>>Sue:
>>I've heard that there can be problems with hatching out oxycephala eggs. A couple of people have mentioned that sometimes the snakes can't cut themselves out of the eggs at full term. I'm not sure if this was cb or ch eggs and I'm not sure if it had something to do with humidity but it sounded like something that had come up repeatedly. Any experience of this with your animals?
>>
>>John

Hi John

yes it's something I've read repeatedly, but seems to be more with captive bred oxyies rather than captive hatched, maybe diet related or like you say humidity / incubation substrate. I believe Timo is doing some work related to egg incubation / diet in oxys & taeniurus sp. Will be intersting to read his conclusions later in the year when he publishes it.

I've only had experience with WC oxyies, and these were the first eggs of this species that I have hatched. But I can share how I incubated them.

I incubated the WC females eggs in damp spagnum moss, laid them on the top and then a light covering over them, in a sealed plastic icecream tub with a small beaker of water at one corner of the container. checked on them about once a week to allow air exchange. I started incubation at 80F after two weeks reduced it to 78F and then for the final days judged by the eggs loosing rigidity and taking on a softer feel, I laid layers of damp paper around them. At day 90 the first hatchling pipped it's egg followed by the second and then day 91 the third pipped successfully.

The best website I have found for information on oxyies is
http://www.kicktheghost.com/gonyosoma/index.html it really does have some great advice on it and loads of it.




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