Incubation

what's the difference between letting mommy keep the eggs and taking them.. I mean can you let mommy keep the eggs? will they still hatch?just curious.

If you can keep your temps and humidity right, then maternal incubation is doable. I prefer artificial incubation, because I do not want to chance loosing hatchlings if my temps and humidity drop. Also, the female may wait to eat until after the eggs hatch, so she could potentially not be up to size by the next breeding season.

ah I see... I get it.. I was just wondering because inthe wild mom does the work..

Yep they do RJ but their captive lives are so very different than the wild that it really is apples and oranges. It's quite possible for the female to do maternal incubation in a captive situation but in the end it's more about us keepers having to tightly manage the situation so she's given the absolute right environment to produce her hatchlings in. That's a committment that can be very hard for the average person to manage I think. Incubators are in the end far easier for us.

Also, personally, I want my big females to not have the strain of breeding, ovulation, egg building, egg laying, maternal incubation where they aren't eating and using up their resoures for months on end. I know they are in fine shape and made for this type of thing but I'd prefer to see them chunky and looking great. The first time I saw one of my big girls right after egg laying I was completely shocked at how thin she looked. I cannot imagine how another 60 days (the time she would have been on her eggs) would have affected her weight wise.

that's also a good point.. I've never ever had any baby snakes at all ...but I'm hoping in a few years that I might and I was just curious since Wh00H0069 showed me his sweet lil eggs when they showed up.. it made me wonder whey people don't let mommy snakes do what mommy snakes do.. but now I understand thanks...