In 2013, I incubated all my clutches maternally rather than using an artificial incubator. I was successful at having 20 clutches of egg hatching, which totaled just under 150 ball pythons. I noticed several differences when I compared notes from previous years. For one, the eggs took about 2 weeks longer to hatch. With maternal incubation, there is NO cutting the eggs. PERIOD. They will hatch when they are ready.
I also noticed that the females actually gained there prebreeding weight back more quickly than when I had taken their eggs in previous years. Yes, the females would leave the eggs to eat and then return to them afterwards.
When the babies hatched, they were all fat and large as compared to eggs that hatched in the incubator in previous years. It is very interesting when you think about it. I wonder if the 89 degrees in the incubator is too warm? Just a thought to ponder.
Anyway, this year I am doing the maternal incubation again and keeping a blog about it here. I shot my first youtube video, which can be seen below.
TheOddBall 
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