Maternally Incubating Again =)

[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.