Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Some of you may remember me. A little less than two months ago i posted some questions about my normal ball who laid five eggs unexpectedly. I had no idea that she was pregnant until she laid the eggs. Completely unprepared, many of you helped me out a ton! A special thanks to Randy Remmington and the extential amount of info and advice you gave me. Well,i decided to let her mother them and hatch them herself. The time is here. One of the eggs is going to hatch any minute now and im not too sure what i should do. Should i leave them alone with her, or put them in seperate containers? When do i feed them and how do i care for the little ones? Out of the original five eggs she only pushed one out so im hoping for four healthy balls. I cant house them for long so im looking for buyers as well (Columbus, Ohio). But thats not the important part. What is important is taking care of my new lil pythons. If anyone can help me out i would greatly appreciate it. Any advice is the best advice...thank you!

RyanDouglas

I was fence building yesterday so I suppose by now some of them are out and about. Mine seem to have worked like clockwork this year; they slit and then sit in the egg looking out for almost exactly 24 hours while they absorb the yolk before coming out. You don't want to bother them too much or hurry them out before they are ready.

I left my maternal clutch with mom until they came out just to see what would happen. My female was fairly small and I wasn't worried about her smooshing them. She stayed loosely coiled around the clutch and watched very closely as I picked the babies out right after each came out of the egg. Not sure if she would have bitten me or not if she could have but I suppose some females might. I used the lid to shield from her because I didn't want her thrashing around (and I’m not crazy about being bit).

I believe some separate mom and eggs as soon as they slit.

Ideally, it would be best to set each hatchling up in an individual small cage (shoebox size or so) with a hide spot. Keep them warm (mid to upper 80’s) and humid with water at all times. Wait until after first shed to offer a hopper mouse and if that doesn't work try a fat fuzzy mouse or small fuzzy rat. Hopefully all will start eating within a week or two of first shed. Sometimes if they are in a group cage it seems like a dominant one will eat everything and the others will not eat until you get rid of the eater so best to put in individual cages if possible.

Congratulations on your first hatchlings!