Does anyone plan on doing any maternal incubation with any of there clutches this year?

Rob

Nope, never have but it might be cool to try some day. Just feel like I have no control over the eggs if something is wrong and I like to try and get the female back on food asap......

If I get Womas this year I plan to try with Incubator back up.

not this season due to it being a pied project lol but I have always been nterested in ding it so will be trying next season. If you do let me know how it goes.

my first clutch was incubated maternally and hatched 100% as was our clutch last year!


Nothing wrong with Maternal at all...

I had the confidence to do it after reading an article Bob Clark had written in an issue of Reptiles Magazine.

The first time I did it it was in a 29gal tank... took some work keeping humidity where it needed to be but this past season we maternally incubated in a cb70 and it couldn't have been more perfect.

Temps were controlled by a Rheostat (dimmer) and temps were measured by an accu-rite and double checked by a PE-1 temp gun. Actually managed to place the probe (outside temp) right inbetween mom's coil's between the tub's floor and mom inbetween the eggs.

Out of an 1100g 1 1/2yr old girl we managed to get 4 eggs, 1 slug...

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l112/djslurp1200/Breeding/DSC04114.jpg

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l112/djslurp1200/Breeding/111.jpg

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l112/djslurp1200/Breeding/AAA017.jpg

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l112/djslurp1200/Breeding/AAA015.jpg

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l112/djslurp1200/Breeding/AAA014.jpg

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l112/djslurp1200/Breeding/AAA013.jpg

mom getting done taking a drink...
http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l112/djslurp1200/Breeding/AAA016.jpg

the first pipper!
http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l112/djslurp1200/Breeding/DSC05770.jpg

some more after some manual pipping...
http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l112/djslurp1200/Breeding/AAA052.jpg

my personal fav...
http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l112/djslurp1200/Breeding/AAA037.jpg


To me there's nothing like seeing a pretty female on some eggs... Maternally incubating in the rack was a cinch and I think we'll definitely as a new tradition let a couple girls a year brood their own eggs... Both times each girl ate right away and gained their weight back in no time!

And as far as being able to get 'em back up to size or worrying about food The 1100g (prelay weight) girl in the series of pics is already back up to size and then some at 1650+g's! And those eggs hatched in Sept. :cheers:


Here's some pics of the last girl and her clutch... I only have a limited supply of pics because I was using non rechargeable battery's and got lazy and stopped buying batterys... as many pics as I take it got pretty expensive buying lithiums every other day! :lol:

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l112/djslurp1200/FSCN2963.jpg

taking a drink...
http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l112/djslurp1200/pictures150.jpg

Pearly whites!
http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l112/djslurp1200/pictures148.jpg

Taking it's first peek into the world...
http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l112/djslurp1200/pictures001.jpg

Very cool. This will be my first season of getting eggs and I have always wondered about this subject. I guess it may depend on how well my incubator build goes. Congrats on some beautiful clutches!

Wow, that is cool thanks for sharing the pics Steve! I've kind of played with the idea of trying maternal incubation but I'd have to do a lot more research into it and how it plays out in captivity before I was willing to try it. I'd just hate to have anything go wrong. Looks like it worked out pretty well for you though!

that is so cool. I have to print this post out. I have two snakes that may go this year one a woma and the other a ball. Thanks for sharing :rockon::rockon:

that is so cool. I have to print this post out. I have two snakes that may go this year one a woma and the other a ball. Thanks for sharing :rockon::rockon:

If you go for it and try Maternal just make sure to do it in a rack where you can really keep in the humidity around atleast 85% and 86-89 degrees and she'll do the rest!

Definitely something to experience as a breeder atleast once! :cheers:

Trying maternal incubation would be a worth while learning experience someday IMO but as it stands now I'm sticking to the incubator...

Maybe next year I'll do some experimenting..

Nah, I think I will just stick to the incy....to scared to try the other way.