Egg Incubation

[jpsteele80]

i know most people take out the eggs and put them into an incubator but has anyone here let there female snake do the work and if so what was the hatch rate?

[Derek Roddy]

Originally Posted by jpsteele80

i know most people take out the eggs and put them into an incubator but has anyone here let there female snake do the work and if so what was the hatch rate?

I've done several MI clutches and they all were 100%.

Granted, this was with Carpet Pythons (which I consider a hearty species concerning MI) But, they do fine.

Most females will even Eat/Drink straight from the eggs....so, you don't have to worry about them fasting, etc

Cheers
D

[jpsteele80]

Good to know, I'm thinking about letting my retic do that next year, the only concern i would have is with her eating that if she pee's in the nest box the eggs would get wet

[Albert Clark]

Originally Posted by jpsteele80

Good to know, I'm thinking about letting my retic do that next year, the only concern i would have is with her eating that if she pee's in the nest box the eggs would get wet

Hey jp, I personally don't have experience with maternal incubation but I think the bigger concern would be from inadequate humidity over the long haul. I am not sure if the female would remain coiled on the eggs necessarily if she had to urinate or defecate. All of the anecdotal information doesn't even mention this and there are several success stories with very high hatch rates. What you could do is pose this question to the guys at Prehistoric Pets who have tons of experience incubating retic eggs. However , I don't know how much experience they have with maternal incubation and its pitfalls. Good luck and keep us updated.

[Derek Roddy]

Most of the time the female will leave the eggs to poop and pee but, sometimes they'll urinate in the egg box I guess to raise humidity.

When I've seen this....they usually coil the eggs up off the substrate for a little while.

Millions of years doing it.....they're "smart"....haha

D

[Albert Clark]

THIS^ ^ ^ ^ ^. There you go jp!