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I am going to be letting my female maternally incubate this year as i have no room for an incubator, i got a large block of fine sphagnum peat moss, kinda looks like fine soily type stuff, is this what i need or do i need long strand. Lemme know.

Thanks
Aaron

you don't have room for an incubator?

a hovabator is less than 2 feet square and is a great incubator for a small breeder.
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Edited on February 18, 2004 at 10:15:49 by phwyvern.

I have four-five females that will hopefully be laying around the same time. so i couldnt possibly fit all those eggs in one hovabator so im gonna let the mothers do it. Plenty of breeders do with great results. Lemme know if the substrate is good.

Aaron

I use newspaper......
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RicK @ BbI

Ball Boutique,Inc.
The home of the singing snakes!

If you dont mind me asking how do you keep the humididty up on the newspaper? But is the sphagnum peat moss ok for it anyway?

Aaron

Right now my room humidity is 70%. In the summer it goes to 80% on most days.
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RicK @ BbI

Ball Boutique,Inc.
The home of the singing snakes!

That should work. I generally provide plastic storage boxes with holes in the lid and boxes filled with several inches of slightly dampened spaghnum moss as a brooding medium. I have had equal success with just towels. The key is providing the proper temps and humidity levels if you are going to allow your bp to brood her own eggs. Rob

Would the female actually sit on the substrate of moss? Wouldn't the excess moisture put the snake at risk of scale rot or the like? How would you guard against it? I rescued a royal with very bad scale rot so I was wondering....

You must manually manipulate moisture levels....the substrate should never be wet; just slightly damp (as I first mentioned). I use a syringe to add water as needed on the substrate. Females will actually excrete uric acid in order to boost humdidity/moisture levels (interesting behavior). Spaghnum moss naturally inhibits bacterial growth so it is actually a wonderful medium to use. In terms of scale "rot" that is an indicator for poor husbandry.

Doesn't the acid itself pose a problem tho? Wouldn't it burn the scales? I believe thats what happened to my rescue, he was left to sit in his own filth as I origionally thought the rot was a burn. Couldn't their own bodily fluids have that effect?

I have personally witnessed successfuly maternal incubation in ball pythons with a astro turf substrate within a 20 gallon aquarium. Saran wrap was placed over screen lid and water dish was placed on warm end of enclosure. Eggs were laid on warm end (heating pad beneath end of aquarium) between water dish and aquarium glass. Substrate is not terribly important with such a set up as the humidity is provided with combination of water dish on heated end an restricted ventilation.

BTW, I have heard an account where 5 full clutches of ball pythons eggs were successfully hatched within a hovabator thermal model. Ventilation holes were plugged and vermiculite was placed directly in incubator bottom half with no secondary container. A secondary container could be used, but the height of the incubator should be extended (this is very easy to do- make a square using 1" X 4" boards and place on incubator bottom half. Duct tape the boards to the top half. When accessing incubator, simply lift the top half and board square as a single unit. The exterior of the square can be insulated as well). Now just find the perfect size container to hold all your eggs.

Hi Aaron –

Fine-milled sphagnum wouldn’t have been my first choice, if for no other reason than that your pythons may track it all over the cage and make a complete mess for you. But if you get it set up in time in a container for the female(s) to pack it down, it will make a fine incubation medium. The key is to provide a good nesting spot as close to 90 degrees and 90 plus percent humidity as possible. If you are providing UTH heat, be careful to keep a close check on the temps. An infrared thermometer is great for this. If the female can’t find a perfect spot, she may well pick a hot spot (like under the newspaper, right on top of the heater) that will cook and kill the eggs.

Put a few inches of damp (not wet) substrate in a plastic container. If you can still squeeze water out of the sphagnum, it is too wet. Cut an entrance hole in the top or side of the container. Put the container where it will be around 89 degrees. The female should enter it and over time clear out a depression down to the bare plastic where she will eventually deposit her eggs. She doesn’t “sit” on the pile; she wraps her coils around it and supports all the eggs. During incubation, if you need to add more water to keep the humidity 90-100 percent, you moisten the substrate around the perimeter of the box, NOT directly on the eggs or female.

I’ve used maternal incubation less than half a dozen times over many years with both Burmese and ball pythons. It is a lot of fun to witness the natural process. My feeling is everyone should try it at least once. Of course, if you are into maximizing your breeding potential, it doesn’t make much sense. But it’s been working pretty well for millions of years for those pythons.

-Joan

I've only tried maternal incubation once, using a fairly long steam sphagnum moss in a sweater box. Notice that she pushed all the moss aside and actually laid on the plastic anyway. I got a little carried away and tended to wet the moss in the corners too much but they all hatched out fine anyway. If you are using a screen top aquarium and don't happen to live in a super humid location you may have problems maintaining humidity but you don't want to get the moss right down wet either.

Should work allright. I use green moss and that is a good substrate as well. Just make sure that the temps are correct and that the substrate stays a bit moist but not too wet.
Justin J