Please help with my clutch!!! I'm babysitting a snake and don't know what to do

[BPBabysitter]

Friends, I really need help and I decided to register to this site to ask a question specific to my situation.
I love animals, so I agreed to babysit my friend's 4ft female ball python while he is on deployment, but she just laid eggs and I don't know what to do! Ive raised kittens and foals, but this reptile thing is a new ball game and I was completely unprepared. Please accept me as a newb who wants to learn a lot and look out for this snake and her clutch that has been entrusted to me.

1) she's laid 7 eggs, 4 she's pushed out of the clutch. 2 of these are big white and a little dimpled, 2 of these are yellow and I understand may not be fertile. Please advise what to do! Can I put them with the others still in her coils? (She's very docile)

2) I know not to touch, so how do you advise me handling the eggs?

3) Dimpling means too much moisture or not enough?

4) I am currently on duty (in the military) and unable to get the approved bedding materials for the clutch in the next day. I have ordered an incubator, but what can I do in the short term to make this a more comfortable situation for her and her eggs?

5) what do I do about her pushing eggs out of the clutch?

6) vet advised I put clutch in a Tupperware container, uncovered, and back into the cage. Not sure this is the best advise after reading about maternal incubation. Could someone please adivse?

7) should I just drop a mouse in her cage to eat? (Will happen soon when I get a chance to get bedding!)

any and all expertise is appreciated!!!

[highqualityballz]

For now don't worry about feeding her, deal with the eggs first. As for what to do with the eggs I'm not really sure, if she was coiled around all of them I'd say leAve her with the eggs until the incubator arrives but now that you said she pushed some out that may not be the best bet. I would personally take the vets advice until the incubator arrives. You can touch the eggs to move them just be gentle and dont rotate. Dimpling means not enough humidity. When is the incubator suppose to arrive?

[Oxylepy]

Increase humidity somewhat (spill a little water, spray the enclosure but not the eggs, add some moist moss, etc anything to increase humidity)
Allow the snake to care for the eggs in the time being. Ball pythons can increase their body temperature as well as humidity.

Give us details on the enclosure the snake is in, the temperatures and humidity as well as what the enclosure is, what the bedding is, and how much air flow it has (a screen mesh top on an aquarium is high air flow, as with mesh sides etc, while a nearly fully enclosed container such as a sterilite tub has almost no air flow)

Air flow is important for how you will deal with humidity. Also, even with an incubator you will likely need to move the eggs to a tupperware container of some sort, there is a lot of good information on how to incubate ball pyrhon eggs.

[bcr229]

A fast way to increase humidity without turning the bedding into a sopping wet mess is to buy a package of new synthetic sponges, get them wet, and stand them up in a wide but shallow plastic container that you then put in the enclosure. The idea is to get lots of air flow over/around the surface area of the sponges, and the container ensures that you don't end up with the water all over the floor of the enclosure. Then instead of spraying you just add a little water to the plastic container and the sponges will soak it up and allow it to evaporate.

[Meerna]

Any updates on the eggs and incubator?