What are your views of momma keeping eggs?

[Homegrownscales]

Eggs are kept almost like the adults are. Temps at 88-90.f also humidity needs to be at 90-100%. If you are going to leave the eggs with mom you will most likely have an issue keeping the humidity right. I have a rack and I still need to spray everyone down to keep up humidity. Mom could also have health issues because of staying coiled around her eggs like the above poster said. My opinion is to take the eggs and hatch them in an incubator. Any farm store has still air chicken incubators for 50.00 invest in that it will be the best for babies and mommy.

[Quiet Tempest]

I've left all my ball clutches with the mothers and let them maternally incubate. I haven't had any egg losses this way but I've only had a total of 4 clutches in the past two years. The only issue that I had while maternally incubating was last year when I had a clutch of snowflaked eggs and one rolled out of the pile twice when the mom would leave to eat or drink. I put the egg back in the pile and it hatched out along with its siblings without any problems.

I have learned, however, that the age old assumption that females will not eat while maternally incubating is complete rubbish. The first year I tried maternal incubation, I didn't feed my female because of all the misinformation out there. I corrected my error last year and of the three females I had maternally incubating, one ate on a weekly basis and the other two ate more sporadically every 2-3 weeks (feeder size I offered while they were brooding was rat weanling to sm rat). Contrary to popular belief, the females don't exert a great deal of energy while brooding so there isn't a great deal of weight loss in females who choose to eat only a few meals or none at all and weight gain can be expected of the females who continue to eat regularly while maternally incubating.

Maternal incubation isn't for everyone but it has worked consistently for me. I've found I have lousy luck using artificial incubators. I've lost eggs in incubators whereas I haven't lost any eggs yet while maternally incubating. I plan to allow all of my girls to maternally incubate their clutches again this year. Once I have a decent camera back in my possession I'll be taking pics of the girls on their clutches and candling the eggs throughout the process again like I did last year.

[Wh00h0069]

My opinion, is why risk it? It is easy and cheap to build an incubator, especially one for only a few clutches.

[Quiet Tempest]

My opinion, is why risk it? It is easy and cheap to build an incubator, especially one for only a few clutches.

Just curious, what you think you're risking by going the maternal route?

[loonunit]

yeah, in the desert here, humidity is the opposite concern. You want as close to 99% humidity as you can get, but you DON'T want the eggs to actually come into contact with moisture.

I really want to try maternal incubation, but I'll probably chicken out and make my own incubator out of a cooler. And that's mostly about humidity/moisture--if I get the humidity up to 90%+, moisture will bead on Mom's tub. And the eggs will probably wind up on the bottom of the tub, in contact with the plastic... and then maybe she'll splash in her water bowl and there will be some water on the bottom of the tub... and meanwhile I'll still be paying the money for a good thermostat to avoid heat spikes.

I still want to try it some time. But I think in the long run, the incubator is easier.

[Quiet Tempest]

You don't want to bump the humidity up so high in a brooding female's enclosure. From the little experience I've had with this, you don't want humidity dropping below 60% and you don't want it climbing much higher than 80%. Keeping things so wet in an enclosure can cause problems with your female, like bacterial infections and belly rot.

The female can regulate the humidity within her coils as long as her enclosure's humidity isn't too high or too low. If she feels that the humidity is low, she may leave her clutch to soak in her water bowl before returning or she could urinate in her nest and get the same effect, boosting the humidity within her coils. Too much keeper interference can cause problems. All you need to do is provide a gravid female with the same conditions you'd be providing any other ball (conditions that encourage intact sheds, healthy appetite and normal behavior) and she can do the rest. You just keep tabs on her, provide clean drinking water, and offer food periodically. The only difference being that she'll be guarding a pile of eggs so you shouldn't be removing her from her enclosure unless absolutely necessary - this because she'll likely be moody and you don't want to make her feel that her nest is unsafe and abandon her clutch.

[Homegrownscales]

Very interesting stuff quiet tempest. I myself haven't tried maternal incubation. Although I think it's awesome to see moms caring for Thier broods. I think in each case pros and cons should be weighed out. But I think it's quite cool to see someone on the other side of the fence. I like the still airs and I suppose that's because I want access to both mom and babies whenever and don't want to risk a mother abandoning the clutch. But congrats to you for trying the more natural route. 

[Quiet Tempest]

It's certainly worth trying if you've never done it before if only to gain the experience. I've incubated eggs both ways but I've had a lot more luck going the natural route. When I researched it, I learned that the eggs are less prone to desiccation when left to the care of their mother so perhaps that played into my success with maternal and losses with artificial incubation. I don't really know for sure. Losing otherwise healthy eggs is like a kick in the head for me and I'm not willing to artificially incubate unless I absolutely have to for fear of losing even a single egg. I'm still new to breeding, having only started a couple years ago, but of the four ball clutches I've had so far, each had 100% hatch rates and were all maternally incubated. The python eggs I incubated artificially came from a jungle carpet python. She gave me 9 healthy eggs but one of them died about two weeks into incubation. I have to wonder if it would have survived had I let the jcp mom do her job.

[pamby13]

If he doesnt take care of them what is the possibility that she is gravid? They need proper temps, feeding, ect. in order to build follicles and then eggs.

She is definately Gravid. all the sure tail signs . Shes ovulated already and has started building. Shes DEF got some babies in her

[pamby13]

I've left all my ball clutches with the mothers and let them maternally incubate. I haven't had any egg losses this way but I've only had a total of 4 clutches in the past two years. The only issue that I had while maternally incubating was last year when I had a clutch of snowflaked eggs and one rolled out of the pile twice when the mom would leave to eat or drink. I put the egg back in the pile and it hatched out along with its siblings without any problems.

I have learned, however, that the age old assumption that females will not eat while maternally incubating is complete rubbish. The first year I tried maternal incubation, I didn't feed my female because of all the misinformation out there. I corrected my error last year and of the three females I had maternally incubating, one ate on a weekly basis and the other two ate more sporadically every 2-3 weeks (feeder size I offered while they were brooding was rat weanling to sm rat). Contrary to popular belief, the females don't exert a great deal of energy while brooding so there isn't a great deal of weight loss in females who choose to eat only a few meals or none at all and weight gain can be expected of the females who continue to eat regularly while maternally incubating.

Maternal incubation isn't for everyone but it has worked consistently for me. I've found I have lousy luck using artificial incubators. I've lost eggs in incubators whereas I haven't lost any eggs yet while maternally incubating. I plan to allow all of my girls to maternally incubate their clutches again this year. Once I have a decent camera back in my possession I'll be taking pics of the girls on their clutches and candling the eggs throughout the process again like I did last year.

How do you keep your humidity up? Do you spray constantly? Have you had any issues with scale rot ?