Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi All, I love it when everyone posts pics of newly laid eggs, so here is my contribution. This is my female spotted's third clutch and I have a question to pose.

I am thinking about letting her take care of the eggs for the next couple months. The last two clutches have been incubated. What is the popular opinion? Should I let her incubate them? Anyone have good stats or opinions on the downfalls, positives etc? Let me know.

Excellent picture, and congrats on the eggs. I'll give it a go at your question, though I personally have yet to breed my pythons (retics) and so have never let any eggs be maternally incubated. I'm just going to throw my advice out there since this forum seems kinda slow and I'm not sure you'll get any other responces. This topic came up not too long ago I believe, and some people stated that with the clutches they let the mother incubate, they had 100% success. I'd say that's pretty good. A friend of mine has produced some ball clutches the past couple of years and tried them in a Hovabator but they always perished. His big female just laid 10 eggs (can you believe it?! too bad she wasn't het bred to a het...lol), and he's letting her incubate them since he can't get his own incubation techniques down very well. They've been incubating for about 3 weeks now and so far, so good. As long as you can keep the cage near 100% humidity, doesn't have to be completely 100% and dripping wet though as the closeness of her coils will keep the water vapor in the air close, and you can keep the cage at a reasonable temperature, she will take care of the rest. Her contractions will adjust for any temperature fluctuations, just make sure the cage doesn't get too hot, as that is something she cannot fix. I'd say keep the cage between 80 and 85. They can certainly stand to go a little over that with no serious risks, and she'll keep them from going any lower.

Anyway, again congrats on the clutch. Best of luck with them, and keep us informed.
-Chance

I atrificially incubate all the eggs my pythons lay. I think it causes undue stress on the mother and by incubating them artificially you allow the female to get back on a feeding schedule faster. This allows her to quickly regain the weight she lost and be ready for next season. I have also heard that hatch rate is better with artificial.

TT

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