Maternal Incubation

I'm curious for all of you who prefer to do maternal incubation over using an incubator as to what substrate you all use. I'm thinking of getting an incubator regardless because of my Rufous Beaked Snakes, but when I get a few balls because they'll be in a rack I'm thinking of letting them maternal incubate.

We use cypress bedding. It's good for helping maintain the humidity.

I also use 100% Cypress Mulch during maternal incubation. So far I'm 13/13 on eggs maternally incubated this year. :) It works!

Good to know. I was wondering if anybody used just regular newspaper or stuff like that and I wasn't sure so I figured it's best to ask.

We use cypress, and sometimes mix in coconut husk. We also provide damp sphagnum moss. Some of the females actually lay their eggs in the moss, others don't, but just having it in the enclosure really helps keep humidity up.

I feel like I see more and more people giving this a try and it is making me want to give it a try as well since I have never done maternal incubation before. With that said, normally we keep sealed containers with essentially 100% humidity for artificial incubation but what humidity level is recommended for maternal incubation as you wouldn't be able to achieve those levels of humidity with maternal incubation.

I've honestly not been measuring humidity in the tubs during maternal incubation, but then again I never measured the humidity in the egg boxes during artificial incubation either. So far my experience has been if we keep the moss damp the eggs do fine. My guess would be that they tolerate the lower humidity because the females have them pretty covered up.

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Originally Posted by FireStorm

I've honestly not been measuring humidity in the tubs during maternal incubation, but then again I never measured the humidity in the egg boxes during artificial incubation either. So far my experience has been if we keep the moss damp the eggs do fine. My guess would be that they tolerate the lower humidity because the females have them pretty covered up.

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Do you run into any issues with the humidity high like that?

No, and I think the humidity is probably not super high. The only thing different than normal is damp (not sopping wet) moss. We don't get condensation on our tubs.

Id really like to hear from someone else who is experienced in maternal incubation to give their thoughts on humidity levels. The issue I am thinking about is the humidity getting too high that mold and RI's start becoming a problem. Is it fine to keep the humidity at 50-60% through the whole process? As you said, you don't regulate your humidity levels so I would like to know from those who do where they keep their humidity at during incubation.

Just to be clear, I do regulate the humidity. We just don't measure it with a hygrometer. I think the distinction is important. If the moss drys out we add the appropriate amount of moisture, we are just not using numbers on a screen to determine how much moisture we need.

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Originally Posted by boyer.michael.s

Id really like to hear from someone else who is experienced in maternal incubation to give their thoughts on humidity levels. The issue I am thinking about is the humidity getting too high that mold and RI's start becoming a problem. Is it fine to keep the humidity at 50-60% through the whole process? As you said, you don't regulate your humidity levels so I would like to know from those who do where they keep their humidity at during incubation.

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RI's come in to play more so with temperatures then humidity. You'd literally have to have 90%+ humidity or maybe even more to run into that issue and I highly doubt his is that high. His is probably in the mid-high 70's.

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Originally Posted by FireStorm

Just to be clear, I do regulate the humidity. We just don't measure it with a hygrometer. I think the distinction is important. If the moss drys out we add the appropriate amount of moisture, we are just not using numbers on a screen to determine how much moisture we need.

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I knew what you meant, no worries.

RI is linked to poor ventilation and high humidity. Warm temp poor air flow and high humidity are perfect breeding grounds for bacteria. Over abundance of bacteria can cause RI. Not only temps depressing the immune system. We humans have seen this in buildings that are too tight. Sick building syndrome. High humidity is fine as long as there is enough air flow.


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Yes I understood what you meant FireStorm and there is nothing wrong with the way you regulate your humidity so I hope you don't think that's what I was getting at. I was just using the word regulate to represent exact numbers though as that is what is more useful for my situation as I am able to control the temperature of the entire room and also the humidity of the room relative to that temperature. Also I mentioned RI's and mold because not everyone on this forum is going to have the same quality of airflow. Some may has less adequate airflow than others so those issues are always important to point out.

It's all good, just wanted to make sure that no one took what I said to mean that I didn't think the humidity level was important. And FWIW, I believe that our racks are very well ventilated (they are Visions, so not as enclosed as some). We also have a few fans running in the room 24/7.

As far as the concern about mold, I would avoid aspen for maternal incubation. Cypress or coconut husk are much more mold resistant.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by boyer.michael.s

Id really like to hear from someone else who is experienced in maternal incubation to give their thoughts on humidity levels. The issue I am thinking about is the humidity getting too high that mold and RI's start becoming a problem. Is it fine to keep the humidity at 50-60% through the whole process? As you said, you don't regulate your humidity levels so I would like to know from those who do where they keep their humidity at during incubation.

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Maternal incubation is the only method I use. Humidity is kept roughly 60-80% in my brooding females' enclosures. The mother provides the eggs a higher humidity range within her coils. You really only need to keep the enclosure comfortable for her. She'll do the rest for her clutch. I use moistened sphagnum moss in tubs where I have a female getting close to her lay date. She usually makes use of it and it can be spritzed with warm water if you feel the overall humidity in the tub/enclosure should come up a bit.