Yeah, I would get them onto vermiculite, and/or perlite ASAP!

I have always used vermiculite with great success, but in the past few years, I have been mixing some perlite in with the vermiculite(about a 1:4 ratio of perlite to vermiculite), as I believe the large perlite chunks help with keeping the medium loamy and fluffed and allows for better air circulation around the entire egg.

The key to using vermiculite is to JUST add enough water to it gradually so that it just clumps together when squeezed with your fist. Doing this gradually allows this to be achieved very well. You definitely don't want it too moist, or the eggs will absorb it and swell like a sponge, killing the embryo inside.

I always melt a few air holes in the plastic containers a couple of inches apart, just to make sure the air doesn't get too stagnant, or doesn't get enough oxygen to the eggs even though some seal the containers and only open them now and then to achieve this. I figure that were a snake lays it's eggs, they are never completely sealed from the air anyway. The only real reason that many don't add some air holes is to keep more of the moisture in the container longer. With just a few 1/8th inch holes every melted in with a small soldering gun, this still does quite a good job of letting the eggs "breathe", while still retaining lots of humidity too.

I would shoot for a target temp of 80-81 degrees, and put a thermometer inside on the medium too. This way there is NO guessing as to what the temp is, and allows a bit of a "buffer" if the temp should rise a bit for a number of reasons during the long incubation.

When I have a HUGE pile of eggs that are in one large clump, I often ring out real well a bit of sphagnum moss, fluff it up some, and drape it over the pile of eggs to help ensure the eggs get enough moisture to them. Of course, some of these shots were after the moss was removed from over them for the photo. But again, Ionly do this with tall piles of eggs. Most other times, low piles of eggs will absorb enough moisture from the neighboring eggs, so it is really not needed in these situations, sort of like a sponge would gradually absorb water if left next to something moist.

The key to all this is to watch the eggs, and make sure they don't start to dimple in(too dry), or swell too much(too moist). The eggs themselves really are a great indicator as to how they are doing during their development.

Oh, BTW, you will notice some ink pen lines on top of some of these eggs too. This is so if they are taken out once in a great while to re-moisten the medium, I will ALWAYS be able to keep them oriented in the exact same position they were in before so the embryo isn't killed inside. Snake eggs are way different than some other types of eggs where it is a GOOD idea to turn them. You definitely do NOT want this to happen with any looose snake eggs..LOL!










good luck with things!


~Doug
-----
"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

my website -serpentinespecialties.webs.com

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