Reptile & Amphibian Forums

well i had a pine lay nine big fat eggs for me back in late may;all 9 looked good initially.have been keeping them about 1/2 buried in hand-wrung vermiculite,at about 83 degrees/85 percent r.h. with little fluctuation....was able to lay them out seperately(didn't adhere together too badly).thing is,i have been losing about one egg per week to mold growth spreading.those that became heavily discolored have been removed to a seperate enclosure.so i'm down to 5 good looking eggs left,and i figure a good 2-3 weeks until they'd be due to pip...so you can see my concern....am even considering switching to a less common substrate/medium for the eggs-cubed foam/sponge rubber...anyone had succes with that?or any other advice woould be welcome,thanks.
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"with head raised regally,and gazing at me with lidless eyes,he seemed to question with flicks of his long forked tongue my right to trespass on his territory" Carl Kauffeld

i stopped using vermiculite some time ago when i noticed it had some potential drawbacks. i started putting my eggs on damp paper towels in plastic shoeboxes & misting the sides a little. i'll usually put in a small [spill proof] cup of water in w/ them as well to help keep the humidity up & check in on them once in a while. the eggs are actually perfectly dry but the air stays moist. it seems to work out pretty good as i almost never lose an egg anymore. i'm waiting on kankakee x axanthic bull eggs right now due roughly around this friday using this method. hope this helps.......

you may also want to lower the incubation temperature. Joanna Burger published a paper a few years back with research showing high temperatures can cause egg death and deformities in pituophis hatchlings. I believe she also stated that female embryos were more susceptible than males.
i keep my incubator with the pituophis eggs set at 75-78 degrees F.

i hope the rest of your eggs hatch out successfully...

daveb

I agree with the other poster in that the temps are probally a little high. Also a trick we have used in the past to stop mould is to take Dr. Scholl's athelete foot powder and add a little water. To form a runny paste, then take a Q-tip and lightly touch the areas affected. It will stop the mould in its tracks.

John Cherry
Cherryville Farms

...while it looks bad for the four seperated eggs,the remaining five seem good so far,temp is holding at about 80,and i've made sure any hint of excess water was wrung from the substrate........hopefully,fingers crossed,i will have some pics of these as hatchlings within 2-3 weeks.
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"with head raised regally,and gazing at me with lidless eyes,he seemed to question with flicks of his long forked tongue my right to trespass on his territory" Carl Kauffeld