preparing egg-laying environment..

I was jsut wondering: is it better to have some sort of substrate, besides just newspaper, for a female who's going to lay soon? Also, should I use a smaller water bowl to prevent her laying them in the water?
Thanks; I love you guys!

I'm by no means an expert, but I haven't had any problems with my clutches being laid on newspaper. I do mist them a lot more frequently to keep the humidity up.

Also, I've never heard of a snake laying their eggs in a water bowl. :confused: They're pretty good at establishing an appropriate "nest" and will look for the best conditions in which to lay... which probably isn't in a water bowl. ;)

ok; thanks :) I did put a few handfuls of aspen shavings into the girls' tubs, but it is more to retain some humidity..

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Originally Posted by Ginevive

ok; thanks :) I did put a few handfuls of aspen shavings into the girls' tubs, but it is more to retain some humidity..

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When is she due?

Here's a pic.. not sure when she'd be due. She has been locking up with my male pastel since november, and she is definately off feed now; has noteaten since the beginning of January.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...yyyyyyyyyy.jpg

OHHHHH! Congrats Jen:)

Good looking girl, and she does seem BIG. :) Is she still locking up? Does she stay on the cool side or warm side most of the time?

Here's another shot from today. She has been favoring the cool side. My male stopped locking up last week so I pulled him, fed him and replaced him after some days rest and he had no interest at all.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6.../fatginger.jpg

keep on the look out for that ovulation and shed to follow if he just quit locking you should see the bowl wrap, inverted laying, lumping, building, tail suck and then shed..LOL

Hmm... It may still be a few weeks away. If you missed the ovulation, just count down from the POS.

oh how i love that plump look. keep us posted. As lawernce said I would go with the POS and news paper works just fine for most on here when egg laying.

good luck

Jen, its always best to keep gravid females on moist mulch. that way when they lay at nite or when your at work theres no problem with those eggs.


A $3.00 bag of cypress mulch from Lowes will do the trick. :)

I understand that there are other ways to do this, this is how I do it. ;)

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Originally Posted by ECLARK

Jen, its always best to keep gravid females on moist mulch. that way when they lay at nite or when your at work theres no problem with those eggs.


A $3.00 bag of cypress mulch from Lowes will do the trick. :)

I understand that there are other ways to do this, this is how I do it. ;)

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Just to show you how versatile these animals are, I have great success doing things completely opposite from the way Ed chooses to ... I let the girls lay where they will in their normal setups and take care of the eggs as soon as I find them (give or take a few hours) ... I've been producing ball pythons clutches this way for a very long time and it's always worked well for me.

The single quickest way to kill a ball python egg is to get it wet, so I would never dream of allowing my gravid girls anywhere near moist anything. I know that a lot of the large scale breeders that don't have the ability to check on every animal every single day add moist moss to their females enclosurs to allow the eggs to have extra humidity for a couple of days in case someone misses them ... but I'm lucky enough to be able to open every tub, every day and check for eggs, so I don't need to do that.

As for smaller water bowls, I'm using 4 inch bowls and my girls never get anywhere near them. I think that if your humidity is where is should be, water bowls are never a problem.

I think that it's great to see a lot of different ways to accomplish the same thing being shared in the forum by people with all different levels of experience!

Hope this helps.

-adam