Keep Her w/ Her Clutch OR Incubation

[Evilme5229]

I've incubated eggs both ways but prefer maternal incubation for my own, especially now that I know my females WILL (if they choose to) continue to feed regularly on small prey animals while brooding their clutches. That was a pleasant surprise because I had assumed the year before that maternal incubation meant that the female would be forced to continue fasting for an additional 2 months. Glad that isn't the case. I do keep an incubator running as a Plan B because it's always wise to be prepared for worst case scenarios but so far I have not had to rescue eggs from a neglectful mother.

There isn't a whole lot of information available in popular snake books and care sheets if you choose maternal incubation. Artificial incubation is the norm for most breeders. However, there are several breeders here who have had success with it. Do a search here on the forum for "maternal incubation" and you'll find plenty of information to look through.

Either way, good luck with your future clutches.

^^^Thats awesome your girls would feed on her eggs. I gotta try that next time, I felt so bad that my girl was skinny after I removed her from her eggs. If I can get her to eat smaller and steady meals that she would do better too.

[Quiet Tempest]

^^^Thats awesome your girls would feed on her eggs. I gotta try that next time, I felt so bad that my girl was skinny after I removed her from her eggs. If I can get her to eat smaller and steady meals that she would do better too.

Mine looked just pitiful when she was off her eggs the first year because after she refused the first meal, I didn't offer food again until after the eggs hatched. I now know that one refusal doesn't mean that they'll skip meals throughout the process but they can be more fickle about what they will eat. My females' regular meals consist of small or medium rats and they never showed interest in those while brooding. I've had good luck offering live and fresh killed rat pups, though.