Reptile & Amphibian Forums

...on my first attempt to breed my GBs, and I'm hoping someone can tell me where, or rather how, I screwed up. (Kingie and Queenie are 3-yr old blairs.)

All was going perfectly on schedule - brought the pair out of brumation in late February, very healthy looking, they fed well, I introduced them for mating after Queenie's first shed in late March, they had several goes, and Queenie laid six eggs on May 4th.

I had an incubator set up exactly as described in several books and elsewhere on the Alterna page here - aquarium w/ bricks/water, heating pad underneath, stabilized at around 82F/90 pct RH. I moved the eggs to the incubator the morning after they were laid, and based on the temp/RH readouts they remained in the same stable environment (in a moist, not wet, sphagnum/potting soil mixture).

But the eggs soon collapsed, shriveled a bit, and turned brownish and very hard.

I figure it either has something to do with an improper environment for the eggs, or perhaps the eggs were infertile to begin with. Anyway, if there are any breeding experts who could provide me with some tips on how to increase my chances next time, I sure would appreciate it. (Should the RH really be that high in the incubator? I've wondered about that...)

Should I try for a second clutch this year?

Thanks, Michaelb

damp perlite a warm room= happy breeder!

I use sterelite, slightly moist, no incubator. I usually keep them in a close which is running 78-82F, works fine.
Also, your breeding was rather early. In the wild the breed mainly in June, sometimes in later May. I've had April breedings in captivity, but nothing has come of them.
Usually there is a post-brumation shed and then in May or June an ovulation shed. I don't necessarily depend on the ovulation shed for pairing, but I have learned to wait until at least the last part of May before I pair them.
John
Herping The Trans-Pecos

I don't know that I'd try to double-clutch her the first year. I would probably wait and try again next year, unless she's really eating like a pig and bulking up good now.

As for reasons...some snakes just don't do too well the first year of breeding, others do. You might look at brumation temperatures and duration....maybe too short or not cool enough? Usually 3 months at 55 to 60 degrees F. is good.

As far as the eggs go, they probably were not fertile. They setup you describe should have incubated fertile eggs just fine. The only thing I would really change would be the medium. I would use either Vermiculite or Perlite. In the past I have used sphagnum with good results, but I prefer one of the other two now. By the way, the sphagnum and potting soil can stain the eggs brown. If you had used Perlite or Vermiculite, the end result would have probably been the same, but you would have had shrivelled up white eggs instead of shrivelled up brown eggs.

One thing to be alert for is any potting mix that has fertilizer in it. I have heard of a few people that accidentaly poisoned otherwise healthy eggs when they did not see the fine print on the bag of vermiculite potting soil.

I took it back to the store.
It's getting more difficult to find good, clean mediums - they're all geared towards plants. And, the ones for the plants suck too. Try to find a potting mix w/out perlite or styrofoam in it! (not for the reptiles, for plants - I hate styrofoam it floats to the top & then blows all over & doesn't bio-degrade.
Plus, lizards & tortoises will eat it.
The vermiculite can have asbestos in it.
They put it in the section of the store that has fertilizers & pesticides.....
I got some compressed coconut husk from a friend (I've used it to succesfully hatch eggs) - when I went to set it up, it smelled of gasoline - he'd stored it in his tool shed & it absorbed the fumes.
Sorry for the long rant, but in the old days it was easy to find what you wanted.

Many thanks for all of your replies. I figured it was either the wrong medium, or perhaps the eggs were infertile. (Altho the way the two of them went at it - several times - I tend to doubt the latter!)

They brumated for three months at ~55F, ending mid-late Feb. Queenie did her first post-brumation shed about a month later, after developing a healthy appetite. I introduced Kingie shorthly thereafter, and they had several "dates". Needless to say, I was optimistic.

Based on your comments, I'll hold off on trying for a second clutch this year. Next year, I'll have a different and hopefully more sterile medium ready.

One thing I was going to try this year, but couldn't, was bottle incubators. That's simply glass or plastic bottles, water in the bottom, and the foot part of a panty hose (!) stretched over the mouth of the bottle. One egg is placed in each panty hose/bottle, and the cover placed back on the bottle to maintain humidity. Anyone ever try this?

Queenie laid her eggs overnight, and most of them were fused by the time I removed them, so I couldn't incubate them separately.

Thanks again,
MichaelB