Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was blessed with three carpet clutches this season, my first BTW, and I chose to allow the mothers to maternally incubate two of those clutches. I ended up with 20 out of 21 surviving from clutch 1, and this last clutch had 100% hatch rate. They also look fantastic. Overall, both of the maternal clutches had offspring that were far larger and robust than the artificial clutch. I think I'm going to store my incubator for emergencies.....

Here are afew pics.

I was very skeptical of the whole Maternal Incubation thing at first...but you and many others have proven my thoughts wrong..Really impressive...Congrats Matt...those are really nice..I still can't get over those Cool head patterns Jags have...
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Executive Reptiles
Amanda Kingsbury & David Kendrick
www.executivereptiles.com

Congrats. Awesome looking babies.

Its quit interesting, what you have seen, about the maternel Vs. inqubator hatclings.

How long did it take the females to hatch them, and do you know anything about the temps of the litter? I mean if you have measured the temps, within the maternal litter?
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Best regards

Mark

http://www.heterodon.dk/

Mark, the first clutch had one pip on day 55, and the rest hatched on days 56-57. They were maintained at an average temp of 88-89 degrees.

The second clutch hatched on day 62, and they were kept slightly cooler. Both mothers did a fantastic job, obviously so given the hatch rates. Out of the two clutches I had one animal that could not pip on its own, and I had to cull it due to deformity, but I can not contribute that to the fact they were maternally incubated. One other hatchling has a nuerological issue and appears to "stargaze", but I have seen that condition randomly appear in a few snakes from healthy clutches over the years. Other than that, they have all been very healthy and vigorous feeders. I hope this clutch feeds as well as clutch one.

it would be nice to see pictures of the parents if you have any!

Sire

Dam

I just found this thread. How did you set up the female as far as caging and humifity. I have thought of trying this. I would love to get some mroe information. Thanks.

It was quite simple. I placed an egg box on the cool side of the cage that provided her room to move about. On the bottom I placed three layers of newspaper, and covered it with 3-4" of Aspen bedding. I poured a little water in on one side, and the newspaper soaked it up and distributed it across the bedding. I mean a LITTLE water, no soaking. She deposited the eggs, tightly coiled around them, and all I did was check the temps from there on out. I added slight bits of water bi-weekly to one corner of the newspaper. I kept the warm end of the cage at 92 degrees, and the ambient temp was in the low 80's. She took care of the rest.

Thanks for the info. I appreciate the information. I was thinking fo trying it. Todd