What can i do now with these eggs!?

Ok ill try to make the story short i need help I have 2 ball pythons for almost a year now i bought them as a couple but I wasn't sure which one was which, this site has been my bible for general information about balls and its where i learned most, about temperatures and housing.

I had them separated but around june when i was looking for a new home i had to stay on a friend house for a couple of days (5) and took the snakes with me and left them both in the same tub, the other one is usually in a 55gallon which i couldn't take with me.

once in my new home they always been separated only those days when I was on friends house.

Today i got curious because I noticed i haven't seen the one on the 55g in a couple days like 2 or 3, she usually roams around especially at night normal behavior, so I grab her hide and to my surprise there were 6 perfect looking eggs under her! now i have little clue what to do with them.

so here are my questions!

1. Will it be ok to leave the eggs to naturally hatch under her? and do i have to make any changes on temperatures or humidity during the process? or do i need to get a incubator asap, i really dont want them to die.

2. if i need an incubator is there any link with an easy home made and economic one? i really don't have an extra refrigerator lol.

3. should I try to normally feed her during this next 2 months. I normally feed F/T


this are my questions atm any help i Thank you!

and sorry for my English is not my main language.

ok so maternal incubating is not unheard of. alot of people do it especially on this forum.

as far as temps, im not sure how it works with maternal incubation.

incubators, you'll spend as much making one than just buying a small one since you just have one clutch.

theres one by zoo med or exxoterra not sure which called the REPTIBATOR and its for single clutchs. and its only like 220$.

good luck! hope someone else more helpful chimes in

I have not had any experience with eggs yet (plan to this season) but here are two homemade incubator ideas I found on youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iPXn...eature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYi22...eature=related

As for feeding, I would offer her weekly after taking her off the eggs. I believe as long as she is on the eggs, she may not eat (I will let those experienced comment on that though). I do know that you should scrub out her enclosure after removing the eggs though. Good luck and congrats!

You can leave them with her, just make sure the temps and humidity are correct for incubation. Do a forum search about maternal incubation, there are a few members on here to do it successfully. It's really something to see. They have to be incubated at a steady temperature, so if you're using an on/off thermostat, they will likely die. They can't survive temps much higher than 95*.


You really should have an incubator set up though, they can be made fairly cheap with a Styrofoam cooler, an egg box, heat tape/pad, some water bottles and a thermostat.

Also, you can offer her something, but she may or may not take it. She is much more likely to take something like a weanling over her normal size prey.

I'll try to answer your questions as best as I can.

1. I have never maternally incubated, but I do hear it is very hard as you have to really boost humidity to 80-90% and keep the temperatures perfect.

2. Incubation is much easier with a lot less stress, which also gives a higher hatch rate. www.YouTube.com has some great "How to" build an incubator videos.

Here is one for an example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JB754...eature=related

3. You could continue to offer food, but offer smaller prey items. Also, don't be disappointed as most females will not eat right away.

Hope this helps some and good luck!

Reptibator is in the low$ 100's at Lllreptiles, they also have a mini fridge incubator for 1 or 2 small clutches in the low$ 100's.

IMHO,

I would make a cooler incubator ASAP.

Even if they are normals you can still sell the babies and make enough back to cover most, if not all of the cost of the incubator.

If either of the parents are a morph, you would be a fool not to take the time and money to quickly build an incubator.

Sure you can do the maternal incubation thing... you can also kill all the babies if the temps and humidity aren't right.

ohh also i forgot to mention I am from Puerto Rico usually the temp here is around 80ish as high as 95 sometimes during mid day, right now without any heat pad I am getting 86* at 5:34pm with almost no sun, and the humidity reading is 70% i sprayed a lil water around the area but they never go below 55% overall in PR.

I'm just wondering if i should place the heat pad with my thermo just to keep the temp around 86 during the night also even tho they don't go lower than 80

but i will also check on building an incubator first time tomorrow morning cuz there is almost nothing open on sundays after 5pm.

Incubation needs 2 things...steady temps, 86-90* and 90%+ humidity. The incubator can be as simple as a styrofoam cooler, $10, a heating pad, $15, a 6qt rubbermaid tub, $2, a bag of vermiculite, $5, box of press & seal, $2, and you have an incubator...$35.

Do the incubator like eveyone is telling you, make sure if you make your own incubator that it has a reostat of some form of temperature control.

Temps steady around 86 day and night
Humidity steady at 90

The only reason I say take away from momma is they have a habit of crushing a egg or 2, and you are already having problems with your temp and humidity.

I PM you an article written by :bow: Bob Clark, hope this helps you, don

many thanx for all the info ill keep constantly watching this forum , google and youtube for more! i would love to see the six eggs perfectly hatch! ill put some pictures i took, tomorrow~

If you want to go the maternal incubation route, you can. If your ball's enclosure is holding the proper temps for her and the humidity is no less than 70% and you want to be a bit unorthodox, I say go for it. That's what I did my first year and I have no regrets. ;)

I will say, however, that it would be in your best interest to have an incubator (either store bought or homemade) on standby just in case.

If you do choose to go with maternal incubation, there are a couple things I've learned along the way that I think might help..

1) You do NOT need to bump your enclosure's humidity the same way as you would in an incubator. The humidity range needs to be no less than 60% and I really wouldn't force it to be much higher than 80%. In most cases, their enclosures don't need any tinkering to adjust humidity - especially if you're keeping your snakes in tubs. Saturating the substrate in order to trap higher humidity for the eggs can lead to problems with the female brooding them (belly rot, for instance). The temperature shouldn't need any alterations, either, if you've kept your female's enclosure or tub in the ideal ranges.

2) Females can, will, and do feed while maternally incubating. Don't with-hold food just because everyone has told you that they will refuse every meal. Offer smaller meals (weanling rats instead of sm/md rats, for instance) than usual and there should be no problem. Don't expect them to accept every meal, but do offer as you would with the rest of your snakes.


Hope it helps and good luck.

so after some reading around I have decided to leave to maternal incubation and thank you quiet tempest for you info. (will have a homemade incu just in case).

i know the humidity will be ez to control even on a glass tank here in puerto rico theres always high humidity since its a tropical climate, but as far as temperatures its always around 84 even during night I am setting a thermo with a heat pad to place it under and try to maitain constant 86 just in case. should I put another mat with higher temps around 90ish as basking area or she will just not move out of the eggs hide =)

also should i replace my hide with a bigger one like a shoe box I'm currently using Exo terra xlarge cave there are pics below, I know balls like tight place but not sure about spending 2 months so tight in there with her eggs lol since her coil is a lot higher now.

anyways here are some pics any more info is welcome! and hopefully I will see 6 new baby balls and will post pics here in 2 months.

coil
http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/f...lako/pcoil.jpg

well it was cleaning day when i discover the eggs so i was cleaning at least one side of the tank =(

http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/f...kolako/set.jpg

these are the temps without any heatmat and with a lil spray and water bowl next to her hide

http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/f...olako/temp.jpg

eggs!! took pic when she went for water

http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/f...kolako/egg.jpg

eggs

http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/f...ako/eghide.jpg


she lost some weight =( or a lot

http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/f...ako/weight.jpg


her like a month before laying eggs its the best prelaid I have on this computer

http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/f...olako/pool.jpg

I wouldn't change much in the enclosure if you want to leave the eggs with the female. If she stresses, she may abandon the clutch. Good luck with them! They look good! Do you know how long ago she laid them?

COngrats on the eggs, looking forward to see them hatch! :D

http://www.smarthome.com/91312/Delux...-MR-148/p.aspx

Woot she ate tonight an adult mice

Quote:

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Originally Posted by darkolako

Woot she ate tonight an adult mice

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AWESOME!!!! DOING GREAT! :banana::banana::banana:

27 days in! another month to go!
getting desperate!

http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/f...ball/uiuio.jpg

Looking good! :) Keep us posted!

i think it's almost done... it has been 2 months and one day since my normal laid eggs, it was around september 10 and for the first time i found her like this like an hour ago.

http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/f...l/IMAG0093.jpg

my concerns are

how long will it take after she releases her coil for the babies to start peeking out..

and i never moved the eggs or anything and they are to close together imo will that mess with any of the lil snakes trying to get out and bumping their heads with another egg..

should i try to separate them?

thank you and hopefully very soon i will see some new faces.

update update!!!! please the suspense is killin me here :)

anxiously waiting myself! =(

first time dealing with clutches and to be honest it was an accident lol

im waiting for a sign or any egg movement! lol

lil worried!

The eggs look good! I think when they begin to wrinkle like that...That means they are close! Have you candled them at all?

Keep us updated!

well i just did the candle thing, and going to post a video in a few minutes , so i can get your opinions plz.

ok so heres is my fail attemp at inspecting the eggs..

they are at around 58 days now.. i noticed the eggs on september 13 but i pretty sure she laid them around the 10 or 11

give me your toughts

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VH9x9eRyZ2k

Is the mother still coiling around the eggs?

I say you got less than a week and some heads should pop out... They're okay bunched up like that. They just crawl all over each other when they try to leave the eggs.

You might want to prepare 6 6qt plastic tubs (I personally love the 4L-size Really Useful Box) for when they come out. You would want to separate them into their own containers after their first shed to give them some security to help them get comfortable.

Well yestarday was the first time i saw her with her coil upon up like the pic on post #23 but today she is back on top of the egss

Just saw your candling videos. They seem to all look great!

I'm excited too. :D

OMG how eciting! I remember how ecited we were when we candled our first clutch. There are no words for it. And now Im just as excited for you. Congrats and keep taking pics and videos. We wanna see those little guys pip! :gj:

I remember candleing my first clutch.. the fact that you could see which were normals and which were not INSIDE the egg!!! OMG! that was so nice! :rolleye2::banana:

They look good! I'd say you should have eggs pipping within the week. ;)

I've only been able to seperate them 1-2 days before they hatch, before that you'll rip the egg. Those are looking good!! Nice to see a mom do her job instead of a machine! :cool:

thank you all for your info..

and btw she is a great snake.. she is shy but has never tried to strike at me, not even during her maternity lol i can pick her up (hardly do it) to inspect the eggs and she will only hiss at me.

and she has been eating np since she laid the eggs rat pups last 2 times i feed her 2 and she took them np..

she used to eat a medium rat weekly b4 the eggs, sometimes a x large one, when i feed her x large ones i changed the schedule to 10 or 12 days..

and never refused one meal until she got in her days till the eggs came out.

Anything yet?

any new news on this?

sadly no pip i just candle them and they are looking good, im giving them till this weekend but they will probably be out before..

most people have advised me to give them few more days before trying to cut myself or at least wait for one to pip on his own.

this is her today couple of minutes ago..

http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/f...l/IMAG0102.jpg


it is funny because when I try to candle the eggs with my flashlight she kinda pushes the flashlight away with her head or a lil push with her body

but not one hiss.. only if i try to pick her up she hisses at me but thats it.

ohh and yeah I am a lil worried about the egg on top its a lil smashed from her mother resting there all the time.

lets hope he makes it, its difficult to check for veins on that one.

ohh Question

she has been feeding once a week or 2 since she laid eggs but only rat pups, last 2 feeding i gave her 2 rat pups,, but she hasn't poop at all or pee that I have noticed, but she does have a Bump at her lower body like ready to get out.. is this normal?

is she just so protective that she doesn't want to leave her eggs to even go to the ladies?

She could be using most of the food up to regain her strength. Im not an expert, but mine did that last year, and I was feeding her pretty decent sized rats. You could try a warm bath to move things along, that always works with mine

No warm bath at this time... Let her finish incubating first.

Mine didn't poop the entire time either. Perfectly normal I think.

And the smashed egg is normal too. They start to really deflate the closer they are to hatching.

After reading this, I'm really excited to see the babies come out! I too want to try maternal incubation when I go at my first breeding next year!

C'mon darkolako... don't keep us in the dark! What's happening???

I think you should just post daily even just to say, "nothing happening"... :gj::snake::gj:

wuuuuuuuuuuuu wuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu this is what i found this morning!! would of been awesome to watch them actually trying to get out

so far i see 3 lil head poking out there are still 2 eggs on the side with no pip yet.. and if there is another egg below the one on top who looked smashed which I'm not really sure .. doubt it.

and yeah the egg who looked smashed on top is out, somehow it inflated back and he looks ok, hopefully all of them make it.

how much longer I need to wait , to completely get out of the shell!??

http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/f...l/IMAG0110.jpg


http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/f...l/IMAG0113.jpg



more pics soon ! happy! lol

I'd go ahead and snip the remaining eggs! The anticipation would be killing me:D

YEAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You've come this far, I don't think I'm gonna do anything at this point but just enjoy the magic of nature.

So amazing!