First Clutch

[slickshadowrunner]

Hey all,

So my first clutch finally arrived! 100% het Clown x Clown. Given that I don't have an incubator I have opted for maternal incubation (I prefer to keep things as natural as possible anyways). Having read a bunch on maternal incubation I do have several questions.

1) The female and her clutch are in her tub which is bedded with aspen chips. Am I to assume that the wood will not do the babies any harm? I mean by splinters, etc.
2) Once the babies pip out, at what point can they be separated from the mother? I figure once I remove them, I can give the female a bath, change and clean the tub and then resume normal feeding with the babies in other bins.
3) Is there any problem with keeping the babies in tubs at the beginning where they do not have their own tubs? I currently don't have enough rack space for all of them if they all hatch out.

Thanks,

[AerialArtist]

Nice! Clowns are always a good thing. I haven't done materbal incubation, but I've done quite a bit of reading on it preparing for my own clutch, so hopefully I can help a bit.

1) Aspen shouldn't hurt the babies, it's made to be snake bedding after all.

2) I've seen babies left with the mom until they're all out of the eggs.

3) Most people keep hatchlings together until they have their first shed and then separate them. You'll definitely want to work on finding a rack for them while you wait.

Good luck!

[slickshadowrunner]

Thanks much for the info. It actually looks like my older normal female is gravid too, so I will need to find room for her little ones also. Of course, the problem is I have no idea who the daddy is, as she went on a hunger strike last year for seven months and I sent her to a breeder buddy's place where she was put with every male he had just in case she could be persuaded to eat after mating a time or two. I have no idea whom she's been with. When I asked my buddy his response was to scratch his head and say"...ummm...all of them at some point..."

[chilliscale]

Good luck. Congrats

[Kiryu]

Lol! Sounds like your other female got around quite a bit, going to be tough picking out who is who when they hatch, but maybe you'll get a diverse clutch of babies! Like a 'Surprise me' clutch lol