Maternal Incubation

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Already_Gone

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Hi all, its been a while.

I have a clutch of bredli eggs and have decided to leave mum do the work, although some people don't believe in this method... Thats fine, but I have my reasons.

I estimate about 25 eggs or so. She is a very healthy girl, about 8.5 ft and a fair bit of condition... considering she has popped out a clutch of bum nuts and if you didnt know you couldnt tell by looking at her. I was planning on giving her small feeds thru the incubation process, even though she would probably be more than fine with out it.

I was just wondering about monitoring the eggs. If the humidity is not right, ie too low, the eggs will cave in just like artificial incubation yah? I have noticed the shells feel a little tougher than eggs in an art, incubator, but i have heard this is fairly normal. So far she has been fantastic, if she leaves the nest, it is only for a short while, to bask around the light. If I go and have a look, she will return to the nest immediatly.

Regards Liana
 
Would love to hear updates on this! I've heard that the success rates are comparable (the main argument against seems to be maternal condition/health/readiness to breed again.)

Good luck and please keep us informed!
 
bum nuts and if you didnt know you couldnt tell by looking at her. I was planning on giving her small feeds thru the incubation process, even though she would probably be more than fine with out it.

I was just wondering about monitoring the eggs. If the humidity is not right, ie too low, the eggs will cave in just like artificial incubation yah? I have noticed the shells feel a little tougher than eggs in an art, incubator, but i have heard this is fairly normal. So far she has been fantastic, if she leaves the nest, it is only for a short while, to bask around the light. If I go and have a look, she will return to the nest immediatly.

Regards Liana

In my experience, feeding through maternal incubation isnt a good idea. I have found that they tend to leave the eggs to bask and digest the meal, and tend to neglect the eggs at this time. I have also noticed that meals aren't properly digested while brooding eggs. It's much better to feed them up prior to breeding.

Depending on your set-up, humidity plays less of a part when eggs are being maternally incubated as the female wraps tightly around them to avoid any airflow around the eggs. Still have a water bowl nearby for humidity, but dont go overboard.

Yes, its perfectly normal for eggs to toughen up and become brownish over time. One disadvantaged to eggs toughening up during maternal incubation is that babies can often have a hard time slitting the eggs, as oposed to the soft eggs in an artificial incubation set-up.

I hope your snake does everything right for you.
 
Awesome thread.. I am looking forward to updates on this as I am considering letting my largest female maternally incubate next season.
 
so far it has been almost a week. The eggs still look ok, have not caved at all, still white. her nest box is a broccoli box, with several layers of newspaper with paper pellets and sphagnum moss on top of that. Before she laid, she made a nest at the cool end of the box (so basically the cool end of the encl.) so the eggs are on the newspaper which is actually relatatively dry. The surrounding pellets/moss are well away from the eggs because she moved it are slightly damp... obviously not sopping.

Usually she has day temps of 31 at the hot end and normal brisbane temps at night, however, I am supplying heat to her at night also... i estimate, the box is around 28 deg C. I have moved her water bowl closer to the heat lamp, although, it is not far from where it usually is.
 
Fast forward 57 days...

There was one mouldy egg... it was the first 2 hatch... as far as I know, we are up to 4
 

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Congratulations!! She looks like she handled it fine!! Well done keep us posted with the final count and some pics!!
 
Well done Already Gone,i only read the Threat over a week ago,please keep up updated on the hatchies and how many,and the female in Question is still in good health by the look at her,
 
Will be interested to see the gender ratio when hatched.
Have read experiences from another breeder that used maternal incubation a few times and got a female heavy clutch everytime. Interesting I think, as we all seem to be of the opinion that sex can not be determined by temps etc.
May be just coincidence but who knows for sure. I wonder if the mother Python does something differently to those of us using an incubator?

Something to ponder anyway and I look forward to hearing the outcome of your clutch in comparison.
 
well, it turns out i cant estimate... there was only 17 eggs but a big air space in the middle. They look awesome, no munted stunted ones which is good. All eggs pipped on their own and all heads are out, if not completely. When I got home today (approx 24 hrs after first out), she had left the nest and was perched in the opening of the box, so I removed the clutch into another container. All are accounted for 17/17 ok. I only weighed 1 at 34 grams, but I will weigh them all in a couple of days. I couldnt find an average hatchling weight for bredls, but other similar sized pythons (costals, diamonds, md's) were around the 25-30 mark. I am interested to know the av. weights for art. incubated neos... and yes, the sex ratio will be interesting.... possibly slight temp fluctuations makes a difference.
 
I've got the info on a floppy disc but my new PC dosn't have a floppy drive lol.
Will use a family members computer tomorrow and get the what your after for you.
 
Liana your bredli girl is gorgeous and congrats on her incubating them herself, I am letting my female coastal incubate her own egss this coming season.. Congrats on all the babies :D
 
I highly reccomend it... and happy to say it was a success. For me, letting her do what comes naturally was the most beautiful thing to watch, right from go to wo. Will post more pics when I catch up on some sleep.
 
I too am letting both my coastals incubate themselves this season... and pics of your hatchy's
 
Already; can you please let us know what the ratio of male and female's is when you part with them?
 
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