Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello everyone. I'm having a bummer year with hatchlings this year. About 80% of my eggs were bad, and of the babies that have hatched so far, most of them are giving me trouble in one form or another. Either not eating at all, or being deformed.

I just had 4 Milksnakes hatch in the last week. The one Pueblan was born with one eye, and a mental problem and did not make it. 2 out of the 3 Nelson's that hatched yesterday have a slight kink just before the vent. I still have a few other Milk eggs incubating, so we shall see how those turn out.

What causes this? I am incubating at 82F, is this too high? I thought it was still in the safe zone.

Any input you may have that can help me reduce this problem for next year will be greatly appreciated!

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Aubrey Ross

©
www.SlipstreamSerpents.com

Generally it seems to be temp related.
82F is not too high but are you sure you didn't have a heat spike? Have you verified your thermometer is accurate?

Use as much incubating substrate as you can - it holds water which is an excellent thermal capacitor.

I personally have my incubator on a timer - it loses power at 10AM and doesn't turn back on until 10PM. The reason I do this is because as the room warms during the day, the incubator was coming on when the eggs were already warm enough - some thermostats really only work well when there is a decent difference between ambient temp of the room and target temp. So I really only heat during the night.

Also - on the really hot days, I put in ice packs - but not inside the tubs, just inside the incubator. That keeps the heat spikes at bay. Don't use too many ice packs though.

Also - if you are using a hovabator (what I use) - I keep the bottom plastic tray filled with water, and put the tubs on top of the metal screen. All that water in the bottom tray helps stabilize temperature to some extent. I've seen some people who just fill the bottom of the hovabator and don't use tubs - that may work, but I think tubs inside the hovabator are a better way.
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I decided my old sig was too big.

Thanks, I thought I heard somewhere that it was usually temp related. I thought I was in the window, though.

I built my own incubator out of an old refrigerator. I have heat tape inside on the back wall that is controlled by a Helix thermostat. I also have a digital thermometer in the incubator that shows the temp fluctuating between 81.5 and 82.5. I also have a fan in there to move the air around so the temp remains even throughout.

The incubating substrate is moist (not wet) course vermiculite which I bury the eggs in about half way, unless they are stuck in a clump. They are placed in plastic tubs of varying size (depending on the size of the clutch), with a hole on each side of the tub for air flow.

I am not aware of any temp spikes. My house is cooled with forced air, so the room the incubator is in is right around 75 most of the time.
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Aubrey Ross

©
www.SlipstreamSerpents.com

Helix is very good, doesn't have the ambient air problem.
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I decided my old sig was too big.

In my opinion (experience) snakes eggs (well, Cal kings and Sinaloans) can withstand higher temps during the day as long as the evenings cool down. I had a batch go around 85 during the day down to 70s at night. That was when I knew nothing, and they all hatched perfectly!
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Mark

np

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Chris Jones
King of Kings Reptiles

http://www.kingofkingsreptiles.com/

"All the fancy names in the world will be of no help if you do not know the difference between chocolate pudding and pig poop." -Frank Retes

I hope not for both our sakes!

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Todd Hughes

Thanks for the replies everyone, I appreciate your insight. I do not believe that inbreeding was the cause, because both pairs that produced the kinked and the deformed ones were completely unrelated.

I am hoping that is is just more bad luck for me this year, and will hope for better next year. I do have a few more eggs in the incubator and if I get more problem babies then I may have some factor I need to tweak. I think either way I'll be reducing my incubation temp to 80-81 to be on the safe side. I don't mind waiting a few more days for eggs to hatch if it might mean healtier babies.
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Aubrey Ross

©
www.SlipstreamSerpents.com

Sounds like a plan Aubrey, I hope you can figure it out, you have some great animals to breed!
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Todd Hughes

Thanks Todd!!
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Aubrey Ross

©
www.SlipstreamSerpents.com

I am confused by your statement.

Inbreeding causes kinked babies.

You're usually OK 2nd or 3rd generation linebred, but it does begin to cause problems.

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Chris Jones
King of Kings Reptiles

http://www.kingofkingsreptiles.com/

"All the fancy names in the world will be of no help if you do not know the difference between chocolate pudding and pig poop." -Frank Retes