Do you have an incubator? I would say mark them and incubate them yourself just to have more control over what happens. Not that mom can't do the job, but it might give her a break from having to to work to keep those eggs at temp. Plus I don't see why she wouldn't be hungry after birth, and it might be easier and safer to just feed her without the eggs around.

Pros: It's cool to experience the "natural" way.

Cons: The female most likely won't feed until after the babies hatch and are removed, so she will be in a deflated/thin state the entire time she's incubating. It's hard to guarantee all eggs will make it since creating the right environment inside an enclosure is harder than in an incubation box. I'd also be worried the mom might accidentally crush any newly hatched babies, since they are so tiny compared to the mom - but this may not be a common thing... I'm just a worry-wort. 

I've only artificially incubated, so I'm no expert on maturnal although I've definitely considered it. 

 Maternal  is a cool thing to experience , but it is hard on the mother ... If  you feel she is strong  and really want to see the natural thing happen  then go for it .  But as stated above  be ready for her to come away from this  worst for the wear.. Either way have the Cooker ready in case she dosent  want to sit on the eggs ... Good luck

Sounds good, She's already pretty much off feed so I'd rather her not stay off feed during incubation time. I'll get out the incubater then. Looks like it'll be another battle to the death to get those eggs out again lol

My big carpet Danu goes off feed from about the beginning of November to about April/May when/if she lays eggs, so I don't ever want to make that another 2 months by letting her do maternal. However, the biggest reason I don't do maternal is the fact that I live in an alpine desert (8,000ft) and there is no humidity here... 
I think that given the right conditions, maternal can be good and "natural" however for best control over temperature and humidity, artificial is the way to go. Plus, its easier on momma. :) 

In The Complete Carpet Python by Nick Mutton and Justin Julander, they write about both methods and offer some advise and neat observations from the trials they did with maternal incubation as part of their research for the book.

While it would be cool to watch the mother do it, personally to me it wouldn't be worth it.  I like to have control and just feel better using an incubator, but that's just me.

My goal is to try both together.  I am going to build an incubator large enough for my nest boxes and run it at 84-85.  This way, the humidity and heat can be kept high enough females do not expend too much energy.  I think they know best.  There are definitely pros and cons to both methods so why not do both at the same time. 

I've heard some really interesting things about maternal incubation. I've seen posts where females eat regularly, gain weight back, and look great when the babies hatch. I have, up until recently believed artificial is the only good way. These posts I saw (maybe on Fauna or Kingsnake) made me think about it. I was hopeing to try it out this year with a "dinker" clutch, but the female got sick and currently being treated, so I think breeding will be out for this year. I wouldn't do it with my pied clutch, primarily because I've never done it and don't want to take any chances. That said, I'd love to try it and see how it goes, being ready to pull the eggs and put them in the incubator at any point in case things weren't going well or the female wasn't doing well. 

my ball is going to have eggs  am going to let here do it  they dont have a incubator out in the wild her

mother instinks will kick inn she will vibrate to keep them warm but thats just mee

Dana - Not all species of pythons are capable of vibrating and producing heat for the eggs. They evolved in the area they live in the wild so it is easier for them to care for the eggs there. As long as you provide a good environment in the enclosure though it should be fine. You can see a few threads on maternal here specifically on balls :)

Maternal 1 

Maternal 2

Maternal 3

Maternal 4

Maternal 5

I personally wouldn't let my ball pythons incubate on their own, I'd consider it if I had a morelia, but I just don't trust my balls to do a good job, but that's just me.

Seems like a lifetime ago, but if you are interested, you can read of my experience with a BP maternal incubation - way back in my first ever iHerp blog in 2008. It really is a neat experience!

http://www.iherp.com/Public/Blog/Detail.aspx?uid=453

Ive done maternal incubation and my BP fed through the entire incubation process, she was very caring about her eggs and always refused to let me near them, although i do find there are humidity problems occasionally with it so it is good to switch any substrate to the same substrate you would use for artificial to keep the humidity levels up.

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