38 days in [maternal incubation]

[ballpythonluvr]

Congrats on some nice looking babies!

[zombieon3rd]

Congrats to you. Great post, I am limited on space and I wondered if anyone was using maternal incubation. I belive I will give it a try once I reach that point. Again Congrats, Way to GO!!!!!!!!

[azpythons]

Never made sense why people doubted this to me. Congratulations. Im happy to see proof that its jus as good a method than incubation

[pt377]

Congrats!! They look Great.

I plan on doing this with my Ball, cause I dont have the money and the time to do an incubator. My wife's pregnant and the baby balls will be here about the same time my Baby's do. Be funny if its the same day!

So I plan on doing Maternal Incubation, but i have a few questions..

1. What was your set-up? I know you said you have a lay/hide box filled with moss and the humidity was 70% with a heat pad under that part of the tank. But where did you have the heat lamp?

2. Did you have this set-up before she layed and she knew to lay in the moss? or did you move them after she layed?

3. When did you feed her? did you do it right after layed?

[Quiet Tempest]

Congrats!! They look Great.

I plan on doing this with my Ball, cause I dont have the money and the time to do an incubator. My wife's pregnant and the baby balls will be here about the same time my Baby's do. Be funny if its the same day!

So I plan on doing Maternal Incubation, but i have a few questions..

1. What was your set-up? I know you said you have a lay/hide box filled with moss and the humidity was 70% with a heat pad under that part of the tank. But where did you have the heat lamp?

2. Did you have this set-up before she layed and she knew to lay in the moss? or did you move them after she layed?

3. When did you feed her? did you do it right after layed?

1. 40 gallon breeder tank. I use some Clingwrap on about 3/4 of the screen cover to keep humidity up in the tank because the room tends to stay a bit dry. The laybox is a Sterilite tub with a hole cut in the lid with just enough room for the female to enter/exit. I don't use a heat lamp over this tank.

2. I had originally put the laybox in the middle of the tank when she was going into blue for her pre-lay shed but after she shed she kept pushing it out of the way and/or trying to go under it to lay on the heatpad. Because of that, I just put the laybox directly over the heat for her and she stayed in there or just outside, laying inverted for most of the time. When she looked like she was obviously going to lay, she stayed coiled and buried under the moss the entire time. I figured this would be no different than with my corn snakes and they seek out a suitable place to lay when the time is right. I tried to provide that and she seemed content with what I gave her.

3. I fed her the day after all of the eggs had either pipped or hatched. She ate a small rat right away and when I put her back in the cage, she went straight back to the laybox to coil around the eggs left in there. Now that all 5 babies have left their eggs, I've removed all them from the tank and mom and put them each into a tub with damp paper towel, water dish, and a small hide.



When I have a chance or after they shed (which ever comes first), I'll get more pics of these guys/girls. I've just been busy lately and not had time to snap any new ones.

[4theSNAKElady]

OMG....that pic of mom on her eggs with babies hatching has got to be the cutest pic ever!!! Thanks for sharing!!

[americangypsy]

Everone I spoke to about maternal incubation said that very little was needed if you were already housing your adults properly. The female regulates the humidity on her own but I gave her a humidity hide/laybox and kept the moss moistened to better our odds.

I had intended to just incubate these eggs when they were laid because I already had a clutch of jungle carpet pythons in the incubator and nearing their hatch date when these came. It would just be an easy rotation. In the end, I just sympathized too much with the mom and didn't want to take her eggs from her. A few weeks before I had watched a friend's video of her snake after its eggs had been removed and I just felt so sad because the poor thing was looking for her eggs. Blame the mom in me. I told myself that I'd see how it went for a week or two and if the eggs started looking poorly I would move them to the incubator. One of the eggs has a crease over its top but it's fine otherwise. It candled fine and the baby is very active inside. The rest look the same as they did when they were laid and the female stays coiled around them all the time. I can't wait until they hatch. I'm looking forward to seeing the babies, but I'm just anxious to get some food into their mom.

So cool I can't wait to see pics of the natural birth I wonder if their personalities will be different since they are growing with their mothers heartbeat surrounding them. Yea for you I hear so much about live food this and hunting that but what about the maternal instincts very excited about this thank you for sharing.For the mamas