Clyde had some eggs!

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CaptainRatbag

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Bonny and clyde are my 2 spotted pythons who cohabitate.... the smaller one who I thought was a Clyde seems to have turned into a Clydette! On feeding them last night, I couldnt find clyde, but on lifting out the hide, I saw he.... she had either started collecting ping pong balls.... or laid eggs!:shock:

She has them coiled up on fake grass with the heater under her. I just put the hide back and have been keeping an eye on her. the temp where she is parked is 31 degrees, she seems perfectly happy. I have no idea exactly when she layed them (she was laying at the cool end about 5 days ago so less than 5 days old) or when they are due, or how many there are. She has 5 coils and her head on top of the pile, so I am guessing around 15-20....

What I want to find out is if I should be removing Bonny (who is obviously actually the boy) in case she.... he eats the babies when they hatch? IE, should she be alone with the eggs or are they safe with both snakes in with them?

I have not bread any snakes before so any info or suggestions would be appreciated. I dont have an incubator or anything so will just be leaving them with the mother. I know not to upset the eggs, they cant be turned over at all, I just wont be touching her or the eggs. Is there any way of telling when they might be due hatch and when they do hatch, does the mother have to be separated from the young (will she eat them)? The top few eggs I can see are very white and very egg shaped.... is it correct that as they get closer to hatching, the eggs sort of get a collapsed look and get less white?

Your input would be appreciated
 
Congratulations! You probably have about 8 eggs for a spotted, but the mother makes a lovely beehive over them.

yes, you should remove the male. You may want to turn down the heater a little bit. 31 is a great incubation temperature, but under the coil and directly under the eggs, it may be considerably hotter, which could kill the eggs.

Eggs will hatch in roughly 50-60 days. The mother can take care of this nicely, but you may want to move the water bowl a bit closer to her so that she can have a sip without going far from the eggs.

For more information immediately, read the Ask Doc Rock article about incubation on the Southern Cross Reptiles site. There are a number of books out there, but Simon's articles cover things very well and are general, rather than species specific.

When the young emerge, they will crawl away from the coils and should be placed in individual containers right away.

I hope that helps.
 
Long time no c mate... Congrats ... ozimid :)
 
Maybe a spray of water, a few times a day all around the hide and enclosure to keep the humidity up . It seems to stop the egg shell hardening and makes it easier for the babies to hatch . I am sure there are other more technical reasons but that's mine ( worked for us ) .

Good Luck
 
congrats and glad to see you back. leave them with mum but definatly take dad out and make sure she has easy access to water. i also think 31 is a bit hot i would lower it to 29.

might need to build yourself a hatchie rack to house them.
 
congrats and glad to see you back. leave them with mum but definatly take dad out and make sure she has easy access to water. i also think 31 is a bit hot i would lower it to 29.

might need to build yourself a hatchie rack to house them.
can u just confirm that in an incubator carpet eggs prefer 32 but is ants slightly lower say 30/31?
 
You can successfully incubate at a range of temperatures. I just takes longer at lower temperatures. Reptile eggs are amazingly tough. I incubate my carpet eggs at 31.5 and they hatch in 55 days.
In Keeping and Breeding Australian Pythons, Brian Barnett reports incubation temperatures from 29.5-32 degrees with an average incubation period of 53 days for spotted pythons. Hope that helps.
 
the reason i said to lower it was because the eggs are directly over the heat mat and the mother is also wrapped around them and in a hide. it would make it dificult for her to regulate body temp.
 
I have lowered it to 30 and she seems pretty happy with that. Have put a water bowl next to her. I will organise to get bonny.... er.... the male out asap. She shed about 2 weeks ago (the one with the eggs) and I got a good look at one egg that ended up on top, it is very white as I said, and a bit crinkly (like a flat ping pong ball)

I have been a bit worried about this one for a while, she has eaten only once in the last 10 months, the other one had about 4 months off eating earlier this year, but now eats like a horse. The mother one is smaller and very fine, but not loose skin or saggy, she still looks in good health. I guess she wont be eating while she is looking after the eggs? Or should I offer her a feed? I really dont think disturbing her is a good idea....
 
They hatched :D

Last night I looked in and saw mum still wrapped around the eggs as usual, but I saw one hatchie out and a few more heads popped out..... I rushed to woolies and got some little containers, came back and took the eggs off mum. They were a giant clump, all stuck together. The shells were as tough as old boots, the ones with thier heads out wer stuck, so I separated the eggs which ripped and free'd a few to get out. The others I just carefully cut the shell....

Ended up, she had had 15 eggs, so far 11 are hatched and healthy,, 2 more look viable with a develloped hatchie still in the shell and moving, but 2 unfortunately didnt make it....

Not bad tho for eggs that were not incubated correctly (or anything at all correctly) they were left with mum and dad in the enclosure... I saw several times she had moved and re-arranged them (rolled them around) so they had nearly been thru a spin cycle at least once or twice :shock:

Will post some pics later
 
Congrats, captain and good to see your still around. :)

Wow that is quite a lot of eggs for first time breeders. Good luck with the hatchies.
 
You needn't have bothered with containers... You could have just put them in a drawer next to your bed. I'm sure at that size, you could fit many per drawer
 
Geez I haven't heard a Fulmer joke since... Well... since Captainratbag left. :)
 
:lol: good old fulmer....

I dont think keeping them in my drawers would be a good idea..... imagine trying to pick up a chick and saying "My drawers are full of snake.... want to see?" might not go down well?

So, how long til I should offer them a feed? Are they ready to eat when they hatch or do you give them some time to settle in? They are each in a 1 litre container with paper towel and a drink bottle cap for a drink bowl.

- - - Updated - - -

This is the clump of eggs stuck together, then some of them in the maternity ward :)
 

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I haven't seen you around here in ages. Im glad to see your still alive. Congrats on the hatchlings. There yolk will keep them full for around 5-7 days. I usually start feeding trials a week after they hatch.

Regards, Patrick
 
Thanks Patric, hope all is well your side of the puddle.....

Talk about dumb luck tho hey? I did nothing but keep an eye on what the mother was up to and left her and dad in the enclosure :shock: All I really did was put a small water bowl next to her. I noticed she had moved a few times, and when she moved she rolled the eggs around and spread them out then re-grouped in the new spot..... I really didnt hold much hope any would hatch.... I didnt even know how many she was sitting on :facepalm:

Very happy with the outcome tho.... looks like 12-13 will survive.... out of 15, I am happy with that
 
Yay.... 13 survived and seem really healthy..... Clyde....er, Bonny.... the mother chugged down 4 mice the other day too.... she hadnt eaten for almost a year.... I was starting to worry a bit.... she seems fine now
 
Update.... ok, so there is actually 14 surviving bubs, all happy, all have now shed and all are running around thier little tubs.... looking very hungry. I will give it a couple more days and see if any are peckish....

I was lucky they all survived last saturdays heat.... I lost all but 9 of my rats and 8 mice... the rest I couldnt save.... it was 43 degrees and no matter how much I sprayed them down with cold water and had many fans blowing on them and repeated fresh cold water bottles during the day, they just turned up thier little toes.... very sad.

My bedroom was still 41 degrees at 1030 at night, the only reason my snakes (Monty, Yarrum, Gypsy, Bonny & Clyde) survived was because I kept changing thier water and had an ice brick wrapped in tea towels in thier enclosures:shock:

Was a horrible hot day....
 
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