Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I haven't posted in here for about a year and now have new questions about my ball pythons. I am thinking about breeding my ball pythons in december if the female gains a little more weight. I was just wondering if anyone lets the female ball python do all of the incubating by herself and if this is an O.K. way to do it. I'd rather not go and buy an Incubator because this might only be a one time thing. Since having my two ball pythons my brother, sister, and friend all have become interested and want atleast one and are willing to wait till I breed mine to own one. So I was just wondering if it is positively essential for me to go out and buy an incubator to do this or if it works to just let nature take it's course.
Thanks ahead of time for all of the input.
Paul

I've only tried maternal incubation once (last year, will probably also try it again this year) but everything worked out fine for me. All the eggs hatched with healthy babies, the female gained weight fine with a good apatite after her extended fast, she is bigger than last year, and she is apparently gravid again. I've lost eggs in the incubator but don't have a large enough sample size to say for sure one method is better than the other (better incubators and methods than I use are probably close to 100% with artificial incubation too).

The main things as I see them are that you should provide her with a cage that maintains a steady but high temperature (like 86 - 89), high humidity (like 80 - 99%), and security (you shouldn't be able to see her). I've heard of people hatching eggs fine with maternal incubation over a wide range of conditions so a apparently a good mother can make up for a lot but I think the above would be ideal. In fact I would try to keep the humidity around 95% but apparently a mother with access to a water bowl (essential) can compensate for lower humidity and might also be able to raise the temperature of her eggs in a cooler cage.

Maternal incubation is not commonly done because it's nerve racking for the owner to leave so much up to the mom and it's generally thought that taking the eggs away and getting her feeding sooner will result in better weight going into the next year. It would be interesting if someone where to do a study to see which gained better for the next year as I’ve seen balls gain incredibly in a short period of time with a good appetite and perhaps there are physiological or psychological benefits to maternal incubation which tend to improve appetite. At any rate I had a heck of a lot of fun watching the whole process and particularly the eggs hatching so will try it with some of my better-conditioned and tempered females (figuring they are less likely to get stressed from even a low frequency checking schedule).

Read the link below for my limited experience with maternal incubation (warning, even more long winded than this post!).
My 2003 Maternial Incubation Experience