Reptile & Amphibian Forums

my female stripe laid 5 good eggs tonight i have them all in a plastic container with vermiculite in there, what is the correct mixing of vermiculite and right humidity, What else should i be looking for right now??? any info is greatly appreciated

Moist not wet ,minimal air ventilation ,maybe 1 or 2 small holes,if any temps ... a warm room temp seem to work for me ,75*-85* and in 2 months you should have babies

An often repeated forumula for water to vermiculite is 1:1 by weight. I usually use a little less water than that. Try to avoid a lot of "dynamic" water, a bit of mist in the oorners of container OK, but not a lot of big drops dripping on eggs. Add a paper towel if needed to reduce water. Keep the eggs at warm room temps, i.e. a range between 76-82 or so, avoid major "spikes" of temp. An incubator is great, but a fairly stable warm room/shelf may work fine as well. If you get mold, use a little atlete's foot spray on it, but you probably won't have it if not too wet. Error on the dry side I would say...Good luck, Cal king eggs are pretty tough and lot's of fun. Vic H.

This raises an interesting question:
How many of you guys out there use incubators and how many use the "warm room" approach.

I've never used an incubator before, but as a kid I hatched snake, lizard and turtle eggs with a pretty high success rate using Tupperware containers filled with potting soil on top of the fridge. My mom didn't mind until a clutch of 15 prairie kings escaped in the house.

This will (hopefully) be my first year breeding my snakes; I haven't incubated anything in around 17 years and I'm excited to see those little noses pipping.
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http://www.mikefoux.com
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1.1.0 Hondurans Het Amel
1.1.0 Hondurans Anery, Het Hypo
0.1.0 Honduran Hypo
0.1.0 Honduran Hypo, Het Anery
0.2.0 Pueblans
1.0.0 Pueblan Hypo
1.0.0 Thayeri MSP
0.0.1 GBK Blair's Phase
1.0.0 California King
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0.1.0 Ball, Normal
1.0.0 San Diego Gopher, Poss. Het Applegate
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0.1.0 Wife, Caucasius Mexicana

I am a warm room guy.
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Todd Hughes

>>I am a warm room guy.
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>>Todd Hughes

Because we don't have AC throughout our house I am a incubator guy, now that may not make sense but my incubator is in my basement which is completely underground so even in the hottest summers months its below 60. The basement temps hardly ever fluctuate and has a higher humidity. Most of my rooms fluctuate 5-15 degrees in a day depending on how sunny it was that day along with how warm so while I would love a "warm" room I just don't have that option.
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Jason A.
"Long time Herper, first year Breeder `07."