Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I returned home from my vacation to find that the mandarin had laid eggs under the damp moss in the nesting box and it had gone unnoticed by the person that was looking after my reptile room.
There are 7 eggs and theres no telling how long they were there.
The ambient temp was around 70-72 degrees in that vision cage.
Half the eggs are all white with the others being a third tinted brown but not looking like slugs or collapsed.
I'm hoping they are ok.
They are also really large and are twice the size of an egg that would be laid from a similarly sized American rat snake.
That female mandarin is normally calm and gentile but wow she snapped at anything that moved and would have attempted to eat my hand if given the chance.
She got a meal and the eggs have been transfered to my incubator. I have faith that at least 3 of the 7 will hatch but I'm really hoping that the number will be better.

On a better note my lucistic black rat laid 9 eggs that were noticed and transfered to the incubator while I was away.
I tended to them when I got back transfering them to a better medium and I believe they will be 100% good. The texas rat eggs, 7 in all look good too. Those will have lots of red and blue in them. I have a Kunisar Japanese rat too that will lay any day so its really on now.
I hope my mandarins will be good though. Had to be the most valuable ones right?
Mike.

Congratulations Mike - the brown staining could just be from the moss ... hope they all go the distance for you and out pops 7 perfect little mandarins. Temps don't sound outside of the incubation range and for such a short time would likely only slow down the development rather than kill it.

Sounds like your having a good season with the blacks, texas and imminent climacs laying ... best of luck with all your plans

Sue x
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Ratsnakezone

Congrats!

Matthew

Sue, Matt thanks, I hope your right Sue and it is only staining.
I've got three clutches incubating right now in my home made incubator which is about all it will hold and I've got three more clutches coming. Got to get busy and put another together.
The most I've ever taken on at a time before is two groups.
Guess I'm being a bit more ambitious this year.
What I use, and works very well for me is a kind of crude but effective home made incubator.
It is a cooler with two bricks on the bottom supporting a plastic grate cut from the "egg crate lighting"that home depot sells.
An aquarium heater set at 82 degrees lays on the bottom and about 5" of water is added. Small critter keepers with about 2" of moist shredded coconut bedding holds the eggs.
The bedding is kept moist by the humid air in the cooler while the heater holds the temp steady. A fish tank thermometer confirms the water temp is right.
This bedding is non toxic and there is no mold problem. The newborns will dig down into it when first hatching. I've hatched about a dozen clutches with this setup and have a 100% rate of success (minus the eggs that can be identified as infirtle when laid. With all that water in the bottom you can ignore the setup for quite some time adding water only about every two weeks.
The critter keepers have water condensing on them but that water runs down the sides and does not drip on the eggs. What runs down keeps the bedding moist.
It is crude but works very well.
Mike.

Kinda like a twist on the old aquarium method then. Sounds like a good setup you have there, crude or not, its about what works well for you

Sue x
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Ratsnakezone

Sounds like they will probably be ok1 I had a similar experience with the eggs starting to shrivel up. I put them in moist vermiculite sparyed them down real good and after a few days they plumped up and they all hatched. If you used spagnum moss in the nest box that could have stained them. For some reason the moss leaches onto the eggs if left touching them for long. I use the moss in the lay boxes but I remove them as soon as I can. Good luck! Oh and if you can give us some pics of the parents and then the babies.
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King Snakes! Who can make a better mouse trap?
J Sierra

I used the moss in the lay boxes this time to encourage the snakes to lay in a container that the person watching my collection could just lift out and place in the already setup and running incubator. Finding a snake knowledgeable person that I can give the key to my house to is a tough one for me.
Sue I use the cooler because its not glass and because it holds the temp and humidity very well. Its a simple and cheap setup.
Mike.
PS- I just picked up a newly imported male red tailed green rat for the female that I rehabed last summer. He's as chipped up and rough as a wild caught asian rat would be but he's eaten his first small mouse tha was left in front of his hide for about an hour. He's isolated and treated with panacure and flagyl.
In about 8 weeks I'll introduce him to the female and maybe I'll have a fall clutch from them.