6 egg clutch Help!

Male Pastel 3 years old, Female Standard 7 years old. Kept together always. Outside shady screen porch. Heat lamps and towels in winter. Fans in summer. Central florida. Female laid 6 eggs 6-28-11. She is clutching them most of the time but sometimes she leaves and moves around. I need to feed the male. Can I do it in the tank with her and the eggs? Should I try to feed her while she has eggs? I have not touched them since the eggs were laid. I have always fed live mice thumped a few times. Any advice? :confused:

There are so many things wrong with this, I'm going to let more experienced people explain....

^agreed.

Kevin Bullis

Unless you can get the humidity up to about 80% or higher, and remove the male to his own enclosure, you will lose those eggs.. That entire situation is wrong all the way around.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Darcy Daniels

Any advice? :confused:

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Stop keeping snakes !

Everything about this is wrong, and I'm just not going to go there.

Gale

Yeah, get goldfish instead...

I'm no expert but you asked for advice. Here it is.

Under no circumstances should two ball pythons be sharing the same tank. It causes a great deal of stress on both of them. And ball pythons like their space. They do not "love" or "snuggle". They are simply in competition over the space they are sharing in turn causing a great deal of stress on both ball pythons.

**Also housing a male and female adult together is an even worse idea. The only time a male or female should be together is for brief periods of time during which they are being bred. Housing them together all the time. And not knowing enough about breeding is just going to lead to disaster when a clutch is laid. And as you have found this has led to a bit of a crisis situation. The key is doing research before hand. Very essential if you want to give the eggs and ball pythons the care they need and deserve.

**Also outside? Yikes!? Where temperatures and humidity are very unstable? Not a good idea at all. And with eggs?!
You my friend need to read and reread all the caresheets this site has because like everyone has said there is so much wrong here. It is hard for us to really help.

Another area of big concern is husbandry. Are you expecting not to touch the environment for the whole 60 someodd days till the eggs are term? That could be a recipe for scale rot and many other things. You have to keep the husbandry up to par.

With them being outside with all the fluctuations there isn't much hope for those eggs.
I say do research and try to fix what you can. I don't know enough about breeding to tell you what to do but all I know is in order for eggs to survive the humidity and temp has to be constant and kept at a specific degree.

If the eggs don't make it this time. Please reconsider breeding and do your research before hand. :/

You are still lacking in the caring of the ball pythons you have and as for the eggs.... idk what to tell you.

Don't take this the wrong way. You asked for advice and this is all I can give. I won't tell you that you are a bad owner because that is not my place. Please just educate yourself ASAP!

I'm sure more of an expert can help more
Best of luck!

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DateTimeOriginal:
2007:06:17 09:12:54

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DateTimeDigitized:
2007:06:17 09:12:54

These were copy and pasted from the picture information from their profile pictures. If those numbers mean what I think they mean, doesn't that mean the pictures were taken during 2007? Troll? I apologize for my ignorance if I'm wrong!

^ Could be, but sometimes cameras aren't set to the correct date and time.

Thanks for all your concerned replys. ;)Can you answer a question without being condesending and rude? I had no intention of breeding snakes, I was told they were both males. When I purchased my first snake over 7 years ago I read the book The Ball Python Manual by Philippe de Vosjoli, David and Tracy Barker and Roger Klingenberg, DMV. from cover to cover. I live in central florida the average hunidity during the summer is 85%. It does fluctuate from night to day but that is the same anywhere on our planet and I belive these snakes do lay eggs on this planet. Now that I have eggs I would like to give them the best care I can. Should the male be removed from the tank? What are the signs that he is stressing her? He usually stays in his rockcave or in the corner. She stays on the eggs. Sometimes they lay together in a ball. Is this bad? Oh yeah and the detective who questions my pictures - LMAO!!!! My camera has the wrong date on it but you are so observant. How about trying to answer my questions.

Well now that you are 100% sure that they are both not male. Yes, definitely remove the male bp and put him in his own enclosure.

Ok agreed. What about the female should I try and feed her? She did not eat while she was pregnant so she is probably hungry. I am just gonna take my chances with the eggs and leave them with her. The worst that can happen is they don't hatch which probably would be best because I have no idea what I am going to do with the babies. I will see if my local petstore will rehome them for me.

My advice for you is remove the male from the female and remove the eggs from the female. Feed both of them and get them back up to the proper weight. Try and reach out to local breeders by you and see if they will incubate the eggs for you and try and work out an agreement with them. If i lived in florida i would happily incubate them for you. Best of luck.

You could try to find someone on here that is close to you that is willing to take the eggs and try to save them for you. I think that would be the best idea.

I'm not sure on the feeding situation with the female. I would say yes if the eggs werent in there with here but I am not sure. I don't see a problem with feeding her as long as she gets back to the eggs quickly. But the area I'm least experienced in is breeding lol

*** I second what Balls unlimited said. :]

There are tons of breeders in central Florida that would take those eggs and incubate them. If you can put the male in a different enclosure then do that. Then offer the female food. She will come off the eggs to eat if she is hungry. Then she will return to the eggs. Spray down the substrate on the opposite side of the enclosure to keep humidity high. Do not get the eggs wet but get the humidity high.

Post a thread here in the regional forum looking for a Florida breeder in your area.

Better yet!! Go to faunaclassifieds.com join right away and post a thread in the BP section and ask if any local residents near you with experience and an incubator would please contact you. I assure you that you will get replies and within a week those eggs will have a good home.

If the temperature is 87-90 the humidity as high, and the eggs do not get knocked around, they will be fine until you can find someone to take them for you.

Oh and you can cover the top of the enclosure with something to help keep in heat and humidity.

My 2 cents...

Step 1: remove male and house in 2nd enclosure.

Step 2: remove female from eggs.

Step 3: remove eggs from enclosure and place in a box with vermiculite and incubate eggs. Making a home made incubator from a cooler and heating pad on thermostat is pretty easy, email me for directions on how to make it. coiledconstrictors@gmail.com

Step 4: Clean Clean Clean.... Clean out females enclosure really well, wash her with a little dab of soap in the sink or tub

Step 5: Try to feed her.

This should help... also, try to find some space inside your house for there enclosure. Yes I know they live outside in the wild, but they don't need to stay out there as pets, with more chances of them to catch diseases or infections. That's all

If she has no desire to incubate the eggs or keep the babies then that advice would be disastrous. It's best at this point to leave them with mom to incubate. She will eat if she wants and return to the eggs. If it's warm and humid enough then there is no problem with this. We do have members here that allow maternal incubation every year. Most of us don't simply due to the issues with scale rot and keeping the humidity correct over such a long time period but if this OP finds someone within a week or 2 to take these eggs, she has nothing to worry about with mom or eggs.

I'm not a breeder, but IMO people incubate with mom all the time, but in controlled conditions. These snakes are outside, in FL. I was just there over a week ago and the first two days were well over 100 degrees outside and 98% humidity, to top it off some nights dropped down to 80 degrees during the day and sometimes lower at night after a good storm. That's a huge temperature swing....I guess all we can do is hope she finds someone to take the eggs, and reads up on proper snake care.

Thanks to all for your help. I have a new 30 gal encolsure for the male that I will set up today after work and get him out. I will feed him in his new tank. I will somehow get the eggs away from her today and get them into the incubator I have made with the help of a local breeder. I will clean, clean, clean her and her enclosure and feed her. The local breeder here is going to buy all the snakes from me. Standards for a very small amount of money. For pastels he will pay me more and if a female pastel then I will break even on the costs I have just incurred. Profit is not my goal here before you all rip me a new one! I will be lucky to get one standard with my experince in this matter. I will update you all on the progress. :gj:

:gj::gj:, yes keep us posted :)

Got male (Thor) his own tank. His hide is too small and he crammed himself into it. I will get him a bigger one soon. See my pics. Got eggs in modified Hova-Bator. Female (Zeus) has eaten twice and is still showing signs of hunger. She is sitting in the spot where the eggs used to be and strikes at us when we try to pick her up. She needs a bath and new bedding now!!! I have never seen her act like this. Is she still hungry or showing signs of agression because she still smells the eggs and thinks they are in the tank?

She still smells the eggs, get her the tank & hide all cleaned up :), The eggs look great!

Lol the small hide thing is funny. They like small hides and will cram into the smallest places and wear their hides like a hat until they get a new one.

I'm sure the female smells the eggs. Just give her a soak in slightly warm water while you empty the bedding out and wipe down the inside of the enclosure with a damp wash cloth of mild bleach water or use a disinfecting wipe. Add new bedding after it's all dry and she will be fine.