Old School Incubating

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Originally Posted by Chris Knowles

Maybe I'm just confused, but with maternal incubation, wouldn't raising the humidity to 90% put the mother at risk for RI? From what I have read and heard, an environment that is too moist can cause RI. Am I wrong about that?

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You don't want to raise humidity that high when maternally incubating. The mother snake controls the humidity inside the coils so you want to give her room to go up or down with it. I maintained my humidity while maternally incubating at 70-80 which is the humidity I have it set normally when the snake is shedding.

But, as far as RI... my understanding is, your risk RI in cold and wet conditions - conditions where bacteria thrive best. Therefore, keeping the enclosure dry with the air humid (no precipitation on the enclosure or wet substrate) making sure your ambient temp is above 75F (preferably 80F) you're good.

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Originally Posted by anatess

You don't want to raise humidity that high when maternally incubating. The mother snake controls the humidity inside the coils so you want to give her room to go up or down with it. I maintained my humidity while maternally incubating at 70-80 which is the humidity I have it set normally when the snake is shedding.

But, as far as RI... my understanding is, your risk RI in cold and wet conditions - conditions where bacteria thrive best. Therefore, keeping the enclosure dry with the air humid (no precipitation on the enclosure or wet substrate) making sure your ambient temp is above 75F (preferably 80F) you're good.

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I don't alter the humidity in my tubs. It ranges 60-80% depending on whether or not someone has tipped a bowl. Trying to turn your snake's whole enclosure into an incubator is the wrong way to go about maternal incubation. You keep things basically the same as you would for any other ball.

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Originally Posted by Quiet Tempest

I don't alter the humidity in my tubs. It ranges 60-80% depending on whether or not someone has tipped a bowl. Trying to turn your snake's whole enclosure into an incubator is the wrong way to go about maternal incubation. You keep things basically the same as you would for any other ball.

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So if you have spot on husbandry maternal incubation isn't a problem?. I am thinking of trying maternal incubation this year

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Originally Posted by ed4281

So if you have spot on husbandry maternal incubation isn't a problem?. I am thinking of trying maternal incubation this year

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I would say yeah but it's always good to have a Plan B set up just in case. Even if your enclosure is ideal, you may have a female that doesn't want to brood her clutch.

I've been considering maternal incubation, and my two main worries are 1.) insufficient humidity 2.) mom flipping her water bowl and winding up soaking her eggs because there's water on the bottom of the tub.

If I could get mom to lay the eggs ON the vermiculite, that'd really be best. Now how do I sweet talk her into THAT? *sigh*

My first year I had my female in a 40g breeder tank with a screen lid and even though I had clingwrap over most of the lid, I wasn't comfortable with the thought of her laying in the tank. I ended up making a lay box/humid hide for her out of a 30qt tub with a hole cut into the lid. I gave her the hide about three weeks or so before I expected her to lay and she spent almost all of her time in there. When she finally did lay, she was in there 24/7 only stretching out to drink occasionally.

I haven't had a problem with any of my females knocking over water bowls while brooding. Not to say that it couldn't happen but I think they're usually absorbed in what they're doing and aren't as likely to be prowling around and cause the bowl to flip.


If you decide to give maternal incubation a try, good luck and take lots of pictures. :)

I'm beginning to feel a bit more comfortable with maternal incubation...