I am still trying to decide before breeding my Ball Pythons whether or not I should use an incubator or just leave the eggs with the mom. Also, I have a carmel male, a 50% pied het male, a banded female, and a normal female with cool markings. Who should I breed to who?
2006-08-06 11:17:45 · 4 answers · asked by Anonymous in Pets ➔ Reptiles
There are pros and cons to both methods. With maternal incubation, you don't have to worry about the temps, humidity, or substrate as much as you would with an incubator. However, the main reason people prefer to use an incubator is to get the female to start eating again. The female probably hasn't eaten a few months while she has been gravid, and she won't eat for the 60 days while she's incubating the eggs. That just adds a lot more stress to the mother and it will take that much longer before she back to her normal self.
However with an incubator you have to make sure that it can provide stable temperaturs and humidity for 60 days. You should make or purchase a decent system long before the eggs are due and test it out for a week to make sure you can keep everything constant.
As far as who you should breed to what, I would breed the caramel to both females. You should look into getting a 100% het pied female or wait to trade one of your het Caramel females for a het pied female. If you breed the 50% het pied male to a normal, you will have to wait just as long to prove him out as if you bred the caramel male to the normals and traded the offspring.
BTW, is this a true caramel that currently cost around $6,000? If not and if you just think it is, then it will take you just as long to prove it out as it does the possible het pied. If that's the case, then I would breed one male to each of the females.
2006-08-06 12:01:07 · answer #1 · answered by xyz_gd 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Pythons lay eggs which they arrange in a pile. They coil around the pile until all eggs have hatched. Since pythons cannot regulate their internal body temperature, they cannot incubate their eggs per se; instead, they raise the temperature of their eggs by small movements of their body—essentially, they "shiver". This is one of only a few documented cases of parental behaviour in snakes. Dr. Steve Gorzula has noted in his CITES Ball Python Survey report that Ball Pythons do not exhibit shivering behaviour to increase the temperature of a clutch during incubation. So yes they do need to be incubated
2006-08-11 14:56:46 · answer #2 · answered by reptilehunter33647 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Incubator is much easier. Can get the snake back to eating regularly, and have the exact proper temps and humidity for the eggs.
As for breeding which with which, that all depends on what you are after.
2006-08-06 11:53:01 · answer #3 · answered by badger_n 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Mom. Its hers, remember???
2006-08-10 22:43:44 · answer #4 · answered by alvinyprime 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋