Please note that the authors of this paper correctly refer to the act of a female ball python coiling around it's eggs as Maternal BROODING BEHAVIOR.
This NOT Maternal Incubation.

This paper expresses some of what I have posted here previously.
Brooding behavior helps control the intra-coil humidity...by using a tight brooding coil to keep the eggs from dehydrating. Controlled humidity levels allow embryos to develop into healthy hatchlings.

Ball Pythons utilize Brooding Behavior which is different from Maternal Incubation....Ball Pythons do not regulate the intra-coil temperatures. THEY DO NOT MATERNALLY INCUBATE EGGS.

Other Python species are able to Maternally Incubate their eggs.
These other species can regulate the intra-coil temperatures as well as control intra-coil the humidity levels.

If a brooding female Ball Python is maintained in a temperate environment, the cage temperature needs to be maintained artificially within a conducive range for success.
(example 87.5-90F)

If you artificially maintain this temperature range then essentially you have created a cage sized incubator.
Within the cage it can be easier to maintain the humidity as well. So, in the end....You have still artificially incubated the eggs...but merely allowed the female to continue her natural brooding behavior. The cage has become an incubator.
Why not just make a real incubator?

If you did not control the temperatures and the eggs (along with the brooding maternal female) were allowed to fall below the normal safe incubation temperature range, you would begin to experience embryonic death. Egg loss.
As the brooding female Ball Python can not raise the temperatures back up to an acceptable level for proper development.

Other species of pythons could raise the temperature back up by utilizing thermo-regulatory twitching behavior.
Which is a sign of true Maternal Incubation.
Ball Pythons do not engage in thermo-regulatory twitching.

Confusing the differences between Brooding Behavior and True Maternal Incubation capability could spell disaster.

Ball Pythons Brood.
So the keeper must keep an eye on the temperatures.
This is why it is just easier and safer for us (in a temperate environment) to artificially incubate the eggs.
You can easily put as much (or more) effort into trying to maintain the proper temp and humidity within a cage as you might into just building a reliable incubator.
Once you have an incubator you will have a lot less to worry about during the breeding season.

If you live in a more tropical environment...it might be easier and more cost effective to allow the female to brood her eggs, thereby controlling the loss of moisture within the ova.

Artificial Incubation techniques will produce strong, healthy babies...provided you adhere to the correct temps and humidity levels. As well, the female will expend less energy which would be lost if she were allowed to continue brooding the eggs.
By removing her from the eggs you will be able to feed her sooner to regain the weight needed for the next season of breeding.

Harlin Wall - WALL TO WALL REPTILES!
970-245-7611
970-255-9255

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