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

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www.SlipstreamSerpents.com

I know you said your temp is 82, if you have a ONE time spike of 90 it can be a killer. It is the #1 culprit for kinking thats for sure. Sorry for you efforts but my guess is that you had a heat wave and the eggs werent protected.

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

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www.SlipstreamSerpents.com

Sorry to hear about the assortment of deformaties and I'd strongly suspect excess temps in this case because of the frequency and variety.
Your set up is fine and will work well but I'd pick up a little digital thermometer that offers accuracy to 0.5 or 1 degree and use that to map the temp inside cages and incubators.
I like the selection of stuff at Cole Parmer and they have a couple certified digitals at a reasonable price.

Once you can accurately read the temps you're actually running, adjust the thermostat to give you 78-80. 81-82 will usually work but is a bit close to the upper limit for my comfort.

If it's any comfort, we all get an occasional deformed nate in the midst of perfectly fine hatchlings - it just happens.
Better luck next year......
Jeff

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Politics' is made up of two words, 'poli,' which is Greek for 'many,' and 'tics,' which are blood-sucking insects.- Gore Vidal

What are temps likein Honduras? I would assume they are hot and humid, but I am only going by what I see on TV.

On that note, I incubate my honduran eggs at 86-88 right next to my ball pythons. Another friend of mine, in the past he incubated all of his colubrid eggs with his burm eggs at 88-90 and never had any issues. This was everything from corns to gray-bands and ratsnakes to milks. It could be heat, but I don't think that is the only cause.

Brandon Osborne
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www.brandonosbornereptiles.com

snake eggs are built to be tough and if one little heat spike would deform them then no snakes would be alive in the wild.
temps spike and drop all the time in the wild and eggs still hatch fine and some still have deformaties.
my theory is it has more to do with the amount of calcium in the mother at time of deposition. i have seen many babies with small kinks actually straighten up and heal after only a few meals if feeding from the start.
i have incubated eggs that had heat spikes go into the 90's for short periods(an hr or 2) and hatch without any problems. i also used to incubate high 87-88 (in the incubator not the conatiner)
for the duration of incubation and had no problems. on the same note i have incubated at 77-80 with no recorded heat spikes and had many deformities....
so really i think people use heat spikes as an answer to something that no one really understands just yet
adam jeffery
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" a.k.a. farfrumugen "
When I die, I want to go peacefully like my Grandfather did, in his sleep -- not screaming, like the passengers in his car.

Just another thought...your experience may be due to chance of course, but how closely inbred are your colonies?

It really bites when you go through a whole year of feeding, cleaning and getting a snake to a position that it will produce viable eggs, only to have them hatch with "problems. It does not sound like heat was an issue for you. Sometimes the genes we pass along to the next generation snakes are not always pretty colors and patterns. It's possible that your breeders both carry a gene that produces your problems. If this was their first year together then next year with give you a better idea of whats going on. I would swap partners to hopefully not duplicating this years outcomes.

Best of Luck

Scott Sweeney
Sweeney's serpents

Thanks all for the help. It sounds like I just had some bad luck this year. None of the parents of any babies were related, so it can't be inbreeding. We shall see how the rest hatch out. Hopefully these will be the only kinked ones for the year.
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Aubrey Ross

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www.SlipstreamSerpents.com