Python maternal care

Pythons are virtually unique among snakes in that they practice a form of maternal care while incubating their clutch of eggs - the female will coil around the clutch of eggs and keep them warm through intermittent spasmodic shivering of her body. These muscular contractions transfer heat from her body to the egg mass and so she is actually incubating the eggs using her body heat / metabolism. This is called SHIVERING THERMOGENESIS.
She can also monitor the temperature of the egg mass using her thermosensitive labial pits.

Another way of regulating the temperature of the egg mass is for a female python to bask for a while and then return to the egg mass, where she will coil around them and allow them to absorb her elevated body heat. The coiled position itself actually retains heat within the female's body and also at the centre of the coil (where the eggs will be) - here's my big female Coastal carpet python in the coiled position
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In the wild, being coiled around the eggs also protects the clutch against potential predators; it also reduces water loss and yolk dessication within the eggs.

In captivity, pythons do this during maternal incubation of the eggs; if the eggs are removed shortly after laying, as most people prefer, the female will still instinctively remain in the coiled position at her laying site and shiver periodically for a while after laying the eggs - proof that this behaviour is instinctive and hormone-driven.

Has anyone else ever seen this shivering happen in their female pythons?

exellent post Karl.
Are there many people hat allow their pythons to incubate their own eggs?
What is the sucsess rate when python incubate their own eggs?

Do all pythons do this or is it just some ?
Very interesting indeed

Phil - several U.S. and European breeders allow their pythons to undergo maternal incubation from time to time. As long as the viv is set up correctly and they lay in the right place, I believe its straight forward enough. Any maternal incubation that has been successful has resulted in hatch rates comparable to those with artifical incubation.
It wouldn't be ideal to let a female incubate maternally every breeding attempt though as every time she does it she won't feed and so loose some body weight / condition. Many breeders who try maternal incubation usually give the female 2 years off before breeding again, to give her plenty of time to regain any lost weight and get back into tip-top condition.

Steve - most of the python species that have been found nesting or have been studied (with regard to their reproductive biology) have been found to coil around their eggs - Carpet pythons, Diamond pythons, Royal pythons, Water pythons etc. and this behaviour transfers over in captivity when they are bred and the female goes through the same motions....so everytime you see a photo of a python coiled around her clutch, she is practising maternal incubation.....and there are photos of most of the python species doing just this all over the web.
That said, studies have shown that some pythons (e.g. Australian Water pythons) will leave their eggs unattended on occasion when the ambient air temperature and humidity are adequate to incubate the eggs without her present.