Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Welcome to kingsnake.com's message board system. Here you may share and discuss information with others about your favorite reptile and amphibian related topics such as care and feeding, caging requirements, permits and licenses, and more. Launched in 1997, the kingsnake.com message board system is one of the oldest and largest systems on the internet.

Click here for Dragon Serpents
Click for ZooMed
Click here to visit Classifieds

Incubation problem

j3nnay Nov 22, 2007 11:55 AM

My female laid a huge clutch a few weeks ago, 10 eggs total. There was 1 small slug, and as I found out after a couple weeks, a normal looking egg that wasn't fertile. The normal looking egg didn't adhere to the rest of the clutch, and began to rot within just a week or two in the incubator. Once I noticed the mold, I peeked in to check out the egg and noticed maggots on it!

The egg candled as empty (not a suprise) so I threw it away and checked the rest of the clutch, and noticed a few maggots on the good eggs as well. I didn't want to leave maggots in there, but I wasn't sure how to effectively get rid of them all without picking off each and every one. So...I turned to my handy dandy Equate Lice Spray, which is what I've been using instead of Provent-a-Mite or anything else.

A couple quick sprays in the general area of the eggs (not directly on them, just around and straight over the top so a little bit drifted down), and the maggots were writhing. At this point I was worried about letting the eggs get too cold, so I put the top of the incubator back on.

I peeked in the viewing windows every day and opened the incubator just once a week for the past couple weeks, and there've been no more maggots. One egg on top has died, but it wasn't developing veins when I first candled when I found the rotting egg.

Today, I candled again to check on the eggs, since I'd been kind of freaking out about whether or not the spray hurt the eggs.
All of the good looking eggs are still fertile and developing plenty of veins!

So, out of 8 possibly fertile eggs, 7 are healthy and developing normally. Lice spray is an effective treatment if you find maggots or bugs in your incubator.
(Or you can avoid the problem entirely by not storing the open incubator in the garage when you're not using it)

Just thought I'd share what I learned!

~jenny
-----
"Polysyllabism in no way insures that what you're saying is actually worth being heard." - Blake (an e-friend of mine)

"I have never made but one prayer to god, a very short one: "O lord, make my enemies ridiculous." And he granted it." - Voltaire

Replies (3)

BRhaco Nov 22, 2007 12:42 PM

Congrats, Jenny. That's good info to have. And I might add, you're braver than I would be in that situation (I probably would have just picked them off one by one).
-----
Brad Chambers

The Avalanche has already started-it is too late for the pebbles to vote....

j3nnay Nov 22, 2007 12:47 PM

I wasn't sure where the maggots had come from to begin with (no flies in there) and I wanted to make sure no more hatched and lived...

And honestly, I just hate maggots and didn't want to touch them, period!

~jenny
-----
"Polysyllabism in no way insures that what you're saying is actually worth being heard." - Blake (an e-friend of mine)

"I have never made but one prayer to god, a very short one: "O lord, make my enemies ridiculous." And he granted it." - Voltaire

GrotesqueBurgess Nov 22, 2007 02:05 PM

I would worry that the baby snakes would have neurological or physical deformities/difficulties once born. I wouldn't hail it as something that is okay to do before the eggs have even hatched.
-----
~Sara~
"If you look down on me, I am evil, If you look up to me, I am God, if you look straight at me, I Am you"
-Charles Manson

Site Tools