Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Im planning on breeding for the first time soon and wanted to get some opinions on egg incubation. I know most people manually incubate with an incubater, but I read an article by Bob Clark about egg incubation and he suggested letting the female incubate the eggs herself. He said that some people under estimate the mothers ability to take care of her own eggs. Id like to hear some of your opinions on getting the best outcome for the eggs. Thanks.

It depends on the species. Pythons are the main group of snakes that Bob Clark is talking about. Most other snakes do not take care of their eggs.

Ian

I use maternal incubation almost exclusively with pythons and this is the setup I have been using since the late 1970's. It will keep the ambient humidity at about 90% with no problem at all. The plastic boxes contain towels which protrude above the surface of the water and act as a wick system. It is heated from below the cage bottom using Flexwatt. This setup can also be easily size scaled for about any length python, although a 4 X 4 foot nest box space is as large as I have used it with, and that size will work with 16 to 18 footers. Those larger cages were 4 X 8 length-width, but with the nest box at one end, a partition is slid in to cut the cage size in half after she lays in the nest box. The Sri Lanka python below is in a 3 X 6 cage with a partition in place to make it 3 X 3 after laying. The smaller the interior air volume, the easier it is to maintain the higher humidity. Vents are kept to a minimum. The nest box is lined with moist, long-fibered sphagnum. The key is to keep the nest box substrate temps in the mid-80's and being careful not to let it get above about 88. The female can always raise the egg mass temp, but she has no way of lowering it if it climbs above the preferred incubation temp for that species. With physiologically thermoregulating species, the muscular contraction rate can be used to gauge the temps somewhat. You should shoot for rates between 5 to 10 per minute. If she is contracting below that range, the nest box temps are too high. If above this range, the temps are too low, and she will expend an inordinate amount of energy maintaining the proper egg mass temp. Non-physiologically thermoregulating species additionally need to be supplied with a basking area. Always use quality temp and humidity monitoring equipment. I have had outstanding success with this setup and never had any egg desiccation problems, or health problems with the females.

Kelly

Thanks for the advice Kelly. Thats an impressive set up. Im actually planning on breeding Balls. I understand they control egg temps by leaving the nest and basking, then returning and warming the eggs with there heat. What would you recommend for balls specifically?

Similar setup but obviously scaled down to a 20 gallon long tank or something of similar size. Additionally, it is best to have a covered nest box with ball pythons, and a basking site away from this nest box. The nest box material should be fairly dry, although the ambient humidity within the cage should be high. The nest box temp should be in the mid to upper 80's, with a basking spot in the low 90's.

Kelly

Great information Kelly. I hope to try it with my spotted's when they mature

Ian