Question regarding new eggs

We just found out my daughters snake has four eggs. How do we tell how long she has had them. She is in a very large cage in the back of it with her eggs, but she didn't notice until she went to clean the cage that she had them.


http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/n..._4386622_n.jpg

http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/n..._2736962_n.jpg

I'd bet those aren't very old, are you set up for incubating?

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Originally Posted by snakesRkewl

I'd bet those aren't very old, are you set up for incubating?

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I'd agree


Were you expecting these eggs?

Not at all.... They had told us she was a he.. So my daughter was not expecting them at all.. She is going with Maternal Incubating though... She won't let her get near her at all.. And the cage is too big to grab her with a towel. She keeps going in the water bowl and then laying back on the eggs. Not sure where to go from here.

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Originally Posted by jeanniekerns

Not at all.... They had told us she was a he.. So my daughter was not expecting them at all.. She is going with Maternal Incubating though... She won't let her get near her at all.. And the cage is too big to grab her with a towel. She keeps going in the water bowl and then laying back on the eggs. Not sure where to go from here.

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shes doing that to keep the moisture on the eggs up... you should buy a little spray bottle and spray the tank every once in a while. other than that they should be out in 50 or so days..


good luck!:D

She has been spraying them every few hours just to keep the moisture up.. Is the denting normal?

yea actually the dimples are good. that means the moisture levels are good if the dimples start to fill in, the humidity has to be raised (by more frequent spraying).... well if theres anything else i would be glad to try and answer your questions.

Honestly we have no idea what to do. She thought she had 5 males.. So the idea of breeding never came up. We are not even sure who did what... Does she try and feed her? She also has the other four males in the tank with her, but since the tank is so big, they are not even going near her.. Any suggestions would be great!

It seems maternally incubated eggs dimple faster than in an incubator due to lower humidity.

Keeping humidity up high enough in that enclosure IMO is going to be almost impossible.
Wood soaks up humidity and to get 80%+ humidity in there is probably not going to happen.

I'd be quickly throwing an incubator together or calling some local breeder to incubate for you or something.
I just kind of doubt you can keep them humid enough in that enclosure.

What is that cord?
Is that a human heating pad?

or another thing you can do is go get a plastic bin from kmart or something like that and make a little enclosure for her to stay in for now.

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Originally Posted by Mrgbb

yea actually the dimples are good. that means the moisture levels are good if the dimples start to fill in, the humidity has to be raised (by more frequent spraying).... well if theres anything else i would be glad to try and answer your questions.

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This isn't true. The eggs becoming less dimpled would mean the humidity is higher, not the other way around. If they happen to fill back up, which is unlikely for maternal incubation, I would definitely not recommend an increased spraying regiment, as it would create an environment too rich in moisture and could promote mold growth. Either way, congratulations on the eggs! How fun! if you cannot house the hatchlings there, I would recommend starting the process of finding them homes now. If you're planning on keeping them, there's a wealth of information on this board and a heap load of people who would be glad to help you through this exciting time! Good luck!

Cheers,
-Matt

Well the thing about moving her, is she will not let my daughter get close enough to her. Here is the tank picture, she is all the way in the left hand corner as you can see on her eggs. Should we just let her do what she needs to do? Or should we try to move them? As far as the humidity, its where it needs to be. We are making sure of that.

http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/n..._7760237_n.jpg

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Originally Posted by jeanniekerns

Well the thing about moving her, is she will not let my daughter get close enough to her. Here is the tank picture, she is all the way in the left hand corner as you can see on her eggs. Should we just let her do what she needs to do? Or should we try to move them? As far as the humidity, its where it needs to be. We are making sure of that.

http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/n..._7760237_n.jpg

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You can go 2 ways on this one.

1.) You can set up a quick sterilite container set-up for that female and her eggs to maternally incubate in as shown here:
http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showthread.php?t=113879
Keep the hottest side at 88 degrees and no greater. You will need a separate thermostat for this tub separate from your main display enclosure. You can look for a Zoomed Reptitemp 500R which usually runs around $30. Humidity is not much of a problem in these containers - you can move the water bowl closer to the heat pad to increase humidity or you can tape up some of the holes. Then just let the female do her thing.

2.) Or, if you want, you can go the artificial incubation way by making an el-cheapo incubator shown here:
http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...ad.php?t=73482
You really don't need all of that stuff. All you really need is the cooler, the heat mat, the water bottles, the egg box with vermiculite and press-and-seal.

But, you might still have to do the sterilite tub for your female though to separate her from the males.

P.S. Yeah, they're very aggressive with the eggs. What we did with ours is to put a hand towel over her head, then lift her neck... she'll coil tight on the eggs, so you'll have to find her tail and untangle her by the tail while holding her head gently but firmly.

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Originally Posted by jeanniekerns

Or should we try to move them? As far as the humidity, its where it needs to be. We are making sure of that.

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That enclosure keeps 80%+ humidity?
Afraid of a female ball python:rofl:

Someone needs to grab some "gumption" and grab the female, remove her and the eggs and put her into a 40qt sterilite tub and sit it on a heat pad plugged into a thermostat so you can keep the temperature at 86-87 degrees so she can finish incubating them.
Place a large water bowl in the tub, only a few holes to keep humidity up high.
If you allow her to incubate in that enclosure my guess is pretty soon you'll have a nice new unwanted odor permeating the house.
If she won't accept the eggs I can bet you can get the tub itself up to 90 degrees and keep it humid enough to incubate those eggs.
I haven't tried that route, but I sure would try versus leaving the eggs in that enclosure.

That's a big cage. What's the humidity reading in there?

If you want to go the maternal incubation route, I would definitely look into giving her a lay box (basically just a roomy humid hide). Ideally, this would have been provided to her long before she laid but since you thought she was male it would be a late addition to the enclosure. You would have to remove the female and move the eggs to the laybox in order for it to work out. The laybox would provide a better ambient humidity for the eggs and make brooding easier on the mother.

I would also go ahead and build or buy an artificial incubator and have it up and running just in case the mother abandons her clutch. Hope for the best but prepare for the worst.

Here's a link to my first year breeding ball pythons. I maternally incubated in a 40g breeder tank and gave my female a 30qt sterilite tub to use as a lay box.
http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...threadid=95885


This year I'm maternally incubating again but my brooding females are in a rack system and tubs hold humidity much better than tanks so making lay boxes wasn't a concern. Two clutches have already hatched and I've got my third and last maternally incubating now.
http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...d.php?t=120144


Good luck with them.

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Originally Posted by jeanniekerns

http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/n..._7760237_n.jpg

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Well I see how she got gravid.... I'd recommend seperating all of the snakes so that this doesn't happen again.

Before you decide to incubate, I would be asking myself this:
Am I prepared to potentially house (seperately), and feed 4 hatchlings for at least a month?

what is happening with the eggs? how are you doing with them.

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Originally Posted by jeanniekerns

Well the thing about moving her, is she will not let my daughter get close enough to her. Here is the tank picture, she is all the way in the left hand corner as you can see on her eggs. Should we just let her do what she needs to do? Or should we try to move them? As far as the humidity, its where it needs to be. We are making sure of that.

http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/n..._7760237_n.jpg

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I'm sorry, am I seeing things or is there a reticulated python in the top right hand corner?

4 Male and 1 female ball python and a retic in the same vivarium isn't exactly good practice. :colbert:

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Originally Posted by fishboyUK

I'm sorry, am I seeing things or is there a reticulated python in the top right hand corner?

4 Male and 1 female ball python and a retic in the same vivarium isn't exactly good practice. :colbert:

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I didn't notice that.

It's not a good idea to co-hab multiple snakes.. worse idea to co-hab multiple species of snakes.

speechless

Yeah, I thought that was a different species of snake sitting up there....

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Originally Posted by Quiet Tempest

I didn't notice that.

It's not a good idea to co-hab multiple snakes.. worse idea to co-hab multiple species of snakes.

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Yes the chance of introducing harmful pathogens is great when mixing any species, let alone ones from different continents :weirdface

Not to mention the fact that Male Ball pythons will combat during breeding season and potentially try to breed with each other causing god knows what damage. :colbert:

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Originally Posted by fishboyUK

Yes the chance of introducing harmful pathogens is great when mixing any species, let alone ones from different continents :weirdface

Not to mention the fact that Male Ball pythons will combat during breeding season and potentially try to breed with each other causing god knows what damage. :colbert:

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Very sore bums?

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Originally Posted by Jeremy78

Very sore bums?

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And most probably the "bad aids" too :rofl: