Reptile & Amphibian Forums

thanks.

I took this photo about 25 years ago of one of my gravid females a couple of weeks before she dropped.

Kelly

Is it typical for them to lay belly up like that?

I have seen a very few that would not invert like this.

Kelly

...when breeding just a really nice looking normal burm was a big event! Our hobby has proceeded to really mess things up haven't we? That's a great shot. I remember when I bred my first normal burm (about that same time frame). Man do I miss those days.

>>I took this photo about 25 years ago of one of my gravid females a couple of weeks before she dropped.
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>>Kelly
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Rob Carmichael, Curator
The Wildlife Discovery Center at Elawa Farm
Lake Forest, IL

it is hard for any morph to beat the pattern and coloration beauty of a really nice, natural looking burmese. I haven't bred any burmese in almost 15 years, and I do miss it. Especially as you said, when in the begining, while it was still uncommon. I almost always let the females maternally incubate their eggs, and that is what I found the most interesting about this species.

Kelly

I'm obviously breeding for the first time. could you give up any tips on successful maternal incubation?Especially pertaining to keeping humidity at proper levels.Humidity level in her cage is generally about 50%. I know that would dry out the eggs in a heartbeat. Would using a nest box full of spagnum moss covered with plastic work? Yhanks..John

John,
With thermoregulating brooding species like burmese, I really don't think it is any riskier than artificial incubation if you get them setup correctly. Two things that you must do for maternal incubation with burmese is keep the cage humidity above 85% at all times and maintain the cage temperature around the nest box in the high 80's at all times. If you don't keep the humidity up, you risk desiccating the eggs and if the temperature drops too low, the female will expend an inordinate amount of energy keeping the egg mass at the proper incubating temperature of 92 F. 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 much greater than about 10 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. All of the clutches I had hatched from 55 to 57 days, with the vast majority hatching on day 56. I always used dampened long fiber sphagnum moss for nest material. Also, it doesn’t hurt to pour a very small amount of water over the female ever few days to help maintain coil humidity. This occurs frequently in their natural environment in the form of rain. The only drawback that bothers some breeders is that the female comes off the eggs at hatching with a significant loss of body weight. This essentially prohibits her from being bred the following season and so maternally incubating pythons typically are best bred only every other year. I personally never had a problem with that. Good luck and let us know how it goes.

Kelly

While I have never allowed my females to maternally incubate the eggs I always incubate at 90.0 F and not above with perfect results. Are you 100% certain that your females maintained their eggs at 92. F? Did you use a probe-type thermometer?
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David Beauchemin
High End Herps.Inc
http://HighEndHerps.com

I always use NIST traceable mercury thermometers for all temp. measurements as they are certified accurate to 0.1 degrees C. I would insert these into the incubating females coils to take the readings. I took measurements on numerous females and the temps varied from 91 to 93 degrees F. During the last week of incubation, the temps would drop off to ambient. An artifical incubating temp of 90 F will work with no problem, but will extend the incubation period for burmese python eggs somewhat longer than would be seen in their natural environment. The standard 90 degree figure for python egg incubation came about because it was a good average figure for most species that works well even though it is not the exact or best temp for all species. Burmese pythons probably have the highest average maternal incubation temp. of all pythons. And it is no wonder that their range extends farther north than any other large python species. The average maternal incubating temp of 92 F for burmese is well documented in other studies. Two excellent papers which discuss this topic are:

Observations on the reproduction of Python molurus bivittatus.
Van Mierop and Barnard, Journal of Herpetology, 10(4)333-340.

Metabolism, energetics, and thermoregulation during brooding of snakes of the genus Python.
Vinegar, Hutchison, Dowling., Zoologica (NYZS), 55(2)19-48.

Both are excellent papers and definitely worth reading.

Kelly

I'm going to let her incubate. I gave her a nest box 2'x3' full of spagnum moss and placed it in the middle of the cage under the radiant heat panel. The surface temp of the moss is 85 degrees with about 95% humidity. She went in briefly but chooses to remain coiled at the hotter end of the cage under a ceramic heat emitter where it's about 95 Degrees. She did shed on the 1st and there was no defecation,only urine.