Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Help! To be completly honest with you I've been sooooo caught up in day to day life, family issues, etc that I only noticed a "change" in my corn about two weeks ago, I noticed she was slightly larger and had shed twice in a short time... and I also noticed she was breathing harder than normal... well she is only just two years old and she has been in her tank with what I THOUGHT was another female... well to my surprise I went in to feed them today, lifted the waterbowl because I had not seen them out in two days and HELLO there were five eggs... yikes! So now I'm thinking "I'm clueless" on what to do. I'm not able to get an incubator, as I've been out of work so I need a simple home made idea and so advice. I've posted a pic of the snakes, the eggs... Also curious... what type of morphs do you think I will get from this pair?

Hello,

there are few pictures of home made incubator, made from styrofoam box (you can get it in some fish stores).

First, you can make a hole and put the glass on it, to see what's inside. Glue the glass with 100% silicone:

Put a water bowl inside, and put aquarium heater. In this case this is with thermostat, but not necessary. If you have termostat, put the temp on it a little higher than you want to get in the egg chamber (2-4 degrees) and it will be good for safety.
Then, put two profiles 1/2 inch over the water bowl - you will put egg chamber on these profiles (pictured are C profiles, made from plastic - the holes are made in square, so there is a little of ventilation there also).

Then, put an egg chamber - plastic box, filled 50% with vermiculite (add enought water to make it humid, and squeeze out any water left from it). Put a thermostat probe in the egg chamber (you will need additional thermostat - not the one in aquarium heater).

Now you can put the eggs in it - do not rotate them, and close it

I hope it helped
Best regards and good luck with the eggs

Now, one other question... is six eggs normal? I've seen others with many more, should I be "expecting" more eggs shortly?? Also any help with the expected offspring types would be appreciated. One of the eggs is very hard and transparent in sections I figured it must be bad, otherwise the others are soft and white.

From what I've read, yes, 6 is a small clutch size, but it happens. Look at/hold your female and see if you can feel/see anymore eggs in her.

As to the offspring...unless they are het for something, then you will get all normals het for albino.

If I were you, I'd put all the eggs, even the one you think is bad, in the incubator. If it really is bad you will be able to tell soon enough. If it's good, you don't want to throw out a perfectly good baby snake by mistake.
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alstiver@hotmail.com

1.0 '01 hypo snow
0.1 '02 ghost (pastel)
1.1 '02 bloodred

Fantastic pics of "how-to" incubator.
Thanks for the show.
I use this method as well, without the window.
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...and I think to myself, "What a wonderful world."

Your eggs already look a little dry. Immediately put them in a container with some VERY damp moss, vermiculite, or even the same aspen you use for a substrate. Cover them with more of the same. Once you have time and the proper materials, you can move them into something more appropriate (keep the same side up when moving). But don't delay rehydrating them or you won't be able to save them.

Good luck!

you may not even need an incubator. Check the temp on the top of your refridgerator. If you get 80-82 degrees up there put your egg box inside another plastic box (with a lid) with a little water in the bottom for humidity. Good luck!
Cheryl

Ok, well with limited means in the house last night (found the eggs at 1am) I put together a little something after reading these post. I used a cake pan with lid, I took a rubbermaid and filled it 1/2 way with damp bedding, placed the eggs in, and then covered them with more damp bedding, I put this inside the cake pan and put an inch of warm water in the bottom of the pan, closed the lid and placed a temp strip on the top and placed it in our pantry. Like I said I was not planning on breading our corns as I thought and was told they were both female. I feel terrible not having the "proper" items, but I sure hope things turn out ok.

I've tried to post photos but can't seem to... here are the links for the set-up I have right now!

http://www.zacboyer.com/snakes/thebox.jpg
http://www.zacboyer.com/snakes/morebox.jpg
http://www.zacboyer.com/snakes/egg.jpg

Will they stay warm enough there? You might want to try the top of the fridge. I used to keep a sourdough starter on the top of ours.

Go to the link below for instructions on things you can do with the new forum.
Tools and Toys

I felt the top of my fridge it was pretty cold and the pantry is keeping the box between 78-84, should it be warmer?

I'm new to the snake thing too, so I'm definately not an expert. I noticed that you were using aspen or some other substrate. That will do great as a temporary substrate for the eggs, but you want to get to the garden department of Kmart or Walmart or a petstore that has a reptile section and buy some Vermiculite or perlite or sphagnum moss (I prefer Vermiculite) so that the eggs have a nice substrate. Also, in case you are not sure your female has finished laying, try to provide her with a rubbermaid container with some more vermiculite or whatever substrate you picked up for the eggs. This will give her a nice place to lay if she has any more eggs in her. 78 - 84 is a good temperature range, but if it is closer to 84 most of the time, I'd try to find something a little cooler, I keep my eggs (first two clutches ever!) at a slightly lower temperature... sometimes it gets up to 82, but it's mostly about 81 degrees. I'd rather the eggs take longer to hatch, and hatch out normal snakes, then to try to speed up the hatching with warm temps and perhaps get snakes with kinked spines. Just a thought anyway. Congrats on the eggs. Don't throw away the ones you have doubts about, as I doubted my ENTIRE clutch of eggs many many times, but this week I'm optimistic.
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~Sasheena

and the kids: Tantilla, Tantillas, Lightning, Kinkee, Maple, Castle, Bishop, Queenie, Jester, Pandora, Phantom, Aphrodite, Athena, Hermes, and Lady

All normals? Really... even with having one who is candy cane or creamsicle (not sure, but thats what I've been told) and the other okeetee? Wow. Interesting!