Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello - I work for a wildlife rescue center and we currently have a ball python that we rescued. She started laying eggs last night (is up to 6) and we have no clue what to do. I have access to an incubator that I used to use to hatch chickens and ducks but I don't know if that will work. Should I just try to leave the eggs with mom and let her handle it? What should the eggs look like if they are healthy.

I need help on everything. Temperatures, humidity, etc.

Thanks!

Temps should be from 88-91 with humidity around 95-100 percent. Dont turn the eggs. You can buy perlite or vermiculite at any garden shop. Then mix it with water. Congrats and hope this helps

A common mistake I still find myself fighting against is to make the incubation media too wet. I've heard things like the perlite or vermiculate should be just damp enough to clump together but not actually wet. Also that it should be mixed 1:1 by WEIGHT with water. I suppose this could be thrown off depending on how dry your vermiculite is to start with but with mine this comes out around 8:1 vermiculite to water by volume.

Randy, I don't go by ratios. It changes if you use other things with your vermiculite like perilite. I do use the clump method. I get it just moist enough to clump and hold form without excessive pressure. This works for me but I still find myself adding water about midway through the process. I don't mind because I have seen what too much water does (bloated eggs and fungal growth).
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Jay A. Martin

>>Hello - I work for a wildlife rescue center and we currently have a ball python that we rescued. She started laying eggs last night (is up to 6) and we have no clue what to do. I have access to an incubator that I used to use to hatch chickens and ducks but I don't know if that will work. Should I just try to leave the eggs with mom and let her handle it? What should the eggs look like if they are healthy.
>>
>>I need help on everything. Temperatures, humidity, etc.
>>
>>Thanks!

A chick incubator may go too high and not be able to be set down to the 86-90 temps for python eggs. You will want to test it out for a few days so I think your immediate option is to leave them with mom. They should be quite large(bigger than chicken eggs), white, leathery, full and not 'too' dimpled....indicating they need more humidity.
If you leave them with her you might want to get an incubator anyway as stressed as she is she may abandon them. If you incubate them then you can raise the humidity around them with damp (soaked then squeezed out) long fibered spaghnum moss or a inch or two bed of wet perlite. Just so the eggs aren't sitting in wet. Close them in a shoebox/tupperware type plastic container. Small airholes so less humidity loss. Leave the clump together and don't turn them!
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Sonya

Haven't we warned you about tampering with the structure of a chaotic system?
Mrs. Neutron