Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My first clutch of the year just died. It was a clutch of 6 eggs, 3 were not fertile and the other 3 looked perfect. They were in the incubator for 55 days at 89-90 degrees, the eggs slit open and their heads popped out. Everything looked good and then one by one they died. It took a total of 3 days until they all died. None of the snakes actually fully made it out of the egg, but they looked like they were going to at any second. When I pulled their dead bodies out of the eggs they were fully developed with just a little umbilical cord attached. I had them in regular garden vermiculite in a tub covered with no holes but not air tight. Once the eggs slit I opened the cover daily for a few soconds to get air. I have done all of this before without any problems. The male was only 7 months old at the time when he was breeeding and this is the females first clutch. She is bout 3-4 years old... So what happened???
Mike

How were your temps regulated? If the temperature probe was outside of the eggbox, its possible that the temps inside the box went much to high. Three little snakes and three decaying dead eggs inside a small egg box could elevate the temps by many degrees. If the ambient temps were around 90, its possible that you temps inside the egg box could approach or exceed 100.

My belief is that the majority of full term dead in egg situations are related to overheating.

The probe was outside the egg box. I have a pretty big incubator. The inside is 4 feet tall by 2 feet by 2 feet. The probe is at the top of the incubator and this box was about 4 inches under that. Once the 2 snakes died just about the first day, I took them out and just the last snake was inside the box and alive by himself for the next day and a hlaf. I opened the box last night for him to get air and he was still alive. When I checked this morning he was dead. I have hatched a few clutches before and never had this problem.
Mike