Removal of eggs

[slacker]

This is quite possibly a stupid question, but I'd like to hear how others go about doing this, as next year I hope will bring my first clutch.

My understanding is that once the female has dropped her clutch, they're likely to be fairly defensive/aggressive, and I'm also of the belief that they're unlikely to move from the eggs on a regular basis.

I also understand it's important not to disturb the eggs, or turn them, as they're fairly delicate.

What is the best way to then remove the eggs from the female? If she's defensive/aggressive and wrapped around eggs which I cannot disturb, what is the best way of removing the eggs from the mother with the smallest chances of damaging the eggs?

I could always not, and leave incubation up to her, but I'm thinking it would probably be better to incubate them artificially.

Any advice would be appreciated

 

[morelia_morphs]

Usually best done with 2 people. I wait about an hour after the eggs are laid so they adhere to each other so no eggs roll off when the female is being taken off the eggs.

One person grabs the female around the neck and genty starts to "unwind" her off the eggs while the other person supports the eggs and lower body of the female and makes sure the female doesnt hook her tail around the eggs. Hard to explain really, you will know what i mean when you deal with the eggs.

To this day I still hold my breath when I do it, heart pounds flat out.

Best regards

mark

 

[slacker]

Great, thanks for that, Mark

haha. I'm terrified of disturbing the eggs already and I'm a year off seeing my first clutch, so I can only imagine how your heart must thump when you're actually in the process of removing them.

Thanks again!

 

[method]

Is their any benefit of taking the egss out individually and putting them in the incubator. Seems like there cud be problems with letting them clump together and it could be awkward lol

 

[Retic]

Or do what I did last year with my Blackhead, offer her a nice rat and while she is eating remove the eggs. Nothing stops her eating :lol:

 

[Colin]

heres the link and extract from Simon Stone's excellent breeding pythons articles from his website..

http://www.southernxreptiles.com/RA%20BreedingPythons4.htm

Once a female has pushed her eggs down so that you see the first one is bulging up against the cloaca, you know laying is imminent. We find we can usually pick the night each of our snakes is going to lay. At this point, you are faced with a choice – do you allow the female to deposit all her eggs and make a clump, or do you try and harvest them individually? Both methods have their advantages and disadvantages. Our practice is to harvest olive, woma and black-headed python’s eggs separately and to allow water pythons, carpets and members of the children’s group of pythons to form adhesive clumps. The reasoning is that we find the former group produces more sensitive eggs and the latter have more robust eggs able to sustain the death of an egg within a clump without terminally affecting the surrounding eggs.

In general, we find that most pythons lay their eggs from midnight through to late morning. The process is exhausting for the snake and takes many hours. When the female has finished laying, if allowed by her keeper, she will gather up her eggs into a spherical or conical shaped pile where they adhere to each other for the rest of the incubation period. Often she will leave a few eggs outside of this clump. In the majority of cases, there will be something wrong with these eggs and they will die.

If you have decided to let the new mother produce a clump of eggs, the next step is to remove them. I never try to do this on my own. Pythons hold on tightly to their clutches and hook their tails up into the eggs from underneath. It is much easier to remove the eggs when one person holds the pointy end and the upper half of the body while the other unhooks the tail and winds the snake off the eggs. The eggs can then be swiftly moved into their incubation container which should have been kept somewhere so that its temperature is comparable to that of the newly laid eggs.

A female snake that has just lost her eggs is a stressed animal. In the early days of our breeding, it used to distress me watching the female desperately pace her cage looking for her lost eggs. Often, they would wrap around a piece of cage furniture and try and incubate it. A snake in this state will usually not eat for long periods of time either, which can jeopardize next season’s breeding program. Through experience, we have learnt how to minimize this problem. Having secured the eggs, we rub our females from head to tail with a wet, soapy cloth to wash off all the smell of the eggs and to drown their senses with the smell of mild perfume. Each female is then placed somewhere temporarily until we can wash and clean her cage from top to bottom so there is no remnant smell of her eggs remaining. Having done this, we find that nearly all females will quickly settle down and start eating again within a couple of days.

 

[slacker]

Thanks very much, Colin, and everyone else! Much appreciate your advice

And boa--your female actually ate just after laying? Dear gods... my guys do have impressive appetites but I wouldn't have foreseen that!

 

[Den from Den Pythons]

Is their any benefit of taking the egss out individually and putting them in the incubator. Seems like there cud be problems with letting them clump together and it could be awkward lol

If you catch them in time we prefer to take the eggs one at a time, especially with Aspidites. Sometimes you get the odd egg in a clutch that needs special attention whether it be not gaining enough weight or expelling moisture. In this case, if the eggs were in a clutch you would almost certainly loose the weak egg. Having them singularly you can move the suspect egg into a drier mix or wrap it loosly in paper towel if expelling alot of water droplets or mix up a wetter than usual brew for an egg thats not gaining enough weight to ensure a good, strong hatchling emerges.

It's easy enough to take eggs from a female when laying, just needs confidence. If the female has her body on or around the egg just touch the outer side of her body and she instinctivly pushes against you giving you an opening to grab the egg. There's a bit of a trick to it but once you get the hang of it it's actually very easy, easier than wrangling a defensive 9ft female off of her clutch! Lets face it, it's heaps of fun aswell. You get to count them as she lays them!

It's person preference though i guess.

All the best with it
Den

 

[PhilK]

Sorry if I sound a little dumb here.. Why don't you let the females incubate the eggs themselves? Do they lose too much condition etc?

 

[slacker]

Awesome, thanks Den! That sounds easier, if you can manage to be around when she laying them. I think that's what I'll be aiming for.

Thanks again, mate.

 

[GrumpyTheSnake]

Sorry if I sound a little dumb here.. Why don't you let the females incubate the eggs themselves? Do they lose too much condition etc?

I've often wondered that myself... so it doesn't sound like a dumb question to me.

 

[slacker]

I've never successfully produced a clutch before from any pythons, as is clear from my initial post, but I've always assumed artificial incubation would be better in captivity, because it's not like the female python can really move far to pick the ideal spot to drop her clutch. Add to that, I think precise temperature and humidity control would be easier in something designed for the purpose..

But yes, those are assumptions so don't hang me if I'm incorrect

I've often wondered that myself... so it doesn't sound like a dumb question to me.