Ron's Ball Python Blog

Take a deep breath…hold it for a few seconds and exhale. It’s going to be okay as I help you get through this ordeal. :)

Perhaps you intentionally tried to breed your ball pythons or perhaps you just had a pair living together and had no idea they were “becoming more acquainted with each other” in their cage. Nevertheless, you have ball python eggs and you’re pulling your hair out trying to figure out what to do now. First off, congratulations!

There are really two things you can do at this point. You can let the mother take care of the incubation process herself or you can remove the eggs and place them in an incubator. You can find a few companies that sell incubators on the Internet or you can visit our ball python forum to see what other member’s are using to incubate their eggs.

Maternal Incubation
Believe it or not, a female ball python is very capable of caring for her eggs throughout the entire incubation process. You simply need to make sure she has an environment that’s setup correctly in order for her to “watch over the eggs”. A female ball python needs a few things from you and as long as you give her what she needs, she’ll take care of the rest. Ball python eggs hatch best at 89F in a humid environment so you need to adjust your thermo/rheostat so the temps don’t exceed 89F. Your humidity gauge will let you know what the humidity is in the tank so keep an eye on that. There are a few ways to increase the humidity in her cage while she’s incubating her eggs:

1. Mist the cage every so often to help maintain high humidity levels
2. Use Cypress Mulch substrate for its excellent water retention properties
3. Build a DIY (Do-It Yourself) humidifier. See Old Man Winter Brings Humidity Problems for plans.
4. Increase the size of the water bowl to something along the lines of a large dog water bowl
5. Read Old Man Winter Brings Humidity Problems for more techniques on how to increase humidity

Normal female ball python maternally incubating a clutch of eggs

She’ll stay wrapped around her eggs for the next 55-60 days. You can offer her a meal if you’d like but it’s best to just leave her alone undisturbed for this period of time. Make sure she has fresh water and keep a close eye on the temperature and humidity. You should consider purchasing an inexpensive digital thermometer that has a probe attachment if you don’t currently own one already. Place the probe gently in between her coils and you’ll be able to see what the temperatures are inside her coils. Oh, I almost forgot! Female ball pythons are very protective of their eggs and your normally docile female ball python will hiss and strike at you with aggression if you come close to her and her eggs. You can simply place a towel over her head to calm her down and then carefully slip the probe in between her coils.

I like to add a sheet of newspaper over the female ball python to give her a sense of security and privacy while she’s sitting on her eggs for the next two months. Female ball pythons have been known to urinate over their eggs in order to increase the humidity. Dr. Steve Gorzula observed that females do not agitate their body over the eggs to increase heat so it’s your responsibility to make sure the temperature is at or near 89F (see Ball Pythons in the Wild DVD video) .

Artificial Incubation
There are a number of companies that manufacture and sell incubators. You can check our ball python forum to see what other member’s use to incubate their eggs. The artificial incubation process is the same as the maternal incubation process except the task of incubating the eggs has been removed from the mother and placed on the incubator. As mentioned earlier, female ball pythons become quite aggressive and protective of their eggs. You should first place a towel over her to calm her down. Next, secure the female and unwrap her from around her eggs while ensuring the eggs are not damaged or rolled around in the process.

Follow the setup instructions for your particular incubator and make sure it’s holding a stable 89F before placing the eggs in the incubator. There are a few companies that manufacture pre-packaged “incubation substrate” that you can use straight out of the bag with ease. The incubator will take care of the rest and as with maternal incubation you can expect baby ball pythons to begin hatching in 55-60 days.

Good luck and feel free to post any questions you might have about this topic in our ball python forum.

Ball python eggs