Reptile & Amphibian Forums

temp vary 83-90, sixty days, and best hatch percentages that i have ever had.about eighty clutches.

and you lose months of feeding your female getting her ready for the next season. not sure why it is so tough but I incubate in hatchrite in an incubator and have 100% hatch rate again this year. Is it really that much work? you have to leave the eggs with the female on wet sand or whatever that is?
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Evan Stahl Reptiles
www.evanstahl.com

everthing is completely dry, and females regain weight quickly

Hey Morton,
Is that aspen chips? I used to think they needed all the time to feed, but they are only going to eat for so long anyway and take meal time off if they want. I'm surprised it only took 60 days though, from talking to another breeder, theirs took longer.

I think the snakes have been doing this longer than we have,seems to be working for them .

Maybe we should take a lesson from Evan "mother nature" Stahl...

here we go again, every time that I post, which is very rare, I have to see your sad little attacks at me. Are you just jealous?

was my post so ridiculous??? maybe when I give my girls those extra 2 months to eat that others are wasting through maternal incubation, maybe that is why they produce so well, every year for me, while others like you just troll around talking about what are others have and are doing because you do nothing yourself to contribute.

My girls eat for the two months that you would maternally incubate. That is a nice, big, fat advantage for the upcoming season. I dont really care what or how you do it. I get 100% hatch from hatchrite in my incubator. I get almost no slugs with very high fertility, 95-99% production and great variety from a relatively small collection.

The proof coward tevie is in my production, which is all over the classifieds on kingsnake and at shows all over the country. You just keep being a jealous troll. Maternal incubation is lazy. Anyone that wants to can say what they want but you working your females when you should be feeding and conditioning them. Simple.
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Evan Stahl Reptiles
www.evanstahl.com

Evan,
Its not LAZYNESS, its the ability of someone that produces 200 clutches to do what he wants. Maybe some people enjoy the success of maternal incubation in THEIR collection. It could also be that their stock is so large, that if a few females dont go the follwoing year, its not even a hiccup. Now maybe with your collection you miss out on a few clutches and there goes your year, but with the myth, the man, the legend, I dont think Morton cares if 20 of his females dont go the following year. Cause he knows he has 20-40 raise ups going that year.
Did you ever think about breeding them year after year, consecutively, and pounding them with food may cut their production/life span earlier? I wonder whose snakes will last longer.

Everyone has a way they do things with their snakes,if it works fine.If you want to change it or experiment thats ok too.This is live animals with a lot of variables involved.I would not claim to know it all or call it lazy because someone lets the female hatch the eggs.

....the lucky few of us who were craping in our diapers when he was field collecting.

Evan,
This is the method used by breeders when they have a green thumb for producing so many eggs, they got them lining all the tops of their freedom breeders, their incubators are full, and the bathroom is not a bathroom.
I know morton for many years, and its incredible the production he does, and the way he does it. Its easy to say to buy hatchrite and put them in incubators, but he would need another whole warehouse just for that.......
His females bounce back so well, even when maternaly incubating, that a high percentage lay in consecutive years.
Did you notice the color of the eggs? Ive seen way uglier, wrinkled eggs from incubators.
We are in a tropical area just like in africa, unlike you.......production wise, and clutch success shows his method for HIS snakes is best for HIM.
Its also not cost effective for him to spend on electricity, or expensive hatchrite, when its done for FREE.
His production says it all.

P.S.: His revolutionary bedding is a super top secret proprietary bedding only those that need to know, know. lmao

Looks like Sani-Chips to me.
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Scott Hager
Red Barn Reptiles

HOW do you keep the eggs moist enough./..or how does she keep them moist enough?.....I had friends leave eggs for a week and they were half deflated and all squished together in a mound...some I could save...some were totally gone in a little over a week or more....

??...you dump water on them?....each day?....

....Thanxx...good luck....
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........JY

J-
WE ARE IN SOUTH FLORIDA, no needto add water when the air itself is already soaked with it.
Different if your in a basement in Michigan or New York

It works in NY too!!!

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Steve Roussis
www.roussisreptiles.com

lol, thats awesome.
But I bet your basement is probably ALOT different and it probably feels like Miami in there ,
and has the same conditions.

We tend to think things with scales don't sweat but they do .The female python controls the moisture also.

snakes sweat?....I'll have to think on that one...

I think they actually will urinate on the egg space....

and I used to think / or be told/ that they would come off eggs and go for a dunk in the water , then climb back on the egg pile...not sure if this is actually true or not...or maybe personal behavior on each females part....???

I am in a basement...it is wet and damp...the pipes sweat, the floor gets rained in on alot in the summer...as in right now...it's wet....and I still don't think they'd look as good as the ones in Morton's pic if left under a female for 2 months...
...
yes...I kill eggs in the incubator all the time...
it's time for new incubators....now.....

yes ...females CAN take it....they feed alot when they want and stop when they want....

....so...water ,sprayed?....or 60 days of nothing and they look better than mine?....

...
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........JY

No spraying....just they usually lay on the heat tape side, he just spins them around so they dont cook.
True on basement, wet damp....try a clutch or two....
only difference is that the air temp in Miami is 85 degrees during the whole 60 days.....

If it is only 85 in Miami, it must be winter. Ball python eggs would hatch on my back porch here in south Florida during the summer.

When you learn about the sleeper breeders like Morton, it makes you wonder how many others are out there that you never hear about. He has early clutches too, that part I don't understand, I'm in the same local, but always months behind with my clutches.

JY, I bet your basement is cooler so condenses out moisture on the cool surfaces and then at places heated to incubating temperature the relative humidity is much lower. Having everything at incubating temperature probably helps keep that high humidity right up to the eggs. I did maternal incubation in Colorado years ago but I packed the whole tub with sphagnum moss. Mom ate like crazy after the hatch (hear you can even feed while incubating) and had no problem going again the next year. Maybe it's harder on them to take their eggs away every year? Maybe nature has built in some bribes to get mom to incubate.

Interesting topic.
Being in South Florida, I can say that my ball eggs will certainly hatch in my back patio during the summer (maybe I will try that next year). My only concern is that the female has been off food for quite some time during the reproduction cycle and to keep her off food for two more months seems a little too much (I know this is how they do it in nature, but...).
Usually after I take the eggs away the females refuse food for a few days until they (I guess) realize that they don't have eggs to take care of anymore. However, I have a female this year that ate the same day I took the eggs away. Maybe some females will even eat while incubation.
It will certainly be an interesting experiment...Thinking of next year (maybe a normal x normal just in case...
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Sed et serpens erat callidior cunctis animantibus terrae quae fecerat Dominus Deus...

...Yea.....the basement is cooler...like 75....snake room is heated to 83 average....heater runs all year , 2 in winter...
water all the time...(till I replace all the sidewalks around the house )......and I had thoughts...

the snakes lay eggs in the warmest spot...like mentioned..ON the tape...so it might be bad thing...

some of my balls are NOT heated...so they set at 83 to 88 degrees...so they won't work...

some of the tapes aren't worth crap...cold...so they don't work...

so it's incubator built for me...BIG one...floor to ceiling and like 4 foot wide....>>>..about time...(20 years)...

.....if it works....use it....some people use bedrooms with all working heat taped cages.....they could use cypress wetted for better results....and yes the females will eat enough to breed every year....I love these people that "let them have the year off"...usually it means "she just didn't breed so I'll say it's my idea"....LOL....

good luck.....!....take temps....

....
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........JY

Im in the same Boat Mike Bell, But Im in Homestead. I dont get clutches until late spring and into the fall. I scratch my head everyday on how Morton gets early clutches every year. He goes to Daytona with a whole mess of awesome stuff and im down here hatching out my first clutch
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Chris Berrios
~S.Fl Constrictors~

Morton ....he's been around for 20 years at least...met him in Daytona first time in 2002.......
lots of balls....
early...?...maybe he's just later than you guys and it looks early...?.....

maybe he has so many he gets eggs all year?....aaaaah....more likely....

.....I have babies and ovulators and no go's all here right now......babies in October this year I think....

have fun....

((( Morton???....do you spray at all???...))).

....
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........JY

don't worry about humidity. the whole purpose of maternal incubation is letting the female control how much evaporation she alows from the eggs. the very top egg sometimes dimples, but the rest don't look much different from day one. look how tight the coil is after day one.

Morton has pixie dust he puts in their water.

for coming back....still might try it someday...on a female or two...with the correct temps under them...rare around this house...most are colder....

good luck....

.....
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........JY

I too live in South Florida and have often wondered if the humid air alone here would be enough. My snake room wouldn't work because even though there is no AC vent in the room, it is a room that is attached to the rest of the air conditioned house via an open archway. I would probably have to add a humid substrate for maternal incubation to work. Plus I just got a new herpstat with the BLUE lcd screen for by fridge bator. It looks way too cool to not use.
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Jake
www.thereptileenthusiast.webs.com

Yes, I think that a humid substrate would have to be added to the to keep the eggs and the brooding mother in a condition resembling the conditions in the wild. They brood their eggs in a burrow where it's warm and humid.
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Sed et serpens erat callidior cunctis animantibus terrae quae fecerat Dominus Deus...