You must live in a home where the ambient temperatures stay within a moderate range. My friend Herb just puts his eggs on the top shelf in his snake room. I have to use a thermostatically controlled incubator as my temps range from low 40's F to high 90's F in the house

I have had hundreds of snakes eggs drop to the 40F's for a few days. The eggs hatched fine. Just takes longer.

A drop at night is okay as long as the temps rise during the day. It may only add a fe days to the hatch time. otherwise there is no detrimental effect on colubrid eggs. Especially if the temps go up and down within 24 hours. Even with my aggs staying at the low 40's for several days the eggs still all hatched. And i was sitting on several hundred. I was very concerned as i was away from the house and had no control to put them in a warmer spot. But the eggs survived fine.

I would think in nature it is more natural to have temp fluctuations. Where the eggs get high highs and low lows for short perios (24 hours) due to nightfall and the summer sun beating down on a tree stump or whatever. Even then some areas have cold snaps for days/weeks and the temps stay low.

Myself and other have found eggs in the wild where the eggs were extremly hot, but the temps dropped at night to pretty cold conditions. Maybe it is better for the eggs to have these extreme fluctuations, rather than a steady temp all throughout the incubation period? Not sure if any studies were ever conducted on this? But it would make for a great study paper on colubrid eggs!
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www.Bluerosy.com

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• Hey my 40 year old incubator still works - Lindsay, Sat Jul 2 08:30:36 2011
• RE: Hey my 40 year old incubator still works - pyromaniac, Sat Jul 2 08:42:07 2011
• RE: Hey my 40 year old incubator still works - Bluerosy, Sat Jul 2 09:59:08 2011
• RE: Hey my 40 year old incubator still works - pyromaniac, Sat Jul 2 19:22:37 2011
• RE: Hey my 40 year old incubator still works - m77mcreedy, Sat Jul 2 20:37:40 2011
• RE: Hey my 40 year old incubator still works - daveb, Sat Jul 2 15:21:36 2011
• RE: Hey my 40 year old incubator still works - denbar, Sun Jul 3 18:20:28 2011