Reptilian Incubation

Basics * Guidelines * Experiences

by Gunther Köhler

Translation by Valerie Haecky

Contributors:

68 Color Photographs

20 Black and White Photographs

66 Drawings and Diagrams

Theirs plenty of studies on reptile eggs, the latest is the excellent boo I mentioned above, it was released in 2006? Got mine in 04 as pre-print.

Also many keepers have tested many aspect of egg husbandry, starting with female ovulation, nesting options, and incubation techniques. What we have learned is a fragment of what’s left to learn, our understanding is barely acceptable in comparison to what mystery unsolved. Maybe sometime in the future we will find today’s method barbarous?

I can say already from my perspective the above book is boring and flavorless to me.

Iv learned more about incubation from a gardening forum, funny how some plants behave exactly like eggs when not properly potted, I guess some peoples understood the value of soil breath ability a long time ago.

I clearly see all that iv been missing from my past husbandry, by wanting the best for my eggs, I was in fact weakening them from the start, those air tight plastic containers sure looked sweet in my incubators, its really amazing how tough reptiles really are to endure such physical abuse and still develop hatch and grow.

Eggs are tough from the moment they are nested or dropped, they are way more tougher then anyone could imagine, hears an other of my stories for those interested. Some time ago I was asked to tack charge of 8 eggs dropped on the bottom of a pet shop cage, this was from a fresh gravid import, I was to incubate them and keep a pair for myself, when I arrived at the shop the eggs where in a plastic container literally soaking wet in sphagnum moss, I took them out in no particular order, and deposited them on the counter while I went to squeeze the excess water from the moss, on my return as I was putting the cover back on and enjoying a conversation at the same time, I dropped the container to the floor and off when the eggs bouncing on the cement floor, of course I haven’t lost a word and kept my conversation actively, much to the horror of the owner who immediately abandoned all hope and offered to trash them on the spot. Well 80km farther I got home and set them up, I checked on them every few days, all appeared normal, 6 hatched strong 2 died full term, these 2 hade deformed tails, all others where normal both physical and mental. So those this experience means I know more then others? Yes and no!

No because others have hatched such eggs before, was it a fluke? Or the fruit of expertise? Who knows?

Yes because that allowed me to test new ides, like more air less restriction, temp variation and moisture, soon my views about how delicate and fragile eggs are, changed to how tough they are, how I could handle them and spray them without adverse effect, how some iv rotated by accident kept on ticking and hatched, no more are the days when swelled like a ping-pong from over saturation and collapsed when the cover was opened, heck sometimes I walk in the house to answer the phone with an egg in hand, this is not only out of the box, its out the incubator, reptile room and voila new house environment. This have also caused me to question about egg retention, egg dropping, and nesting, retention might be caused by really wrong conditions, but dropping could be a natural occurrence some species may be forced to occasionally do by nature? I can see how the monsoon can affect monitors in the nesting process, maybe predatory reasons could lead to this too? Surly the stress of capture and expedition do, I am only speculating.

So in summery what do I really know? Nothing at all, I only post to entertain.

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