Newbie Breeding Question

[SnakeKB]

I'm very new to breeding snakes and have been doing non stop research. My question is Does anyone let the female snake take care of the eggs till they hatch? I ask cause that's the natural way but i always hear about everyone using incubators instead. I'm not against the incubators at all but is it possible to let the mom hatch the eggs? I want to be educated the best I can so any info would help. Thanks everyone.

[PassionsPythons]

Maternal incubation is fine. But if you are going to Maternally incubate then you need to make sure that you have high enough humidity and a perfect hot spot. Which is why most people use incubators. Its much easier to control humidity and temperature that way.

[aalomon]

Its relatively common for people to choose to maternally incubate their eggs. Personally I dont because I like to get the moms feeding again as soon as possible.

[SnakeKB]

Does it hurt the female to do this? Ive read about the female not eating while this takes place. Also would it be ok to use a fogger to keep humidity up high during this process and will the female be ok doing so? Or does the female actually keep the eggs humid herself without needing a humidity setup?

[aalomon]

I wouldnt say that it hurts her, after all, that is the natural way. For me it is just personal preference to give the female a break. You do need to control humidity somewhat, but i would not recommend a fogger. Foggers cause a lot of condensation which is really hard on the eggs.

[seeya205]

I have also heard that females that take care of the eggs usually don't breed the next year as they are underweight! Never done it so I don't really know, just something I heard!

[stevepoppers]

Yeah, they will lose a lot of weight and most prefer to spare them the ordeal. They work really hard. It's something to see and worth doing for the experience, I think.

You have to create less-than-ideal conditions when maternally incubating so that the female has some control over the conditions of the eggs within her coil. The tub has to be a little cooler and a little dryer than perfect incubation temperatures. She will tighten her coils to keep them warm and humid and relax them to let it out. She can also do something that is essentially shivering to generate heat for them. Yes, they can shiver to produce their own body heat! You want to have a backup incubator running the whole time and be ready to pop one or all the eggs in there any moment if something goes wrong. You could have a roll-away or she could abandon them for some reason. Some will eat during this. Maybe on the coil, and maybe they'll crawl off for the meal. Give them something smaller than usual if you try so you don't make them unable to coil the eggs.

Maternal incubation is the keyword you're looking for. Do a search here. There are one or two really good threads where I learned all this.