Quote Originally Posted by Lord Sorril View Post
Females will still build follicles whether they have locked or not-appetite usually increases, and if the meals don't scale: your hands will look more and more like food. I tend to feed multiple smaller prey items rather than one large jumbo one--so the ball python will usually stop when it decides it has had enough...

My still air Hovabators worked fine for ball python eggs for a few years. I noticed after a while that the temps started to get shaky due to deterioration of the 'thermostat' disc. Lazy fix was to plug it into a better probed external thermostat and adjust the temperature that way...

I can absolutely agree on multiple smaller rather than one large. I've been letting her have two small rats, about 100g each, and she's been unwillingly content with those (more or less). Unfortunately, my rodent supplier owed me ten small rats that they forgot in my last order, and sent me ten large rats instead... she can handle one, so I figured I'd try it. She's been indignantly waiting for her second rat for the past thirteen hours now, with no indication of settling in to digest. She won't be getting one. The one large rat is equivalent to two small rats - about 200g. Fortunately, she's never mistaken my hands for food, but she does come half flying out of her tub when it opens on feeding day since her appetite increased. Maybe she just doesn't think my lemon hand lotion smells like it would taste good...

My Hovabator has a fan, but I had planned to use a secondary tub inside if it became necessary, and plug the ventilation ports. It's always been extremely reliable when hatching chicken eggs - except for the lack of a cooling feature. That resulted in 30 cooked rare-breed chicken eggs that one time the power went out in a High Desert summer, the back-up power failed, and when it came back on... the AC's didn't. Can't blame the incubator for that one.

So, from what you said, I'll take it as; Feed the girl. She's hungry, and potentially eating for the future of... six or so! If she gets too heavy and doesn't end up producing eggs... Nah, I don't think a ball python would take well to a laser cat wheel or treadmill very well. The mental image is entertaining, though. Probably have to just use the hand escalator.