Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a goini female that just dropped 13 eggs on the 13th of this month. Bred her on 5/12 and one more time on 5/15. Right at 30 days later she drops. I was expecting at least another week before I should have eggs. Could I expect a double clutch this year? She has been eating strong all the way through, even the day before she layed the eggs... After all my ramblings I do have another question, what is the max temp variations is allowable for eggs? I do not have a incubator. My coolest room in my house is 86 degrees during the day with ac on. Night time I can keep the eggs around 80-82 degrees with no problem. My issue is daytime temps. What are some ideas to keep them in the comfort zone? I have tried the coolest room on the floor thing, didnt work.

Oh yeah forgot about my female laying her eggs, she shed only once since breeding. It was on 6/4, she has been showing signs of shedding again but hasn't yet. What is the shed pattern with a gravid kingsnake? I know ball pythons generally have 4 sheds from copulation to egg laying.

Well, 86 may be a bit high on the high side, but the eggs should be OK if the temps only spike that high and do not stay that temp 24/7. You indicate the temps get to low 80s at night, so that should be OK. I hatched clutches successfully with similar temps as yours last summer.

Female kings should have a pre-lay shed, then a post-lay shed. My corns shed about 7-14 days before they lay, then again a few days after they lay. Usually dont eat between those two shed while laying. My corns also had another shed about couple of weeks to a month after their Post-lay shed, and double clutched.

KevinM

About keeping the eggs cool during the day; when I was hatching fence lizard eggs in my homemade styrofoam incubator a triple digit heat wave hit and lasted for about two weeks, so I would put an icepack in the incubator to keep the temperature in the right range during the heat of the day. Of course I had a thermometer and thermostat, and the thermostat could work in tandem with the ice pack. I have an incubator because normally my temps don't get anywhere near as hot as that, especially at night, when the temps drop considerably. But if you just put the eggs in a Styrofoam box or big cooler with an ice pack and a thermometer that may help.

Thanks I will have to try it during the day. I keep a close eye on them so they dont have a real high spike. When I notice the temps raising too high I relocate to drop temps as soon as possible. I added another box fan to move the air around more and it has seemed to have helped so far. The room temp has been 78 and the egg temps are 80.3 to 80.9 degrees so far.

what type of AC do you have,central air or a window unit? Also, do you have a basement or an easily accessible crawl space? Maybe you could put the eggs down there if the temps are right. Another option would be to put the container with eggs in it on a table and adjust how close to put to the Ac.

Window unit. Florida with no basement or crawl space. I have kept the temps of the eggs below 85 degrees today. It just recently spiked at 84.7 and should start falling because I have been able to keep the room temp below 84 today. Yesterday the room temps got close to 90 and egg temps spiked at almost 87 for about 2 minutes. Today I have added a 20" box fan to help move the air around more in the room and it has helped keep the temps down to a manageable area. Thanks for all the help. I am trying to find a place that I can leave them alone until they hatch and keep them in a good temp range. If they will be safe at 86 degrees for a little bit then I will be safe. My son is looking forward to them hatching. This is his first experience of seeing the process.