Reptile & Amphibian Forums

The first egg pipped on July 2, 120 days. It took first hatchling over 24 hours to emerge. As usual, the first one out was a male. The second egg to hatch had been covered with white mold on about 20% of its surface for about 5 weeks. Female hatchling looked perfect. Two more males and a female were out last night. I cut sixth egg about 36 hours after first one pipped. That hatchling just poked its head out this morning. Mullet Fingers and Sister Skink are red-throat parents. So far there are 2.1 red-throat and 1.1 no-red hatchlings. This clutch started with eight good eggs. Two died about a month into incubation. I used a 50/50 mix of perlite and vermiculite. Temperatures were mostly in the mid-seventies.

Congrats!!

Hope the last one is a female for you!
Thanks for the info in the post, good to know
a little mold doesn't necessarily mean a bad egg.

Congratulations Steve. Regarding the moldy egg, did you make efforts to eliminate the mold i.e. anti-fungal foot powder etc. as is sometimes recommended? I too have hatched some eggs with mold on them, but over the years I am using less and less water and it has been less of an issue. Good luck with your hatclings, Vic H. Imperial Valley, CA.

n/p

Congrats Steve they look nice and fat

ALAN B

Yes, thanks. The sixth hatchling emerged this morning, no-red female. It took almost four days from first pip to last snake crawling out of the egg for this clutch to hatch.

Great report Steve, congrats!
-----
Todd Hughes

Steve,

Do you breed your females every year, or do you breed every other year?

Thanks!

After two or three consecutive years laying eggs I've had females skip even though they've mated. I've only given a female a year off when she hasn't regained good body weight. A Texas female sold to me as captive-born a few years ago, but with scars suggesting wild-caught, had two nice clutches in two years. This third year many of her eggs were infertile and she hasn't regained good weight. Maybe she's an older snake. She definately gets next year off. I don't know how wild indigos would manage to avoid males during mating season, wether they were in good condition for breeding or not. Maybe phermones are different.

Steve, here's some anecdotes for wild Texas indies I have seen, a lot of mature males get the whammo searching for females. The females I have seen have a base and do not wander far, males roam very far and try to mate several females. Some females share a home base with a sister or daughter and cohabitate, males come in and fight for the right. I think sometimes males don't make it back to the honey hole every year. A few do for several years, then they are gone. Most males I see are heavily battle scarred. I haven't seen a male overwinter with any females, but have seen females do this. Some ideas to ponder. I am no expert, just like to study them in the field, since I can't have them here at home, dammit!

-----
Todd Hughes

Congrats! I am currently waiting on my 1st ever clutch to hatch. It's day #102 and I'm chomping at the bit!
I only have 3 eggs and one of them has had a strip of mold down the center from one end to the other for most of the incubation but it seems to be doing fine.
One other egg is really large and has a slightly different shape, i'm wondering if it might be twins.
I know incubation times vary greatly, i've read from between 95 and 120 days. In your experience what has been the average?

Thanks!

Eric
-----
Jesus is Lord!

Eric,

How many eggs did you start out with?

>>Eric,
>>
>>How many eggs did you start out with?

Started with 3. There would've been 8 but she got egg bound and I had to aspirate 5 eggs.
-----
Jesus is Lord!

You're getting close. If temperatures have been mostly in 70's you could easily go past 120 days. Way back when, when we kept indigo eggs in the 80's, they would hatch way less than 100 days. A substantial number of those hatchlings would have spinal kinks. Last year Robert Bruce shared that towards the end of incubation to raise temnperatures to low 80's so that hatchlings have more strength to get out of the egg.

>>You're getting close. If temperatures have been mostly in 70's you could easily go past 120 days. Way back when, when we kept indigo eggs in the 80's, they would hatch way less than 100 days. A substantial number of those hatchlings would have spinal kinks. Last year Robert Bruce shared that towards the end of incubation to raise temnperatures to low 80's so that hatchlings have more strength to get out of the egg.

Thanks for the reply. They've been kept around 78 degrees.
-----
Jesus is Lord!