Maternal Incubation Vs. Incubator. Your Views?

This is my first year breeding pythons and I'm letting my ball maternally incubate. I gave her a humid laybox several weeks before she was due to lay. She laid her clutch on May 30th and has been in the laybox with her clutch for over a month and I haven't had any problems. A local pet store owner said that they would come off their eggs to feed from time to time. I did offer food to mine once but she had no interest whatsoever. I've only seen her leave her eggs once and that was just to leave the box for some water.

Both methods have the potential for success and failure. Artificial incubators can short out or overheat, some snakes just don't make very good mothers, and controllable/uncontrollable environmental factors can always influence the outcomes. So long as you do your research beforehand and have a network of other experienced keepers to call on when you're not sure what's going on or what you should/shouldn't do I think you're okay with which ever method you choose.

My only worry here is of issues that could go wrong..Like the mom turning the eggs over, or her even abandoning them or not giving them enough heat, or giving them too much heat..overall I would just rather incubate the eggs this way at least I know I have control and keep a better eye on their temp and humidity settings..but it's all based on personal preference..

You should have a incubator set up and ready to use if needed...I have definitely heard of females that won't incubate eggs.

Maternal incubation isn't for me or my snakes. Like some others have said, why would I do it when I can artificially incubate the eggs and get the girl back on food? She has already gone months without. I personally don't see the point and never have. We have already created an artificial habit for our snakes, so the viewpoint of them incubating eggs like in the wild doesn't seem to hold water. Just my opinion...

I want more answers lol :)

Someones opinion is just an opinion, here in this post are some results.

http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...ad.php?t=95885