Once she was in, she was left alone other than for weekly checks on her and the eggs to ensure nothing visibly wrong was occurring with any eggs, such as mold. Once she laid her eggs, I checked that she had a good hold on her “beehive” of eggs within her nest box of lightly misted sphagnum moss. Fortunately, she utilized her lay box instantly and I was able to monitor what the environmental conditions were like around her and the eggs to get some insight. I had thermometer probes in the enclosure as well as the nest box that I provided for Azteca. She was bred to a male Striped Jungle Carpet Python “Rorschach” and they successfully produced a large clutch of eggs. In the 2018/2019 breeding season I decided that I was going to allow my larger female Jungle Carpet Python “Azteca” maternally incubate her clutch. The idea is that once the eggs are laid, we do nothing. Although there is relatively little we as keepers can do for the eggs once they are laid, we can at least provide an optimal environment to ensure the eggs have the greatest chance of survival. If we are providing them an environment that is as close to what they need as possible, then they should be able to replicate the reproductive process of their wild counterparts. The hypothesis is that these animals have evolved and survived successfully this far due to their ability to reproduce in the wild. If we have this dialed in for the species, hypothetically the female should be able to see those eggs to hatching day if they were successfully fertilized. What we do have control of, however, is the climate provided for the snake inside the enclosure. ![]() As the keeper we have little control of what is happening to the eggs. Maternal incubation places all control of the eggs in the “hands” of the female snake in question. What many breeders and hobbyists don’t do is Maternal Incubation allowing the female to retain control of her eggs and take them to hatching successfully. Most breeders implement artificial incubation for 100% of their produced offspring with high rates of success. As first-time breeders we are taught the methods to success for artificial incubation removing the eggs from the mother after deposition and placing them inside an egg box within a temperature-controlled incubator. In order to successfully breed egg laying species of reptiles in human care, aside from all the other specifics, we must know how to care for the eggs should we be so fortunate to get that far.
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