Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi all
I rarely post, but lurk a lot. I've kept snakes off and on most of my life, balls for five yrs now, but this is my first year breeding. My first female, normal bred to a pastel laid five eggs 03-26, the clutch weighed 549 gms. My second to go was a normal bred to a mojave and a spider, laid eight eggs 04-13, the clutch wieghed 593 gms including one slug. The last one bred this year was another normal bred to both the spider and mojave, laid four eggs last night, the clutch weighed 464 gms. The last two each left one egg outside her coils, I candled and all eggs except the one slug show viens. Is it normal for females to leave an egg out or is something wrong? I know I will find out in time if every thing is alright, but I'm just a little eager and I guess a little anxious.
I have the eggs in a hovabator, on light defuser, with very wet vermiculite under the grid, but some of the eggs seem to be drying and dimpleing more than I think they should. A friend suggested I set up a rubbermaid tote with bricks to support the grid and water up to the bottom of the grid, an aquarium heater to heat the water and thus the tub, then put the eggs in small tubs with moist vermiculite on the grid. I'm tweaking temps on that set up now.
I feel I have learned a lot already from this forum, but am certainly open to any more thoughts or ideas.
Claude

All of what I know about egg laying and incubation comes from talking with breeders and reading books so I may not be the best to answer this but I am taking a stab at it.

If I recall right Nerd said in there book that breeders have tried to incubate eggs that have been rolled out but they tend not to hatch. It is like mom knows there is something wrong and it goes down the road; however, every egg deserves hope until it is for sure dead so I would just keep an eye on it.

Also on your substrate issue, why don't you just put the eggs in the vermiculite? This is how all the breeders I have talk to do it. Just prepare your vermiculite with enough water that it clumps when you squeeze but it doesn't drip.

Also congrates on the eggs, you got some fatties!!!

Matt

Thanks for the reply, I was trying to go with out contact with the substrate to avoid errors in "wettness", but that seems too dry so going to try putting the eggs in the vermiculite and hope I can get the moisture right.
Claude

form what I have studied it is better to be too dry then too wet. Also do go by ratios because depending on the envorment of storage the amount of water already in the vermiculite can very. Simply add water, sqeeze into a ball, it should hold shape but you should not be able to sqeeze water out of it.

Also keep an eye on your eggs if they are lossing weight and dimpleing add a little water by the edges the vermiculite will pull it to the eggs. If they are gaining weight you may want to put a thin layer of vermiculite over the top to dry it out a little.

I hope this helps and I hope you have some wonderful little balls hatch out in the near future!!!

matt

Claude,

Do you have all three clutches in one Havobator? That must be tight-no? I have heard people doing what your friend said, but with a whole fish tank and they put bricks in the middle to support the eggs out of the water and use a fish tank heater and cover the top. What your friend said makes sense in a way because this will keep the humidity up and prevent the eggs from drying out. The problem with the Havobators(besides the wafer being very touchy with temp control) is the heating element is very close to the tops of the eggs and tends to dry them out a bit. I used either an eggbox or I would take a tupperware bottom, poke holes in the sides, then invert it over the eggs. This keeps them from getting wet from water that builds up and drips from the lid, and also keeps them from drying out from the heating element that is so close.

This website has a great Havobator for beginners article. I would look at this.

Also, do you use the wafer controller to set temps, or a proportional controller like Herpstat or Helix? I would highly recommend getting a Herpstat or Helix if your not, it makes life so much safer and easier.

Alan
Link

I had all three clutchs in the hovabator, but even with a wet slurrie of vermiculite in the bottom and a moist rag on top of eggs they were drying and collapsing. I set the wafer as close as I could to 88F and pluged it into a thermostat set @ 89 F.
The eggs are now in vermiculite in 9" deli cups, in a tote that is holding @ 88 F, but I'm still concerned that some of them may have dehydrated too much to survive. I guess time will tell.
Claude

Get the wet rag off the eggs. Keep the eggs in the deli cups or rubbermaid containers with a few holes in the sides and keep inside the incubator with wet vermiculite or even water in the bottom. As long as the eggs arent getting wet you are ok and you want very high humidity. Set your temostat to 88-90 degrees and the havobator should be turned all the way up as the thermostat will regulate the heat. You DO NOT want the wafer set at almost the same temp as the termostat because they will be fighting each other. The proportional thermostat will make many, many adjustments every second to conrol the temps. It doesnt simply go on and off like the cheap ones and the wafer does. Next, make sure you do not turn or roll the eggs(many people mark the top of the eggs with an X with a marker or pencil) after this, except for adding more water every few days and to get the air circulating a bit,, leave the eggs alone and wait.

Alan