What are your views of momma keeping eggs?

I personally would just use an incubator. I wouldn't breed until I had one setup and running properly. There is a reason the all pro's use them. You are taking all the variables out of it if you setup an incubator properly. Building one is first on my list to do before I even contemplate breeding. I am OCD about doing stuff right so you can bet that it will be up and running flawlessly before I stick my first clutch in there! :) Good luck, I hope it works out for you whichever way you decide to go.

Regards,

B

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Originally Posted by pamby13

How do you keep your humidity up? Do you spray constantly? Have you had any issues with scale rot ?

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With my tubs, I don't want the humidity climbing much higher than say 80%. Trying to turn a female's enclosure into an incubator is just asking for trouble. The only reason you would need to mist the enclosure/tub of a brooding female would be if your humidity is dipping to the point that your snake has issues shedding or is dehydrating. I use cypress bedding and it holds humidity really well. I only mist my snakes when I'm trying to encourage them to breed, otherwise I don't see the need.

I've never had any issues with bacterial infections or scale/belly rot on any of my snakes. You don't want your snakes kept on wet bedding or have condensation building up to the point that it's dripping on them. If things are that wet, you would need to tweak the enclosure long before eggs were in the equation.

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Originally Posted by Quiet Tempest

Just curious, what you think you're risking by going the maternal route?

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Because in an incubator you have a very controlled environmoent. It is tougher to create this in an open room. Eggs may die if conditions are not met.

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Originally Posted by Wh00h0069

Because in an incubator you have a very controlled environmoent. It is tougher to create this in an open room. Eggs may die if conditions are not met.

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If eggs were left unattended or neglected (read: not coiled and guarded) by their mother, yes they'd surely die but if you're keeping your balls' enclosure properly and you have a female with good maternal instincts then leaving the eggs with her for a few days or for the entire duration of incubation does not mean certain death for the clutch.

I'm not trying to dissuade your preferred method of incubating eggs. Only trying to dispel some of the misinformation that gets stirred up on the topic.

If you haven't read it, this was definitely a worthwhile study comparing brooded eggs and artificially incubated eggs and their subsequent hatchlings:
http://www.rcreptiles.com/articles/w...their-eggs.pdf

Worked well for me.

http://snakemorphs.com/images/MaternalHatch2003Med.jpg

100% hatch rate and she ate well and produced again the next year.

I'm in Colorado and used lots of sphagnum moss to keep humidity up.