Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Thanks for the earlier post Greg, here's a follow-up: Some of my het hypo eggs appear sunken in. I'm afraid this could mean they're infertile, going bad, or dehydrating. If they're dehydrating, I'd like to do something about it. But I'm reluctant to mess with the humidity, since others look so good-and-plump.

This is my 1st year using vermiculite rather than peat. Does the climate vary so much within a 6 inch deli cup that some eggs would be dehydrating and not others? I used a 1:1 ratio by weight, but didn't thoroughly mix the hydrated vermiculite, just poured water around the edge and tipped it around some. Any suggestions?

Congratulations on Pink Panthers, Striped Supercondas, and all the other unbelievable hatchings we've seen already in 2010!

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Adam Schroeder
formerly "hogsandpythons"

When are they due to hatch??
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Ultimate Hognose

Adam,

The eggs look dehydrated to me, I have seen that before, do you keep a top on your egg container? I would try to switch them to a larger container and a fresh 1 to 1 mix, you can also put a little damp peat moss on top of the eggs for a few days and see how it goes
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Brent Bumgardner
bwbumgardner@aol.com
703.431.1776
Superconda Website

Agree. Mike Bod.

Those eggs look good. Meaning them look fixable. I wish the ones I was having problems with looked that good.

Going off ball python experience and other BP friends experience I'd say they look dehydrated and should be easy to save. I like Brent's idea of putting some damp moss over them.
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Greg Bennett - Western Hognose Morphs | Boa Morphs
520.Hognose (520.464.6673) - www.bennettreptiles.com

Agree with all above. I'd bet they'd be fine in a week if you put something damp on them. Just make sure it's touching them. I've even uses a little damper mix of vermiculite and kind of piled it up against eggs that look just like that and they bounce back well.
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Brian Suter

www.serpenteer.com

Thanks for all replies. This clutch was laid on 5/28 so should hatch at 2nd or 3rd week in july, I've heard a sunk-in look can be common at hatch time, but these aren't there yet. I replaced them in a slightly larger container with peat as a substrate.

The large grain vermiculite seemed very dry and even bound to some of the eggs. When I sifted through it after removing the eggs, it was more hydrated at the bottom of the container. Maybe where I went wrong was not mixing it up by hand, but just adding water and believing it would evenly distribute. From other forum user's pics, it appears people are either using a finer grade vermiculite or else it becomes finer after mixing.

We'll see what happens!
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Adam Schroeder
formerly "hogsandpythons"

It seems like you are figuring it out. You are doing a good job at trouble shooting your problem through trial and error. Good job!! Check out my care sheet for Hognose. It can be found on my website linked at the bottom of this post. There might be some info there that you can put to good use.
Keep use updated on the status of the eggs and make sure you post pics when they hatch.

Jon
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Ultimate Hognose

You might want to ditch that Hovabator as well.. Being that they are top heated, they tend to dry reptile eggs out often... Great for chicken eggs, not so great for reptile eggs...

Well, if you were a man, I would punch you. I'd punch you right in the mouth. That's bush. Bush league.

LOL ... yeah, probably time for an upgrade though
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Adam Schroeder
formerly "hogsandpythons"

I have used one method for years now with various species and have never encountered any problems, and it eliminates all guesswork and worry about the incubation medium. The key is to completely saturate the incubation medium while keeping the eggs from touching the medium, and restrict ventilation of the container so there is adequate air flow, but not so much that the eggs will dry out. Maybe you should pick some of these light diffusers up for the next time you have something to incubate.

Even better...the S.I.M. container that's now out.