Gravid ball python Rubbermaid container: help needed!

Yes, I do keep them together. It is what works for me. Never had any problems, other than the unexpected pregnancy. They eat ok and are very healthy. If ever there were any problems I would have separated them immediately. Obviously, after discovering that they are of the opposite sex, I'm going to separate them. Definitely don't want the stress to them (especially her) of breeding continuously, (they are always at it). She's definitely a she. Definitely eggs forming in there. Thanks for all the feedback, but I'm pretty firm on letting her incubate them. I definitely understand all the controversy but this is how I want to do things.

A friend of mine let his female het albino incubate her eggs last year.They slowly died because its IMPOSSIBLE to keep the conditions perfect :(.In my opinion its a waste of time and unneeded stress on the snake.Why force her to wrap herself around eggs that have a higher chance of going bad?

I've heard of people who let the females incubate, and have a little bit of success. My problem is having a job though. I can't monitor my humidity literally 24 hours per day. Hell, building an incubator with an old refer some heat tape, and a good thermostat works great.

I must say though your chances of her incubating them successfully without an actual termite mound or mud hut in your living room is pretty slim.

My first year of bp breeding I did maternal incubation and had 100% success rate. Humidity is the key. I started out with just the typical aspen, but the eggs rapidly started drying out. I removed as much aspen as I could without pissing off the mom too much and disturbing her and filled the tub with cypress mulch. I'd spray it down as needed with water to keep humidity ~90%. Eggs plumped back up and in a couple of months I had hatchlings. Kept the tub set at 90 the entire time.

Honestly, if set up right, its not hard to do at all IMO.

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Originally Posted by crusher

facepalm right there.... not only did you decide it was ok to keep the snakes together... you put what you thought were 2 males together?

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I'm not excusing what she did, but keep in mind that often people just don't know. If you go to almost any pet shop, they'll have a dozen bps housed together and often people are told its OK to house them together. Unfortunately there's a lot of misinformation out there about keeping pets in general. So in that case I don't really fault the person. All we can do is point out the correct way to do it and hope they pay attention and listen.

Now that being said, if someone is told proper husbandry and care and still ignores it, then they deserve condemnation IMO.

I would say the 41qt tub would be big enough. If you're using it with a humidity-friendly substrate (I use cypress) and with lid on the humidity shouldn't be that much of an issue. I let my female maternally incubate last year but she was being kept in a 40g breeder tank and I gave her a lay box lined with dampened sphagnum moss. I also kept a thermometer and hygrometer in there with her to keep tabs on the temps and humidity but the best gauge for adequate humidity is the the clutch of eggs itself. Too much and they look distended and patches of the egg shell may become discolored, too little humidity and they shrivel and harden. Hope it helps and good luck.

I would think the container isn't tall enough..

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Originally Posted by Jenasourousrex

Yes, I do keep them together. It is what works for me. Never had any problems, other than the unexpected pregnancy. They eat ok and are very healthy. If ever there were any problems I would have separated them immediately. Obviously, after discovering that they are of the opposite sex, I'm going to separate them. Definitely don't want the stress to them (especially her) of breeding continuously, (they are always at it). She's definitely a she. Definitely eggs forming in there. Thanks for all the feedback, but I'm pretty firm on letting her incubate them. I definitely understand all the controversy but this is how I want to do things.

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You might change your mind when you see how thin she is after laying eggs. She won't eat for the sixty days of incubation.

It actually irritates me to hear so many people with the "it can't be done" attitude. It seems as though a lot of people think that you have to turn the entire enclosure into an incubator if you go the maternal incubation route, which isn't the case. If you do it right (research, research, research), it can be done and it's truly not that difficult as long as the mom is willing to do her part. If I can do it, anyone can.

My foray into maternal incubation last year:
http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...ad.php?t=95885

Not to mention she isn't going to want to eat the whole time she is incubating them..

No one is saying it CANT be done.

It's just difficult to do and it puts the female through a lot of unnecessary time and effort.

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Originally Posted by rabernet

You might change your mind when you see how thin she is after laying eggs. She won't eat for the sixty days of incubation.

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