and then some before the start of this season. Also, as an interesting side note, we have a handful of girls who trick us by consistently eating while they are gravid (ie after ovulation).

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Originally Posted by DJF1990

Also your female will continue to refuse food until they hatch.

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That has been proven wrong right here on this forum...there are several really good threads on maternal incubation here.