Maternally Incubating Again =)

[Quiet Tempest]

Earlier tonight I offered both of these girls a rat pup just to see if they had any interest whatsoever now and while Ailynn didn't show any real interest, Dewshine snatched her meal and swallowed it before I could find the camera for a pic.


Dewshine at 48 days


Ailynn at 45 days



I would have gotten new candling video but the eggs have started denting and the babies are taking up more room so it's kind of hard to really capture anything besides a veiny egg. The eggs feel paper-thin and soft now. Hope to see baby heads within those coils soon and get some baby pics up!

[Wildman09]

Thannks for the update!!...Looks like your gonna have a bunch of babies squirming around with-in the next few weeks....Good luck and enjoy it...

What were the pairings again?

[equinebeing]

the pairing for ailynn was basically the same as with dewshine - normal early on and pastel just before ovulation. I really hope the pastel sealed the deal. Had i known that i was going to get to borrow my friend's pastel, i'd have just used him.

good luck!

[sarahlovesmiike]

Glad to see the eggs are doing well! After lots of research and reading this thread I'm convinced to try maternal incubation when I do decide to breed

[Oxylepy]

I dont know... It's nice and all but you really need to be sure everything in her area is proper. Higher humidity than usual, make sure she doesnt lay on top of the heat tape, etc (this is assuming the same general rules apply for maternal incubation as do for artificial incubation). I read somewhere that balls are one of the few snakes capable of altering their body heat and the reason being so that females can have more control over the temp of their eggs.

Personally I'd rather incubate in an incubator, the only real flaw I see to that method (assuming nothing goes wrong) is that you could be doing psychological damage to the female.

[anatess]

I dont know... It's nice and all but you really need to be sure everything in her area is proper. Higher humidity than usual, make sure she doesnt lay on top of the heat tape, etc (this is assuming the same general rules apply for maternal incubation as do for artificial incubation). I read somewhere that balls are one of the few snakes capable of altering their body heat and the reason being so that females can have more control over the temp of their eggs.

Personally I'd rather incubate in an incubator, the only real flaw I see to that method (assuming nothing goes wrong) is that you could be doing psychological damage to the female.

I'm not sure what you're saying about psychological damage. That's what their nature is meant to do.

Tempest, just wanted to mention that my maternally incubating pastel has been eating every 10 days since she laid (her normal eating schedule). I don't know what that means but I've been watching those eggs and they seem to be developing like normal. The cool thing is the mother has not lost any weight and even gained a little - about 40 grams. So, I guess I'll find out when these eggs finally hatch if my decision to continue feeding was okay. I'm on day 44 now!

[Oxylepy]

I'm not sure what you're saying about psychological damage. That's what their nature is meant to do.

Oh, no I wasnt talking about the Maternal Incubation, the "method" I was speaking of was putting the eggs in an incubator. You have to remove them from the female and she's already hard wired to take care of those eggs. Seems like it would cause at least some psychological damage there.

[SlitherinSisters]

Oh cool!!! Those moms did a better job than I did this year! Congrats! I can't wait to see those babies!

[Quiet Tempest]

I dont know... It's nice and all but you really need to be sure everything in her area is proper. Higher humidity than usual, make sure she doesnt lay on top of the heat tape, etc (this is assuming the same general rules apply for maternal incubation as do for artificial incubation). I read somewhere that balls are one of the few snakes capable of altering their body heat and the reason being so that females can have more control over the temp of their eggs.

Personally I'd rather incubate in an incubator, the only real flaw I see to that method (assuming nothing goes wrong) is that you could be doing psychological damage to the female.

When I did this last year, I did provide my female with a lay box since whe was being housed in a 40g breeder tank. I misted the sphagnum moss lining the box regularly for the first few weeks but it seemed largely unnecessary after the first month and stopped doing so.

The humidity is no different for these two now than before they became gravid. They're both housed in tubs in my rack system this year with cypress mulch as substrate (but they've pushed it all aside and are sitting directly on the plastic) and I've done nothing extra. I believe that the humidity in my tubs is currently around 70%.

Both females laid their clutches in the back of their tubs, which puts them directly over the heat tape but I've seen no issue with this. They picked the ideal spot for their clutch and who am I to argue with them? As I understand it from other breeders, they can move the clutch if need be though I've never seen mine do so - at least not more than an inch or so. I've read that in the wild, they leave their eggs in the den to go bask and return to brood when their bodies have warmed up. In captivity, they don't need to. They just tighten or loosen their coils to hold the necessary heat and humidity for their eggs. I just check in periodically to see that everyone is doing well.

I'm not sure what you're saying about psychological damage. That's what their nature is meant to do.

Tempest, just wanted to mention that my maternally incubating pastel has been eating every 10 days since she laid (her normal eating schedule). I don't know what that means but I've been watching those eggs and they seem to be developing like normal. The cool thing is the mother has not lost any weight and even gained a little - about 40 grams. So, I guess I'll find out when these eggs finally hatch if my decision to continue feeding was okay. I'm on day 44 now!

Last year I had offered my female a mouse while she was maternally incubating and she wanted nothing to do with it. After reading so many people say that females wouldn't eat anything while they were incubating, I figured this was to be expected (I found out later that this isn't really the case with most females). She had actually stopped eating late January/early February, laid her eggs in May, and didn't feed again until the eggs started hatching in July. I figured this year would be no different but was pleasantly surprised. I should have tried offering food earlier and will keep this in mind for future maternally incubated clutches.

I didn't notice any real weight loss with my female last year. She was skinny, sure, but to go so long without feeding I thought she would look terrible.

As for psychological damage... I have read that moms left to maternally incubate are easier to get back on feed after laying compared to moms whose eggs have been taken from them. Not sure where I originally read about that, though. Sorry.

[PYMOM]

Do the moms help with the hatching? Cant wait to see it.