Woke up this morning to 7 eggs...

[selcouthkat]

First post! Looking for as much information on the internet because I am not quite sure what I am doing.

My female ball just laid 7 eggs this morning. Problem is, when I adopted her and her cage mate (male), I had no idea she was pregnant. She never showed any signs that I had read about (turning her belly up, etc), and her body never appeared to be "carrying" anything egg-like. I even picked her up and felt her belly to feel anything hard to make sure because the guy I adopted them from told me she "might" be pregnant. Seeing this as a predicament of a male and female together, I began to look for another home to give one to (telling them, of course, she could be pregnant). I just thought she had really good muscle tone and was well-fed.

Well, she beat me to it. I woke up to five eggs, and witnessed the last two. I'm a mixture of anxious, excitement, and fear.

So, as you might know, I have a few questions. I know I'm going to let her do her thing in terms of incubation. The temp and humidity is good. I've covered her in a light cloth to give her privacy.

Question one is, feeding. Since I adopted her (roughly a month and a half ago), she has not eaten for me. Since she is going to be curled around her eggs for two more months, this really concerns me. I usually feed them in a separate tank with thawed mice. Having her not eat for 3 and a half months worries me. Should I attempt to feed her a thawed mouse in her tank? Definitely do not want to encourage her to move for fear that she will rotate her eggs.

My other question is, what on earth should I do with her children? I know a local zoo who is looking for pythons, and maybe I can find a few people through the internet, but I don't know about their legitimacy. Does anyone know the best way I should go about finding them a good home?

My next question what percentage of eggs through natural incubation hatch into healthy little ones?

And my last question is, I love both snakes, but I don't want this happening again (unless someone gives me a good reason otherwise ie more captive bred vs wild caught & bringing more unwanted reptiles into the world). Will it be effective to keep her from getting pregnant if I keep them in the same tank, but separate them during the mating seasons?

Thanks a lot guys, and information and advice will really help

[purplemuffin]

The most effective way to prevent them from breeding is separate tanks, sorry! I never suggest housing two ball pythons together, especially male/females or male/males! They will be far less stressed and happier alone.

As far as the babies, some of the breeders here can help you out I'm sure! I've never had to sell an animal before!

[Homegrownscales]

Housed Bps together= babies. Doesn't matter what time of the year. This is why those eggs are now there in the frist place. Everyone will tell you the same. Now for the eggs. You can destroy them by freezing or cutting open the eggs or hatch them. If you are at all worried about caring for the little ones ie housing for each, heat for each, food for each, then doing this will make certain you don't have too much on your plate and unwanted babies. Then you can either rehome mom or dad or keep both but separate them. Immediately. Hatching is pretty simple. But please think long and hard if you can provide for those little 7 before even attempting it. Normals are slow to rehome. There's wholesalers you can sell them to but they won't pay much or rehome them for free. Either way your going to have to spend $ on the babies for at least a month if not longer. I don't sell any of my little ones until they have shed 2x and eaten at least 3-5x. That is usually at least 1month - 2 months. With them eating weekly.
So you've decided you want to hatch them ok. Many have had great success with letting mom brood her eggs, as well as incubating them artificially. If your going to let mom do it you need to turn moms hide where the eggs are into pretty much an incubator ideal temp is 88-90. With 90-100% humidity. Not sure if the humidity I gave you for maternal incubating is a little high bc I've never done this method but this is the humidity for artificial incubation. I'm sure someone will chime in if I'm wrong.
Artificial it's the same I aim for 89 temps and 100% humidity and I mix vermiculite and water in a container ie Tupperware until it clump into a snowball in my hand but doesn't drip any water. I place the eggs in the medium and pop the lid on and stick it in the bator. I personally have a homemade incubator. But In a pinch you could get a still air chicken incubator from any farm store. My first couple clutches I used one of these and had 100% hatch rate. At any rate don't take the eggs away from mom until the incubator is all set to the correct temps it'll probably take about 24 hours and set up the incubating container in it without the eggs with a digital thermometer (indoor/ outdoor type) the probe goes in the egg box and the base goes outside of the bator. This is bc the egg box can vary a few degrees from the temp in the inc and it's all about how warm the eggs are. After tne temps aee stable put the eggs kn the egg box. In 60 or so days you'll have babies pipping. They will take 24-48 hrs to come out of the egg. So don't worry if they don't slither right out. Then they'll take about a week to get through Their first shed and then they'll eat. You can get mouse hoppers for the first meal but they will easily be able to eat sml to md adult
Mice.
Anyways thats it in a nutshell. Hope this is helpful.
Welcome to bp ownership!

[Quiet Tempest]

Yikes. Snakes really shouldn't ever be caged together unless you intend for them to breed and even then, it's only a temporary housing situation. Definitely get the male an enclosure of his own if you haven't already. There is no "mating season", per se, and if a male and female are sharing an enclosure then chances are that they will breed.

Did you already have some experience with ball pythons prior to adopting this female and her mate? If not, it might be better to get an artificial incubator (either store bought or a do-it-yourself variety) up and running and move the eggs to it as soon as the temps and humidity in the egg tub are where they need to be. Having only had the snake for a short while, it might be easier for you to set up her eggs in an incubator and allow yourself a little more time to learn the basics before you're stuck caring for an additional 7 snakes.

If you're going to allow the mom to maternally incubate, you don't want to turn her enclosure into an incubator. Doing so could make conditions wet in the enclosure and lead to problems with the female. You don't want her in a situation where she's constantly exposed to dampness because it could lead to bacterial infections and belly rot. Leave things basically as you would for any ball python - moderate humidity (60-80%) and temps around 90-95F on the heated side of the enclosure and around 80-85F on the cool side. The humidity will be higher within mom's coils. An artificial incubator simulates those conditions. In the case of a brooding female, you need only provide her with what she needs - she'll provide what the eggs need. Use the eggs as a gauge for the humidity. If they are caving/dimpling then that's your indicator that humidity is too low and you can easily bring it up by adding more substrate or moistened sphagnum moss to the enclosure. I keep my balls in a rack system so humidity isn't that much of an issue. If you're using a tank for yours you may have to keep a closer eye on things to ensure that humidity isn't dropping too low. In a tank I would recommend a nest/lay box (basically an oversized humid hide where she can lay her eggs) but with the eggs already on the ground it may be a bit late for that.

For feeding. There really isn't a need remove a snake from its enclosure to feed. I remember being told when I was younger that I needed to put my snake in a separate tub or box for feeding or else they would associate me opening their cage with feeding every time. That's really not right at all though it took some time for me to come to that conclusion because I was so certain that the pet store employee knew what they were talking about (ha!). Feeding them in their enclosure makes things simpler for you and less stressful for the snake. In the case of a brooding female, I offer fresh killed food to the mom near her nest. Sometimes they eat regularly on a weekly basis, other times it may be more sporadic on a bi-weekly basis, or you may have a stubborn female that doesn't want to eat at all for the entire 60 +/- days that she's on her eggs. Because they are exerting so little energy during this time, there is very little weight loss occurring while they're brooding so even if a female refuses every meal, it's not something to fret over provided she was of good weight prior to becoming gravid. I wouldn't worry too much about the eggs being rotated. They usually stick together shortly after being laid so chances of an egg tumbling out of the pile are fairly slim. Even if it does happen, it's not an instant death sentence for the embryo inside. Eggs that have been turned either deliberately or by accident during incubation have gone on to hatch perfectly healthy babies. The notion that reptile eggs can't be turned for fear of drowning the developing embryo seems to be a false one based on assumptions rather than any real evidence so if an egg does get turned, don't panic. As long as it is in its mother's coils and not stranded somewhere outside of the nest, it should be perfectly fine.

This will be my third year breeding ball pythons and maternal incubation is the only method I've ever used for them. So far I haven't lost a single egg or hatchling and I do attribute the 100% hatch rate to having good mothers who are well adapted to care for their clutches. I would encourage anyone to give it a shot at least once if only to experience it for themselves.

If you're concerned about finding homes for the babies, I would start calling local pet stores and see if they might buy or trade for them. You might be able to work out a deal to trade your offspring for supplies, feeders or store credit.

[selcouthkat]

Haha, yeah, there are a few more replies that agree male and female will inevitably equal eggs. I will set arrangements then to give the female away because I have grown particularly attached to the male.

Thanks for your input :>

[Skittles1101]

Why don't you get a separate enclosure and keep both? I don't understand why you obviously took two in and now you want to get rid of one when all you'd have to do is get a second "home"?

[selcouthkat]

Thanks for your awesome advice! It helped me make a few decisions. The female has since uncoiled around the eggs (don't know if this is normal?) and moves about the tank into the other caves, and sometimes returns, sometimes back around them tightly as before, sometimes loosely. I don't know if this means for the eggs, but they are directly on a under tank heater (she moved the substrate and newsprint while laying her eggs) and are covered with a thin cloth.

I am not going to get an incubator because I do not have an interest in breeding them. This guy I adopted them from gave them as a pair with their tank, and in the mean time I was finding a home for the female, but it seems she beat me to it. I spray to keep the humidity up for the snakes as normal, but I am not going to spray excessively for the same fear you have; belly rot. They are dimpling, so I just bought some moss today and have placed them around the eggs somewhat, but not covering them (should I?).

And feeding her in her cage will make me feel a lot better if she eats something for me. I read a lot that you are suppose to feed them outside of their cage, but I trust your judgment since you have first hand experience

That again also relieves me that they can be rotated somewhat, and they are indeed sticking together. And this has indeed been quite the experience. My main concern is the happiness for both of my pythons.

I know of a small zoo about an hours drive away who are looking for ball pythons-- so after a few months, I will see what happens, what could hatch and what could not, and take her and her hopefully hatched children there to live out a good life. A pet store worries me since they might be in a small cage (though temporary, for a long time maybe). Should I really try this option, though? Have you had good experiences with communicating with pet shops?

Again, thanks for all your feedback!

[Quiet Tempest]

I only like working with pet stores where I know the employees and am confident in their competence when it comes to reptile care. If I walk into a store and see their reptiles in poor condition or find dead animals in the cages, I'll walk right back out - probably have a word with the manager before I go. If I'm not comfortable with a particular group of people caring for MY babies then I'll move on to the next option.

If it could fit in your tank and cover the nest and female, an option for you might be to turn a small/medium sized plastic litter pan into a hide for your female. Just cut or burn an entry/exit hole on one side of the pan and sit it over the nest so that heat and humidity are more easily trapped. If the female is leaving to soak and then returning to her nest, she may feel that the humidity is too low for her eggs. Giving her a hide that helps prevent the loss of humidity might help and all balls enjoy the security of a good hide.

The only other advice I can give is to limit interventions and anything that might annoy or disturb the female. If the mom feels like her nest isn't safe, she'll abandon it and then you'll be left with a clutch of eggs and no means of incubating them unless you've got a Plan B artificial incubator standing by.