Please help with my clutch!!! I'm babysitting a snake and don't know what to do
Friends, I really need help and I decided to register to this site to ask a question specific to my situation.
I love animals, so I agreed to babysit my friend's 4ft female ball python while he is on deployment, but she just laid eggs and I don't know what to do! Ive raised kittens and foals, but this reptile thing is a new ball game and I was completely unprepared. Please accept me as a newb who wants to learn a lot and look out for this snake and her clutch that has been entrusted to me.
1) she's laid 7 eggs, 4 she's pushed out of the clutch. 2 of these are big white and a little dimpled, 2 of these are yellow and I understand may not be fertile. Please advise what to do! Can I put them with the others still in her coils? (She's very docile)
2) I know not to touch, so how do you advise me handling the eggs?
3) Dimpling means too much moisture or not enough?
4) I am currently on duty (in the military) and unable to get the approved bedding materials for the clutch in the next day. I have ordered an incubator, but what can I do in the short term to make this a more comfortable situation for her and her eggs?
5) what do I do about her pushing eggs out of the clutch?
6) vet advised I put clutch in a Tupperware container, uncovered, and back into the cage. Not sure this is the best advise after reading about maternal incubation. Could someone please adivse?
7) should I just drop a mouse in her cage to eat? (Will happen soon when I get a chance to get bedding!)
any and all expertise is appreciated!!!