Incubator vs. Natural

[anatess]

LOL 1st off. "Being a woman, it is always interesting to me that people treat pregnancy as a medical event. It is not. It's just a normal part of the life cycle. Hence, a lot of people prefer the midwife over an OB. The OB is only there when the event becomes a medical concern (complications such as pre-eclampsia, etc.). " your contradicting your self sweetheart. and second of all pregnancy is a tremendous thing to go through regardless of species, AS A MALE i guess i overly respect pregnancy? i dont really know where u were goin with that. one of my points with the racks is, if its so natural why do we keep the animal in a Box or permanent burrow with little to no light. im not here to argue about husbandry just a point. ( I USE RACKS) regardless what is your success rate I hope it was 100% but since u ignored it maybe not? anyways thank you for your valuable info about natural incubation and laying process. my main point being I wouldnt want to loss a valuable egg, especially with the odss being what they are with morph combos, and to clarify im not in it for the money either I just would not want to miss out on a beautiful egg because of a careless error. just my opinion. again thank you for your info on the humidity tub and what not.

No sir, I am not contradicting myself. My mother is a midwife. Here... this may be a thread hijack but this is info you might wanna scan through to understand what I'm trying to say: http://www.yourchildbirthguide.com/m...or-doctor.html - read through the first few paragraphs under Different Models of Care. And I say being a woman - because being a woman, I've been through 2 pregnancies so I can speak with some semblance of authority on the matter.

Where I am going with that - pregnancy/childbirth is not a medical event. For humans or animals alike. Complications in pregnancy makes it a medical event. Therefore, having a healthy snake incubate its own eggs is not a "medical hazard".

I responded on the hatch rate in a previous post. If you missed it - I stated that mine wasn't 100% due to my error (first clutch and all) but that several forum members here on bp.net do have 100% hatch rate year after year. You can search maternal incubation and see for yourself.

Whether you incubate or you allow the snake to incubate doesn't guarantee you 100% hatch rate. But, you increase the chance of a healthy clutch by knowing what you're doing - in either case.

P.S. I didn't do maternal incubation because I want it "natural". I went the maternal incubation route because, as my first foray into breeding, I trusted the snake to care for the eggs better than I can. And, the way I feel now, I still trust the snake better than me - therefore, I will continue to do maternal incubation.

P.P.S. - puting a snake in a rack is not too much different than what the snake instinctively does in the wild - from what researchers have gathered is the natural habits of a ball python. In the wild, researchers report that bp's stay in burrows and do not roam unless thermo-regulating, looking for food, or finding a mate. We provide the same needs in a different way.