why separate the mother?

While I haven't bred snakes (and don't plan to currently), the best argument for me is also a good argument for feeding f/t or p/k. Yes, while in the wild, females incubate the eggs on their own...but when you breed in captivity, they aren't in the wild and they don't have control over their environment. You are the one resposible, so you need to provide the best possible environment for your charges.

Heather, thanks for sharing your experience, however, that maternal incubation was better - very interesting. =)

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Originally Posted by AllStar

There's nothing wrong with maternal incubation... but it's not as easy as it seems. For you or mom. You're still responsible for providing the correct conditions for incubation... whether in an incubator or in moms enclosure. For those that want to try maternal incubation... learn what she needs to do the job right. It's not as simple as it sounds. Below is a great article by Bob Clark on the subject of maternal incubation. It's primarily about Burms, but he does compare the differences between Burm and Ball maternal incubation.
http://www.bobclark.com/a03_06.asp

Hope this helps

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Cool stuff! Reading this I can really see some advantages to maternal incubation. Like the post about the eggs dying the in the incubator, I can really see that there can be an even greater degree of safety for the eggs. All that watch-dog activity must be some serious work for the mother so I can see the disadvantage there.

I think that maternal incubation in the proper cage, with the right temps and a top-of-the-line thermostat, would beat the pants off of an unreliable incubator. Along the same line, a cage with improper humidity and temperature in it, used for maternal incubation, would lose out in my book to a correctly-maintained incubator.

It worked well for me the one time I tried it but it's unnerving for the keeper not to have direct control. I'm toying with trying it this year again but I think not as the gravid female had a mouth infection when I got her back from a breeding loan and even though it looks fine now I'd rather not risk what might be extra stress for her.

http://homevtour.home.comcast.net/im...tch2003Med.JPG

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RandyRemington

It worked well for me the one time I tried it but it's unnerving for the keeper not to have direct control. I'm toying with trying it this year again but I think not as the gravid female had a mouth infection when I got her back from a breeding loan and even though it looks fine now I'd rather not risk what might be extra stress for her.

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any notes on the setup you used?

http://homevtour.home.comcast.net/m9...nvpib_2003.htm