Maternal Brooding

[bigballs]

has anyone here allowed the female to brood her own eggs?? any success stories out there?

next year i plan to try to breed my bps but i plan to use an incubator. just wondering how effective it is to sucessfully allow the captive female to naturally hatch her own eggs. whats the diffuculty level compaired to incubating them?

[frankykeno]

No direct experience here so take my post for what that's worth. Let's see...female won't eat during maternal incubation, a dirty cage since you can't get in there to clean it while she's on her eggs, inability to check the eggs since she's coiled around them. I'm sure a TON more reasons to use an incubator but those are the ones that spring to mind first and why I'd never consider maternal incubation over artifical incubation.

Oh and I'm a weenie. Sticking my hand in to change a water dish with a big ole female guarding her clutch. Nah....I'm not that brave! LOL

[bigballs]

haha ya could be dangerous..:eek:

but i have read that it is very possible and i wouldnt think it too unsafe for the female.

ok well maybe an experienced person can fill us in...

[Adam_Wysocki]

It's completely possible ... make a list of pros and cons and do what's right for you!

-adam

[Spaniard]

Here's a link to a thread about this. http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...ad.php?t=33496

[frankykeno]

haha ya could be dangerous..:eek:

but i have read that it is very possible and i wouldnt think it too unsafe for the female.

ok well maybe an experienced person can fill us in...

Well of course it's possible, they do it after all in the wild. Just in captivity it seems most sensible to remove the eggs to a controlled environment and get the female settled back into a regular feeding pattern as soon as possible.

[Entropy]

http://www.jaymartinreptiles.com/articles/maternal.pdf

[bigballs]

i didnt read any of the links yet but im guessing that like incubation you would have to make the conditions appropriate for maternal brooding inside the females enclosure.


do you think though that there is greater risk of losing eggs by allowing the female to incubate her own eggs or is there equal risk with incubation?

and what type of supervision would be need for maternal brooding that is different from incubating yourself??

[Entropy]

If you read the links you might find some answers to your questions, that's why most people post links.

[bigballs]

i started reading the thread and it is amazing...


gotta finish it...

but if we all just read links then there would be no point in posting...
right?

anyways ill finish reading them but if anyone wants to talk about this then go ahead but if not then let the thread move down the ladder...