Reptile & Amphibian Forums

After you have the joy of hatching a clutch, how long do you wait until you seperate the babies. Can they instantly be placed in their own enclosures? How long until they eat their first meal?

Once they climb out of those eggs they can be put into their own enclosures and set up. As for feeding, wait till they have their first sheds, and then have a go at offering up some food.
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-Amelia
ES Tropicals

The babies should be put into a moist environment after coming out of the egg. We use a sweater size box lined with wet paper towels. I prepare this ahead of time and put it into the incubator so it attains the 89-90 degree temp by the time you want to place the babies in it. The whole clutch of babies will stay together in this box, in the incubator, until they shed. We move them into a second incubator that has a lower temp of about 85-88 degrees halfway through the 7-14 day shedding period. After they shed, we house them in individual shoe boxes in a rack system with belly heat in a room with 82-83 degree ambient temps. The babies will then be offered their first meal.
Hope this helps you. You would benefit greatly from buying & reading Kevin McCurley's book, The Complete Ball Python. You can get it from the Pro Exotics website. Good Luck!

Susan

SSNAKES Reptiles
www.ssnakes.com

I plan on buying that book some time this week. So until their forst shed, they remain in an incubator. I would of never guessed that. And in that 7-14 day shedding period they are not aggresive or cannibalistic with each other?

they are pretty full with yolk from the egg, so won't have any real interest in eating till their first shed.

I don' think it's necessary to keep them in the incubator altogether, but each breeder has their own method. Myself, I would just house them in small containers individually on paper towels and keep them well hydrated.
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PHLdyPayne

They DO NOT need to be in an incubator after they leave the egg. While that probably works fine, I would argue against it. Those temps are too high for baby balls (I did read that the folks that use this method transfer them to another, cooler incubator shortly after. As soon as mine leave the egg, they go to their own shoebox sized tub with damp (not wet) paper towels, a water bowl, and a hide. In the past, I've even moved babies that had pipped but were still sitting in the egg.

I have always kept our babies in the incubator, till close to, sometimes after their first shed. I have been doing it for years and never had a problem once with temps being to high. Every now and then if the space is already freed up I will go ahead at set them up, but i feel they have better sheds with the humidity in the incubator. Actually when i get picky feeders i set them up in the incubator individually and 9 times out of 10 they start eating on their own. This is just what we do all breeders have their own ways that work for them.

Kim
N.A.R.C