Reptile & Amphibian Forums

so cool!! our little girl gave us 5 eggs last night, got them in vermiculite, and into a hovabator (sp?) the temp has been steady @ 91, just wondering what humidity you all keep eggs at? ive hatched out many lizards back in the day, but this is the first snake eggs ive had to incubate, when i bred leos & beardies, i just kinda used my judgemnt on how they look, but if there is a magic # id LOVE to know it!! (my only other snake eggs were layed on newspaper by a girl i had just rescued and didnt know was gravid, it was so sad to see little shriveled eggs)

she was het for something when we bought her, but i dont even know what, she was bought just as a pet, and daddy was a rescue who formally lived in a trunk of a car until i stole him, im dreaming they are het for something cool, but will probably just end up with some cool normals

my husband is so happy (moms his first snake) hes calling himself "grandpa" i hope it will happen for us, im going to candle them tonight!
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hanging out under heat lights burns up my brain cells!!

Turn the temp down to about 88 degrees! You have no room for error! Books usually tell you 100% humidity, but to me, that's too wet! Try 85-90% humidity! Good Luck!

You said they're in a hovabator. Are they in a seperate egg box? If not, they need to be. Humidity should be at or near 100%. Being in an egg box will help towards that end. Jay Martin has a greate hovabator use guide on his site. If you had asked before I would have told you to ditch the vermiculite and go no-sub method. Did you add some water to the vermiculite? Check out Jays site. Google him...

i did add water to the virmiculite, they are in a tray w/out a lid, should i get a lid on it? when ive hatched leos and beardies i alway did tuperware shoe boxes on heat pads and it worked out well, i have a friend who got out of breeding and donated the hovabator to us, so i thought it would be eaiser, it regulates its own temps, vs having to freak out if the temps change to much. ill google the guy you sugested and see what i can do
thanks for the response!
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hanging out under heat lights burns up my brain cells!!

you definitely want a lid on your egg box. Here's Jays article:

http://www.jaymartinreptiles.com/articles/starter-incubator.pdf
JMR Hovabator article

i had already googled him, the hovorbator is now larger thanks to my local pet shop giving me a fish box (they usually send them back to recycle them, but they know me well) and ill get a lid for the box im using today, the temp is 88-89 (still ajusting to larger box) and hmididty in the low 90's, and i candled them while all this was going on, seeingthe veins was soooo cool!!
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hanging out under heat lights burns up my brain cells!!