Posted by:
Kelly_Haller
at Wed Nov 22 13:14:45 2006 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by Kelly_Haller ]
I used maternal incubation probably 95% of the time when I was producing burmese many years ago. If set up properly, I believe maternal incubation with this species is superior to artificial incubation. The key phrase being “proper setup”. Take care if heating from under the cage floor to ensure that the floor temps. under the nest box do not become excessive. If using a thermostat with probe, place the probe under the substrate along an inside edge within the nest box. If you are heating the air, then have the probe on the upper edge of the nest box. Maintain the cage temperature around the nest box in the 30 to 31 C (86 to 88 F) range at all times. If the temperature drops too low, the female will expend an inordinate amount of energy keeping the egg mass at the maternal incubation temperature of 33 C (92 F) and you want to avoid this. One way to roughly gauge the cage temp. visually, is to watch the incubating females rate of contractions. If they are less than 5 per minute, the cage temp. is probably too high; if greater than about 15 per minute, the cage temp. is probably too low. But, always monitor the ambient temp at the upper edge of the nest box as a safety measure. Don't let the cage temp. get too high as she can always raise the egg mass temp., but there is no way for her to lower it if it gets above 92F.
Seal the cage as well as possible to keep the humidity up. I always had a nest box surrounded by containers of water with paper towels sticking out of the water surface. These acted as wicks to increase the evaporative surface and increase humidity. The humidity needs to be maintained above 85%. Every other day I would mist heavily across the top of the female and let it run down on the eggs, but don’t over do it. This will help keep the micro-climate around the eggs moist. In their natural environment, the female on the eggs is exposed to rain events and decaying vegetation so this is not an issue for the eggs. You just don’t want the eggs setting directly in standing water.
Drawbacks that bother some breeders are the female comes off the eggs at hatching with a significant loss of body weight. For this reason, females should have good body weight before allowing maternal incubation. She will not feed or drink for the duration of the 56 day incubation period. This puts a temporary drain on her physically and so maternally incubating pythons typically are best bred only every other year. I personally never had a problem with that. Also, a few infertile eggs are not an issue, as I have never had a viable egg die from contact with a decaying one, however a large number of infertile ones could be a problem. Good luck and let us know how it goes.
Kelly
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Additional info on maternal incubation.. - Kelly_Haller, Wed Nov 22 13:14:45 2006