A look inside the mind of a geek like me...

[kellysballs]

I posted this on another forum with no responses so I am gonna try here.

I have a question for anyone who weighs their clutches.

I am curious about the "common knowledge" that if you incubate your ball python eggs at higher temps they hatch faster and you end up with smaller babies versus lower temps, longer incubation and larger babies.

This year we incubated at 89F using a Ranco thermostat with a 1 degree temp swing so technically our eggs fluctuate between 88-90F.

That said, I have only had one clutch emerge so far. For clutch 1 on the date they where laid the 11 eggs weighed 1162g. Once all the babies emerged I weighed them together and they where 922g.

So, 79.35% of the original clutch weight translated directly to babies, with this clutch.

I would like to know if this is average, high or low or if this % is directly affected by the incubation temps. Has anyone else ever done this with any of their clutches?

I will continue to post my percentages as more of my clutches hatch.

[rabernet]

Kelly - Tim Bailey's a geek like you - I'm willing to bet he's kept some records that he could share.

I really don't know the answer to your question.

[seeya205]

You lose the weight of the yolk and the egg itself!

[kellysballs]

Okay here are some of the other clutches that have hatched out this year and they % of clutch that translated to babies
Weight of # of eggs
Cltch babys % laid hatched
1162g 922g 79.35% 11 11
434g 266g 61.29% 5 5
400g 5 5
352g 218g 61.93% 4 4
592g 396g 66.89% 5 5
472g 198g 69.92% 5 3 *
424g 212g 100% 6 3 *
528g 358g 67.8% 6 6
722g 488g 67.59% 7 7
442g 302g 68.33% 4 4
766g 482g 71.91% 8 7*


* not all of the eggs laid in these clutches hatched. Since clutch weight was taken as a whole and not as individual eggs I divided the amount the clutched weighed by the # of eggs and then multiplied that number by the # of eggs that hatched. Then I took the weight of the hatchlings and divided it by the adjusted clutch weight.

If anyone has lots of data on ball pythons I will be beginning my senior research project at Stetson for my Bachelors in Biology next semester, and I will need as much data as I can possibly get. I do not know what lane my project will go down but I have heard there is a lot of interest in "anorexia" before they lay, body condition after they lay, survival rate and sex ratio of offspring. I will be happy to include anyone in my acknowledgements who will send me data on ball pythons.

For those of you with "secret" projects morph type is not a needed data point. My email is kellysballs@me.com

[mpkeelee]

Kelly - Tim Bailey's a geek like you - I'm willing to bet he's kept some records that he could share.

I really don't know the answer to your question.

ya he has a couple of posts on here with just insane record keeping, i would PM him if i were u and see what he has to say.