Keep Her w/ Her Clutch OR Incubation

Just make sure you keep an incubator set up in case she abandons them or something else goes wrong. It happens all the time and you want to be prepared for the worst! There are some pretty good tutorials on how to make cheap but reliable incubators on the site. Just do a forum search!

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Originally Posted by sarahlovesmiike

keep an incubator set up in case she abandons them

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Great Point... ThX

I've incubated eggs both ways but prefer maternal incubation for my own, especially now that I know my females WILL (if they choose to) continue to feed regularly on small prey animals while brooding their clutches. That was a pleasant surprise because I had assumed the year before that maternal incubation meant that the female would be forced to continue fasting for an additional 2 months. Glad that isn't the case. I do keep an incubator running as a Plan B because it's always wise to be prepared for worst case scenarios but so far I have not had to rescue eggs from a neglectful mother.

There isn't a whole lot of information available in popular snake books and care sheets if you choose maternal incubation. Artificial incubation is the norm for most breeders. However, there are several breeders here who have had success with it. Do a search here on the forum for "maternal incubation" and you'll find plenty of information to look through.

Either way, good luck with your future clutches. :)

I'm for maternal incubation also. I'm not a breeder though. Just a mother with a husband and 2 kids who really like snakes.

I don't trust myself enough to properly incubate eggs. I trust the snake more to know how to keep the eggs at proper conditions even when things aren't exactly correct. I'm thinking if I ever mess up the incubator, that's it, eggs are dead. If I mess up in maternal incubation, there's still a chance mama snake was able to adjust the egg conditions to keep them alive.

My one and only attempt at breeding, we maternally incubated until day 60 when mom left the eggs, so we moved the eggs to our back-up el cheapo cooler incubator to hatch off. So yeah, back-up incubator is a requirement. So, one could ask, why bother maternally incubating when you still have to have an incubator anyway? Good question.

On feeding - I've done it two ways - leave the mom in the egg box and put the rat in the tub with her. She uncoiled half her body from the eggs, grabbed the rat, swallowed, then coiled right back. We've also done it where we uncoil her from the eggs ourselves and moved her to her feeding tub (our usual process before she laid eggs). We put her back with the eggs and she coils right back around the eggs.

Really interesting - for the 60 days she was incubating, she never pooped! Wierd.

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its really up to you. and no offence but since you work at petco, buy a book.

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Why is everyone bashing this comment? We all know petco's reputation with husbandry. And isn't it always sound advice to have a book on hand for general husbandry? Yes this site is for advice, and that is exactly what he gave. Almost everyone on here would recommend a book when they get their new herp.

Some may think this comment was "rude", but in my opinion, not unneccessary.

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Originally Posted by redstormlax12

Almost everyone on here would recommend a book when they get their new herp.

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On this part I would agree, and even have a recommendation if it is at your store (if not, try a big bookstore like Barnes and Noble if you have one in your area). the book is Ball Pythons in Captivity by Kevin McCurley. Its part of the Professional Breeders Series. now this is not an all end all type of book, but it does cover quite a bit of information and my boyfriend and I have found it incredibly helpful.

As for the question at hand, I actually asked that same thing and the general reason I was given as to why incubation was better had to do with the feeding issue. Generally, most females will not feed until the clutch is hatched which means an extra 2 months of fasting. now if your female will eat, then go for it. :)

Just my 2 cents. :cool:

Books can be helpfull. You dont have to wait for a response from a book. ? Its like a forum but most of the answers are already there. I used a book for my savannah monitor, and hes going on 9 years. ^^ healthy as can be.!

I left my eggs with mommy till day 58 when I got the urge to cut. I got my incubator later on too. They are all PERFECT. I had one that she kicked out and it was fertile; I had to send it down to my distributor, but it hatched just fine.

As long as you keep it in the 83-85 temp span you should be fine. I had them on back heat too vs. belly heat, so it was def. more of a challenged, but they are just fine and very snappy ;) Good Luck to you on either way that you decide.

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Originally Posted by Quiet Tempest

I've incubated eggs both ways but prefer maternal incubation for my own, especially now that I know my females WILL (if they choose to) continue to feed regularly on small prey animals while brooding their clutches. That was a pleasant surprise because I had assumed the year before that maternal incubation meant that the female would be forced to continue fasting for an additional 2 months. Glad that isn't the case. I do keep an incubator running as a Plan B because it's always wise to be prepared for worst case scenarios but so far I have not had to rescue eggs from a neglectful mother.

There isn't a whole lot of information available in popular snake books and care sheets if you choose maternal incubation. Artificial incubation is the norm for most breeders. However, there are several breeders here who have had success with it. Do a search here on the forum for "maternal incubation" and you'll find plenty of information to look through.

Either way, good luck with your future clutches. :)

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^^^Thats awesome your girls would feed on her eggs. I gotta try that next time, I felt so bad that my girl was skinny after I removed her from her eggs. If I can get her to eat smaller and steady meals that she would do better too.

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Originally Posted by Evilme5229

^^^Thats awesome your girls would feed on her eggs. I gotta try that next time, I felt so bad that my girl was skinny after I removed her from her eggs. If I can get her to eat smaller and steady meals that she would do better too.

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Mine looked just pitiful when she was off her eggs the first year because after she refused the first meal, I didn't offer food again until after the eggs hatched. I now know that one refusal doesn't mean that they'll skip meals throughout the process but they can be more fickle about what they will eat. My females' regular meals consist of small or medium rats and they never showed interest in those while brooding. I've had good luck offering live and fresh killed rat pups, though.