Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I know that many of you have eggs and with eggs comes great excitement, for myself we have our first two clutches in the incubator right now... first two ever! Needless to say I have read about eggs and I have vpi's book on ball pythons laid open on the coffee table right now but I was wondering how sensitive are eggs? I have one clutch that appears to be doing well, however just this last few days I have noticed that one of the eggs is starting to deflate a little bit and look wrinkly, I know that this is not good because they were laid march 15th and have about a month before they should start doing that, I have them on peralite so I added water, a few mist with a water bottle on the peralite and on the sides. The have dropped about 5-10 grams for a four egg clutch so I don't know if I am doing the right thing but I figure as long as I don't add much water it will be all right.

Then I have another clutch were 2 slugs were attached to a 4 egg clutch and I figured that I would leave the slugs for now because from what I read it is no big deal if they are stuck. So I started to leave them and then after about a week I noticed that the eggs touching the slugs appeared to be going bad. So I figured I would remove them, in the process of removing them I noticed that one of the slugs had dented in one egg in and when I tried to remove it the dent pulled out and popped back in. now that egg is looking like it is a goner, could that pull on the egg kill it? Right now I have a lot of questions and really trying to keep any eggs from going bad so any impute and advice is appreciated.

Thanks,
Matt

Don't try to over compensate with more water. Getting them wet is no good. If you don't know how much is too much, and it can be very hard to tell with perlite compared to vermiculite, try the egg crate method. If you keep the eggs off the mixture, it doesn't matter how wet the mixture is. You could have solid water under the egg crate if you wanted, all the mixture does is keep the water from sloshing around when the box is moved. Leaving slugs attached is no big deal, pulling them and causing a leak will ruin them. If you think they are drying out, you can spray newspaper and cover the eggs with that.
Mike

Hey Matt, Just like Mike said use the egg craate method. I know guys that have used the Peralite and Vermiculite method forever and of course if it works for them they should not change it. I on the other hand do exactly what Mike said. I use the light diffuser(egg crate)method. If you use that with either Puralite or just plain water(when I use just water I stack the egg crate 2 pieces high)it will keep your eggs as humid as they need to be from my experience. I use a couple of big fridge size incubtors and I put 32 quart pans of water in the bottom as well as keeping the egg box humid as mentioned.. And as He said the reason to use a medium with the water is to keep the water from sloshing around. First year I had 3 clutches of normals and tried 3 different methods because I didnt know my a~~ from my elbow. Last year I had 21 clutches, Yes from 3 to 21 in a year and last year I did not lose a clutch. I did lose a couple of eggs that were bad from the get go but other than those few I hatches about 105 good babies. This year, my third year of raising Balls I hope to have atleast 30 or 40 clutches and hopefully hatch out everything from Normals(as a biproduct) to some Superstripes and a lot of double and triple Morphs. Good luck with your Clutches and just remember its like life... Its a learning process...lol. Have a great one, Jay
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JEMreptiles@gmail.com from sunny AZ.

Lots of cool Ball Pythons along with
0.0.1 Vietnamese Blue Beauty and some great Bull snakes.
1.1 Argentinian Black and White Tegus
1.0 Gotti Pitbull (Tank)
2.0 Beautiful Bengals (Stryker and Cynbad)
12 Tarantulas
Last but most Important 2.2 Children

I've had eggs that were a bit wrinkly hatch just fine. It happens.

Heck, I've heard some stories on this site of boob-eggs, and eggs covered in mold still hatching out perfectly healthy babies.
Unless the egg REALLY sinks in and starts changing colors, you should be fine.
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"What is man without the beasts?
If all the beasts were gone,
men would die from great loneliness of spirit.
For what happens to the beasts,
soon happens to men.
All things are connected."

-Chief Seattle (Duwamish Tribe)

Are the eggs that are wrinkled fertile? Did you candle them?
All you need is humidity and a certain constant temperature to hatch out eggs. Ball python eggs are quite durable and are able to withstand wide temperature changes. Slugs that are attached are no problem. They will eventually mold out, and most of the time they don’t affect the other eggs. Sometimes you will have the mold creep over to the fertile eggs, but if the eggs are healthy they will hatch nonetheless.

Perlite is not the best substrate to use as an incubation medium. In my opinion plain water is best. As Mike pointed out the elevation method works out best and adding perlite to the water with the elevated method helps with the sloshing of the water.

Do not spray the eggs directly……wet a paper towel and squeeze out all the water with your hand then lay this over the eggs over night. It should help hydrating the eggs if they are dry and if they are fertile.

Hatching the eggs is not a hard process, it’s just some little tricks you learn over the years that help out. Seems like you’re on the right track….just keep reading your books and forums. Take what info you think is worth something and toss the rest.

Post pics of them when they hatch!

Pitoon

>>I know that many of you have eggs and with eggs comes great excitement, for myself we have our first two clutches in the incubator right now... first two ever! Needless to say I have read about eggs and I have vpi's book on ball pythons laid open on the coffee table right now but I was wondering how sensitive are eggs? I have one clutch that appears to be doing well, however just this last few days I have noticed that one of the eggs is starting to deflate a little bit and look wrinkly, I know that this is not good because they were laid march 15th and have about a month before they should start doing that, I have them on peralite so I added water, a few mist with a water bottle on the peralite and on the sides. The have dropped about 5-10 grams for a four egg clutch so I don't know if I am doing the right thing but I figure as long as I don't add much water it will be all right.
>>
>>Then I have another clutch were 2 slugs were attached to a 4 egg clutch and I figured that I would leave the slugs for now because from what I read it is no big deal if they are stuck. So I started to leave them and then after about a week I noticed that the eggs touching the slugs appeared to be going bad. So I figured I would remove them, in the process of removing them I noticed that one of the slugs had dented in one egg in and when I tried to remove it the dent pulled out and popped back in. now that egg is looking like it is a goner, could that pull on the egg kill it? Right now I have a lot of questions and really trying to keep any eggs from going bad so any impute and advice is appreciated.
>>
>>Thanks,
>>Matt
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as already mentioned, a good egg will hatch. It doesn't matter if it's dented, wrinkly, pockmarked, etc. I had an egg last year that two weeks in to incubation turned wrinkly and gross looking. I candled it, and it was fertile. By the time day 55 rolled around, that egg had huge patches of mold on it-not only did it hatch, but the baby that came out started pounding rodents the day it shed and never missed a meal.

I stopped using substrate on snake eggs. I now only use egg crate over plain water. I think if you use this method, it will take all the guess work out of how much humidity you need.
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www.jasonrbartolettreptiles.webs.com

Where do you get these egg crates? Also yes I did candle the eggs and I see vains in them. Some appear to have thicker vains then others, so if there are vains in them does that mean we are still good?

Matt

I believe Home Depot calls them light defusers. Thats where I got mine, and i took 3 employees to figure out what I was talking about. Good luck.

Go to the lighting section of a Lowes or Home Depot and look for fluorescent light diffusers. they come in a big sheet, and you can cut them with diagonal pliers.
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www.jasonrbartolettreptiles.webs.com

>>They have dropped about 5-10 grams for a four egg clutch>>

That is NOTHING to be worried about. Resist the urge to start screwing around with what you have working. Remember, all you have to worry about is temperature and humidity. You sound like the temps are no problem. So, you're looking for humidity of 90-plus per cent without having the eggs getting and staying wet.

If you're thinking of changing your substrate at this late date due to the eggcrate suggestions above, you could get basically the same effect by just putting the eggs in an uncovered dry plastic box and setting that box in a larger plastic box to which you have added water. Put the lid on the large box and, presto, high humidity.

Good luck, and try not to stress out. We all went through that "first time" once. After you do, you'll have a better feel for what's normal the next time around.

-Joan