Reptile & Amphibian Forums

All except 3 of my clutches have hatched and here are the incubation lengths in days. The night time temps were in the 70's (mostly in the high 70's but some nights were as low as 74) and the day temps were mostly around 80-84 but got as high as 87 for short periods of times. The number next to the clutch is the days that the snakes started to pip.

#1 Corn 65-69

#2 Corn 66-69

#3 Cal King 68-70

#4 Pueblan Milk 66-68

#5 Corn 65-67

#6 Pueblan Milk 65-66

#7 Corn 66-68

#8 Corn 67-69

#9 Corn 67-69

#10 Cal King 65-67

#11 Sonoran Mountain King 67-67

#12 Cal King 64-65

#13 Corn 67-71

#14 Cal King 70-72

#15 Cal King 69-70

#16 Cal King 69-71

#17 Cal King 69-71

#18 Cal King 67-69

#19 Corn 67-71

#20 Cal King 70-72

#21 Cal King 71-73

#22 Cal King 70-72

#23 Corn 70-72

#24 Corn 70-72

#25 Cal King 65-66

#26 Corn double-clutch still incubating

#27 Corn double-clutch 69-71

#28 Cal King 63-66

#29 Corn double-clutch still incubating

#30 Corn double-clutch still incubating

Next year I will have over 30 Cal King clutches alone. Thank goodness for BRUMATION TIME LOL

And the pic shows this year's sample of breeding my Mendota Cal Kings. Next year the Mendotas will breed with Lavenders, Ghosts, Albino Bananas, Blizzards.....

Kerby...

In my collection only the corn snakes and 1 clutch of 'glades rats took 60 days or more. Nearly all my kings begin to pip on week 7-8 (49-56 days). I try and maintain 82F, but this year I'm sure the mean temp. was closer to 78F.
:Mark

That is interesting.
Last year I had 8 alterna eggs hatch at 49 to 51 days. 2 were dead in egg.
My thayeri (17) hatched at 50 days except for one egg out of a clutch of 11 slugs and 1 fertile. It took 61 days to hatch.
My calikings all (8) hatched at 51 days.
I kept the temps last year at 82 to 85 degrees with around 90% humidity.

This year my Thayeri (22) took 55 to 56 days. 2 were dead in egg.
My calikings (8) took 56 days.
All my Emroyi took 59 days.
I kept my temps at a constant 82 degrees and 85% humidity.

I thought there was some conection with temps and days of incubation. The lower the temps the longer the wait. For me my theory was right. I figured at 60 days of incubation hatchlings would be healthier, bigger and have more yolk in them too. So far so good.
I am thinking of lowering my temps to 80 degrees next year to try and reach that optimal 60 day incubation.

John Lassiter

In the past I have used a Big Apple Incubator with the temp set at 82 and almost all of my clutches hatched between 60-62 days. This year I just used the snake room's ambient air temp which fluctuated quite a bit from night time temps to mid-day temps and they all took longer. The drastic temp ranges had no affect on success hatch rates. The humidity was still high in the egg containers (always had condensation).

The only other thing is that I live at a little over 5,000 ft in elevation. Maybe the higher elevation (less oxygen) has an affect on incubation???

Kerby...

Kerby.............
I think you might be correct about the elevation thing. I live nearly at sea level here in Corpus Christi, TX. and I incubate similar to you.
You could be on to something.

John Lassiter