Spotted Eggs...Questions...

[SerpentLust]

So back during the mating season I was expressing problems with my female spotted python and nose rubbing. I took Roy Stockwell's advice and put the male in with her and voila, no more restless snake.

So, in case she actually took to the breeding, I put in a nest box with sphagnum moss. She decided that she would lay the eggs in one of her normal hides. I am not sure if they'll be ok or not, it's just a terra cota pot hide and she has her aspen shavings underneath. However, I was planning on maternal incubation instead of using an incubator.

So what should I do? Basically just leave her be? It is unfortunate that she didn't use her nest box, but in reading up on egg temps and such I found that where she chose to lay will be optimal for incubation temps.

I have been reading that the eggs will take approximately two months to hatch which means if the eggs are viable and healthy, I will have baby spotted's slithering around mid-august.

Any pointers would be greatly appreciated. Also, i'm in the midst of building a rack in case there are babies. How does everyone heat their racks?

Jenn

[bassteck76]

Well as far as the heating of the rack goes..........I dont heat mine do to the fact I have a dedicated room to my snakes and other critters which is heated. However the most efficient way to heat a rack is to use flex watt and a thermostat. Both of which are available online and some will pre-wire it all up for you.

Best of luck with your eggs!

[SerpentLust]

Thank you Richard. I have decided to go purchase some flexwatt from Greg at C O R N E L ' S W O R L D (http://www.cornelsworld.com) and he'll wire the plug in part, then all I am going to do is wire it in parallel so that I only have to use one thermostat.

[ToddBecker]

Sounds like you have a good plan going on, but one thing to take into consideration is the fact that most thermostats have only on sensing probe. You put the probe on the middle rack and you are going ot get a base temp but not cage specific. Do not misintrepret what I am saying, it will work just be aware and occassionally check the other cages with something like a temp gun. Good luck, Todd

[The Snake Guru]

If you are planning on letting your python incubate the eggs the main thing to worry about is cage humidity and stable enclosure temperatures, humidity is probably the first thing, because the snake can't change the humidity on it's own, so it's up to you to keep it up in that 80 to 90% range. Heat should be kept as stable as possible around 85 degrees, your python will keep the eggs warm or cooler by either loosely coiling around them (to cool them off) or by tightly coiling around them and "shivering" to increase the heat. Also you could try to pack some moss around her in the hide to help keep the humidity more stable.

Hope this helps, and on a side note, have you looked into the Zoo Med Heat rope? I just started using that stuff and it is much easier to work with than the heat tape, you can router in a groove right into the shelf it works pretty slick.

~B~