| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| anatess |
Posted - 29/05/2010 : 17:28:29
It's been a while since I posted here. I've just been so busy with so many other things I just don't have the time for forums anymore.
But, since this is a major event in our house, I thought I'd share.
My husband and kids decided to put our pastel and spider together when I refused to give them money for another "morph". They wanted to try for a bumblebee.
So, finally, the eggs are here, all 5 of them. Today is day 10 of maternal incubation - and they candled okay. Mamma snake ate a rat on day 2 of incubation. So, I'm going to continue offering her food.
I decided on maternal incubation after much research because I trust the snake more than I trust myself. She knows how best to care for these eggs. I have to say, my normally super docile kids pet python has turned into nightmare-mamma-python-of-the-underworld. You open her tub (I moved her to a plastic tub to better control humidity) to change water and she's ready to tag you in a millisecond. Had to be very, very careful.
Set-up: I moved her and her eggs out of the glass viv to a plastic shoebox lined with 2 inches of aspen with a hole cut on the lid for her to get in and out of. Then I put the shoebox in a bigger plastic tub 26 inches X 16 inches with holes drilled on the lid. I put a UTH underneath the tub on one side, put the shoebox over the UTH, put the thermostat on it set so that it makes the shoebox between 86F and 87F temps. I put a big waterbowl right next to the thing to give ~80% humidity. Tub temps outside the shoebox is around 80F.
They all look good right now.
60 days seem SOOOOOOOOOOOO FAR AWAY!
Sorry, I don't have good pictures. Mamma snake doesn't like pictures at the moment - she's into tagging anything that gets close.
 |
| 20 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| mischang |
Posted - 12/09/2010 : 19:12:56
very nice well done luck luck with the normal hun x x |
| anatess |
Posted - 12/09/2010 : 09:22:56
I never did post pictures of the Mom and Dad!
Here's the family pictorial:
Mom and dad -
Kids -
 |
| anatess |
Posted - 07/09/2010 : 08:46:56
Just an update on these guys:
The 2 bumblebees are now eating like champs! I don't know why they decide to eat all of a sudden, but both of them ate on the exact same day. They haven't missed a meal since. They're even very fast on the take-down - you kinda have to watch your fingers because they will grab the rat right off your hand (yeah, we don't normally use hemostats).
The normal though is still a problem. Assist feeding failed. We had to force a rat down its throat last Friday because his weight went down to 39 grams and he was barely moving. I thought he was gonna die for sure. We massaged a pinky rat all the way down to his belly. It was a really crappy experience. But, I was glad to open his RUB today to see him lift his head up in an s-coil! Hope he survives! |
| hodgie |
Posted - 21/08/2010 : 18:41:21
quote:
Originally posted by anatess
Yeah, I got a line to the vet. If they don't eat by next Sunday, the vet is going to do the assist on the Tuesday after next.
Hopefully we don't have to get to that point. Assist feeding can be very stressful on the hatchlings.
Thats good, i was reading on the American ball python forum (sorry just doing homework plus they have some great pictures in the gallery) and apparently they need to feed in the first 4 weeks to have a good chance. As for assist feeding, if done properly its over very quickly. I saw it done for the first time last week and the little Royal took 2 mice small mice very quickly, as soon as the nose was in the its mouth she got straight to work. But as said best left to a professional, if you need to go down this route its worth watching as its quite interesting, probably as stressful for the owner as the snake though. |
| STICKS |
Posted - 21/08/2010 : 04:30:18
Hi there well done nice looking baby,s it was worth all the waiting
all the best with your new additions. |
| anatess |
Posted - 21/08/2010 : 01:23:05
Yeah, I got a line to the vet. If they don't eat by next Sunday, the vet is going to do the assist on the Tuesday after next.
Hopefully we don't have to get to that point. Assist feeding can be very stressful on the hatchlings. |
| hodgie |
Posted - 20/08/2010 : 22:21:16
They may need a little bit of help with an assist feed especially the 2 that didnt absorb all of their yolk, i would seek some professional advice on that line though. |
| anatess |
Posted - 20/08/2010 : 22:01:23
quote:
Originally posted by Blackecho
They feeding yet?
That's my next hurdle. They shed early last week (Tuesday) and until today, they still didn't eat. I have offered food 3 times already and they refused all 3 times.
I'm going to try it again on Sunday. Hopefully that will be the success day!
|
| mischang |
Posted - 20/08/2010 : 20:42:58
quote:
Originally posted by anatess
You know what's really daft? (I'm trying out my new Brit-lish word!)
I like the normal better than the bee... The normal got really bright after shed and with all the brown shades going on, he matches my furniture perfectly!
The bees are very very pale - like some freakish horror movie scary snake. 
ur so funny tryin out ya new word !
soz nothing new to add to convo but found the above so funny |
| Welly |
Posted - 20/08/2010 : 19:46:59
I'd say that is was a successfull clutch to be fair.
If one was wrapped up thats nothing you could have done. so if that was taken into account you'd have 4/5. |
| lee2308 |
Posted - 20/08/2010 : 19:29:09
congrats on your little project,you must be very pleased with the results |
| Blackecho |
Posted - 20/08/2010 : 19:14:42
They feeding yet? |
| anatess |
Posted - 20/08/2010 : 18:58:23
You know what's really daft? (I'm trying out my new Brit-lish word!)
I like the normal better than the bee... The normal got really bright after shed and with all the brown shades going on, he matches my furniture perfectly!
The bees are very very pale - like some freakish horror movie scary snake. |
| hodgie |
Posted - 20/08/2010 : 13:23:47
A big congratulations on your first go. Although you lost a couple i would say you`ve done really well. Who needs a Spider and a Pastel when you have 2 Bumblebees? You can get them next year. |
| mischang |
Posted - 20/08/2010 : 02:15:34
thats funny has no one told you its always the small one u need to watch lol x x |
| anatess |
Posted - 19/08/2010 : 17:21:12
quote:
Originally posted by Blackecho
2 Bees, nice.
The other 2 that died was another bee and another normal.
Really wierd how I didn't get a spider or a pastel. But yeah, I don't have a normal nor a bee so now I got all kinds! Yeay! I have an extra bee that I might go and have adopted. Well, that is, if I don't get too attached to them. One of the bees (the big one) BIT ME! I mean - gee whiz, I have never been bitten by a snake in my life until this little bugger. They are quite nippy! |
| Blackecho |
Posted - 19/08/2010 : 16:47:19
2 Bees, nice. |
| anatess |
Posted - 19/08/2010 : 16:02:20
Sorry, forgot the pics.
I don't have post-shed pics yet. I wanted to wait until they eat before I stress them out with a photo shoot.
Here are pre-shed pics of the babies:
Here's my do-it-myself emergency incubator:
Incubator cost only $10 not counting the heat mat inside (I used the heat mat from the maternal incubation tub). |
| anatess |
Posted - 19/08/2010 : 15:55:07
Sorry, I've been too lazy on the updates!
Okay, here is the entire story. It wasn't a complete success but a success nonetheless.
Okay, so throughout the incubation period, we kept the tub temps at 86F. I was thinking it is better to have it low than high, because with maternal incubation, the mother can adjust the temps inside the coils. Well, I was wrong on this. Mama royal cannot raise the temps by shivering. Mama will go to a hot spot and bask then come back to the eggs if she needs it warmer in there. Well, the whole tub was 86, so there was no place for her to bask. After consulting with some other people who are doing maternal incubation, they say they keep the temps at 88-89F in the tub.
Mama snake never skipped a meal - we fed her every 10 days. She would eat, then come back and coil.
Everything went perfectly until day 60. Mama snake, for some unknown reason that I know of, decided to leave the eggs. It was a little stressful for us because we were expecting the eggs to pip around 55 days. But, because of the low temps nobody pipped at 60 days.
So, we fired up the emergency incubator and we cut the eggs and transferred them to the incubator.
1 of the eggs didn't have any movement. We were thinking that this could be the reason that mama left the clutch. We can't be sure, of course.
After a day or so the one egg started to stink, so we took it out. It was definitely lifeless in there.
Everybody started to crawl out of the egg a few days later, unfortunately, one of the babies got wrapped in the umbilicus. We tried to untangle him but it was too late. We didn't know what we were doing (first clutch ever). He didn't make it either.
So, out of 5 eggs we have 3 surviving babies. Only 1 baby absorbed all the yolk, he came out at 69grams. The other 2 babies detached from the yolk before the yolk was all absorbed, they were only 46 and 47 grams. They have all shed but none of them has eaten yet.
All in all, I call the maternal incubation a success because it went all the way through day 60. It was mainly my error that caused our problems in the end. |
| paulo |
Posted - 09/07/2010 : 09:27:47
Any updates, must be getting very close now, hope all is still well. |
