Posted by:
BrandonSander
at Mon Jan 26 12:28:26 2009 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by BrandonSander ]
What now? - Keep doing exactly what you are doing. When the female becomes gravid she won't allow the male to hook up with her any more.
Since I transfer all of my clutches to incubators I really never worried about placing a nest box in my tubs. Normally my snakes are on a mixture of fir and aspen bark chips, when I am positive that one of my females is gravid I will switch this out with shredded aspen. It is softer, and easier for the female to manipulate into her own "nest".
99% of the time the female will push as much of the substrate out of the way and will lay on the bare tub floor. I always get a little paranoid that the eggs will stick to the floor if I don't find them fast enough. I get around this by using some plastic craft sheeting that I found in the crafts section at Walmart. I'm not sure what it is called, but it is essentially a plastic grid that is used to weave yarn through it. I simply place one of these grids beneath the substrate on the warm side of the tub and when the female moves the substrate to make her nest she will end up laying her eggs on this grid (since she can't push it out of the way). When I find the eggs it is a simple task to lift the grid out and place it into my egg boxes in the incubator.
I know you want the kids to get the chance to see the eggs hatch but realize there is a chance that they won't hatch until summer break. At the very least next year's students should get a chance to interact with the hatchlings.
[ Hide Replies ]
- What now? - cwolf, Mon Jan 26 00:44:55 2009
- RE: What now? - JenH, Mon Jan 26 08:22:47 2009
 RE: What now? - BrandonSander, Mon Jan 26 12:28:26 2009- RE: What now? - dsreptiel, Mon Jan 26 12:30:27 2009
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