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Eggs droped on july 28 temp at 83.5 deg lost a couple along the way when should i expect them to hatch? the eggs are starting to look a little sad. any help would be appreciated. thanks Tom.

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They often dent like that about a week or so before they pip.
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x.y L. getula californiae (Cal. King)
x.y L. getula nigrita (MBK)
x.y L. getula floridana (Brooksi)
x.y Pantherophis guttatus guttatus (Corn)
0.1 Pituophis catenifer catenifer (Pacific gopher)
0.1 Heterodon nasicus (W Hognose)
x.y.z Elgaria multicarinata multicarinata - (Cal. Alligator Lizard)

Thanks very much I was beginning to worry.

The denting in is normal a week or so before they start to hatch, and with the exception of the 2 obvious duds the rest of those eggs look good to me... A little ugly, but good and i think they will all hatch out.

I incubate at 82 degrees and my clutches began piping anywhere beteen 55 to 65 days..

My only reccomendation would be that when they start to pip either remove that one egg at the bottom of the pile or put a little slit in it so the hatchling does not get stuck in the egg and die.

Good luck and keep us posted!

~ Mike Russo

In my opinion, it looks like your incubation humidity level is very low.

I wouldn't expect the eggs to "dent in" this early at that temperature, but I may be wrong.

Is this your first time hatching snake eggs?

-RG

For kingsnakes yes this is our first year.as for snakes in general no this year we had 21 rainbow boa, 97 western hognose, 18 southern hognose, 1 tri color hognose ( that sucked ) but all in all a good year

I would expect hatchlings around 60 - 65 days with those temps.

Eggs normally dent in a little bit a few days to a week before hatching, however yours are denting to early do to improper hydration. The top three that are not touching the substrate are definitly in trouble.

You have a few problems with your method. First off get rid of that little water cup. It is doing nothing for you, the container is full of wet spagnum with hundreds of square feet of wet surface area, an inch of open water isn't adding anything.

Second, you need to make a mat of damp spagnum and lay it on top of the clutch. This does two things... First it properly humidifies the top eggs in the pile... secondly, it stops cold drafts of air from causing rapid temperature changes around the eggs. I like spagnum for incubation because of its anti microbial properties, but it is very easy to make it too wet, so be carfull it is just damp.

Not trying to be hard on you, just trying to help you save those eggs that are still alive.

Hi Zach, the eggs are on a base of vermiculite. The container is in a large fridge with heat tape, above the heat tape is a large shelf size container of water about 24in x 17in with about 3in of water in it. The egg container is on the top shelf about 30in above the water and has a lid on it with 20 small holes in it. In the first day I saw a small amount of dimpling so I added moist sphagnum around the eggs and the cap of water to gage evaporation if their was going to be any. There has been no loss of water in the cap and the sphagnum is still damp but not wet. The eggs have felt dry up until this week now they feel damp. What do you think? ?
And I do appreciate your help. Tom

It seems to me that you are over wetting and underhumidifying your eggs. Eggs absorb water both from the air and from the surounding media. However since a few of your eggs are not touching the media (a somewhat unnatural occurance) you either need to provide massive humidity or cover them with damp substrate.

Personally I would say that you don't need so many holes in the container. Also, I would add a small air pump with a hose to create a bubbler in the tray of water. This will drastically increase overall humidity in the fridge.

Although I still think your first move should be to cover the eggs with spagnum.

Hi Zach, last night I put the sphagnum on the eggs as you suggested. The air pump sounds like a great idea as well. This is the first year I have had to deal with eggs that were upended and stacked in this way which has complicated incubation. Thanks for all your help. Now that we have all our bases covered all we can do is keep are fingers crossed and hope they hatch. Tom

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