Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey. I know you're a big proponent of maternal incubation. I've asked this before in the past but I wanted to run it by you again. I know you've had fantastic hatch rates with your method. I've seen your pictures with mom incubating the eggs in their tub with newspaper substrate. What if anything do you do to provide proper humidity? If you do nothing, what is the average ambient room humidity during the incubation period? I'm definitely intrigued by the idea of trying maternal incubation with a few clutches, but am concerned about the humidity issue. Thanks for you response.
Joe Pociask Pythons

what is the average ambient room humidity
65-80
humidifier
during summer month I have it shut off....humid enough

Room temp 82-90
with out the heat tape on heat tape around 86-90
but tape goes off at dusk.
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RicK BbI

Ball Boutique,Inc.

After years of artificially incubating my bp eggs, I decided to go "au naturale" as an experiment; boy was I surprised. Not only were my hatch rates just as good (going with maternal incubation) but I found that my female's feeding response (after the 50-60 day incubation period) was far stronger than if I took the eggs away right away after deposition. I also discovered that the mother will actually self regulate humidity levels (within reason). I strived for ambient levels of 85-90% but if the egg laying box got too dry, the mother would actually excrete a little uric acid to boost humidity levels; pretty neat stuff). If the mother was found with her eggs directly over the heat tape, inside her egg laying box, I would just move it slightly to avoid direct contact. Temps in the 89-92 deg F. range worked well (and I even successfully hatched bp eggs out, via maternal incubation, at the 86 deg F. mark).
Hope this helps.

Rob Carmichael, Director/Curator
The Wildlife Discovery Center at Elawa Farm
City of Lake Forest Parks & Recreation (IL)

Thats the kind of info I was looking for. Thanks.

Joel

>>After years of artificially incubating my bp eggs, I decided to go "au naturale" as an experiment; boy was I surprised. Not only were my hatch rates just as good (going with maternal incubation) but I found that my female's feeding response (after the 50-60 day incubation period) was far stronger than if I took the eggs away right away after deposition. I also discovered that the mother will actually self regulate humidity levels (within reason). I strived for ambient levels of 85-90% but if the egg laying box got too dry, the mother would actually excrete a little uric acid to boost humidity levels; pretty neat stuff). If the mother was found with her eggs directly over the heat tape, inside her egg laying box, I would just move it slightly to avoid direct contact. Temps in the 89-92 deg F. range worked well (and I even successfully hatched bp eggs out, via maternal incubation, at the 86 deg F. mark).
>>Hope this helps.
>>
>>Rob Carmichael, Director/Curator
>>The Wildlife Discovery Center at Elawa Farm
>>City of Lake Forest Parks & Recreation (IL)
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- Joel Smith

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Rob`s Breeding Page