Reptile & Amphibian Forums

long story short.........my 1rst ever hondo eggs were approaching 80 days w/ no apparent end in sight. i believe the humidity was too low/ temps & too high [82* average] thus the little guys were just becoming prisoners as the eggs were still jet white but quite tough to the touch. i thought they most be dead in egg. anyway, i carefully slit them & can clearly see live babies in there though still heavily enveloped in mucous. i resealed the eggs & the container, kicking myself for not paying more attention. to my surprise a few days later, one after another emerged ready to go & pretty big though some actually lefty fairly big yolk sacks behind in the egg. i had no idea this species was soo hardy!! here's a pic of the 04 sire [het/hypo] from colubridman. the dame is a beauty tri-colored [het/albino] from matt turner. thanks again guys!!

Yeah,.....

80 plus days IS a long time at those temps!......most(not all) of my Hondo's hatch out at around 81-83 derees in approx.65-70
days!.......are you SURE the thermometer was accurate??
In any case, it's always better to err on a slightly cooler temp, than a hotter one....period, it will just take them slightly longer to hatch,....but many folks disagree on alot of things including this!......they will claim more robust babies at this, or that temp,.......the thing is that they don't seem to get, is the fact that many snakes, at many temps have to be tested, not just an animal, or two that they own!........my experience, and MANY(most) large scale breeders will agree that slightly cooler is much safer than warmer,....hands down!

In any case, congratulations!!.....Hondurans are great!!!

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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

Thats definitely a long time for hondo eggs to take.... I would have cut my eggs at day 70 or so I incubate at 82F and mine hatch out at about 65-68 days. Lets see some pics of your hatchlings!
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globalreptiles.ca

Congrats Dan! Randy W.

I only read about half of the story then looked at the pic and thought "holy crap, look at the size of that hatchling" Those extra few days really made a big difference
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Paul Weaver
Carolina Herps

Dan, I had a friend in Michagan that used to breed allot of hondos. He didn't have a incubator so he would just shelve his eggs.His hondurans ran about 92-110 days. And the babies were much larger than mine and he hatched out way more females than he did males.I remember one clutch of albinos he had (16 eggs) and it hatched out 1.15 LOL.......
He also did pines and gophers and had the same results.

L8r Shannon

guys, thanks for your responses & advice. to answer some questions, i normally do always 'err' on the cooler end but these were shelved eggs [no incubator] & a couple of days it got real hot in there forcing me to lower them & raise them accordingly. maybe i just panicked but i thought i screwed up & started slitting. the final result was 5 fat tri's & 1 smallish tangerine w/ one egg going bad. hey paul, yeah, if i had just left the eggs alone maybe i could have produced a 5 footer! haha! & randy, my girlfriend's mother's bridge club wants to hire you. what's that about? i think they want a 'hondo' that's het for.....action! lol! here's a girl that took 115 days to hatch but that's routine for this species. any guesss? have a great weekend guys & thanks again!

Ha Ha
I was starting to wonder if anyone saw that post. I laughed at myself even if no one else did. Later, Randy W.