Reptile & Amphibian Forums

We just received our new Sim egg boxes. They look great! Crystal clear and a great lid. Does anyone have experience with these egg boxes and W. hognose eggs?

If, so, what is your recipe?

Type and amount or gram weight of substrate?
Ratio or gram weight of water?
Do you need to add water after a period of time?
Do you keep it airtight and open occasionally?
Or poke a pin hole in the top?
What temps. do you prefer?

I plan on emailing Squamata but does anyone know if the box and lid are dishwasher safe? Microwave safe? We'd hate to ruin them.

Thanks,

Brock N Jen

I believe they have all that stuff on their site but Gregg (the owner of Squamata concepts) is on here pretty regularly so I'm sure he'll post.It's designed so that you don't have to add water during the whole incubation process. I usually fill it with perlite to the fill line, then I put water to that same fill line and I leave it alone until the eggs hatch. You can put a small hole in it but not to big of one, just enough for gas exchange. I used a sewing needle. or you can "burp" the container every week or so. Just open and close real quick then put it back in the incubator. I believe Gregg uses kitchen sponges and I've seen others just use water. so it's up to you what substrate you use I guess.

Cpramsey, thanks for answering in my absence my friend.

Brocknjen, they are dish washer safe. The body grid and rails are microwave safe but the lids are not. The best way to clean them after they are used is to just use hot water with some dish soap and a soft sponge.

For the substrate, you can use just about any water retaining substrate and ratio does not matter much. The fact that the eggs are suspended over the substrate means that the eggs are not sitting in the wet substrate.

My personal favorite substrate to use is sponge. It is clean and anti microbial and is easy to use. Just soak the sponge, ring it out and put it in the SIM. That easy.

Temps for incubating hogs varies. I prefer 82 degrees. Eggs incubate for 50 to 55 days at that temperature.

Hope this helps and thanks for buying a SIM.

Gregg

Thank you both. we cant wait to try them.

I have a question, are you having problems hatching hog eggs? Thank you and best wishes

Yes, this is our first year. Our females are all first timers also. The first female laid 10 eggs five were slugs. We used vermiculite and perlite in a 6qt. sterilite. Incubator was set at 82 degrees. The loose fitting lid and the wind turbulance dried the medium out. We added water over and over and eventually lost all 5.
The second female laid 12 four were slugs. We used the same medium and temp with a tighter lid and a pin hole in it. Humidity is better but the are still going bad. Of the eight we are down to 3 left with one of them going south.

We have raised all our females from hatchlings but have no way of telling their actual age.

Why is there wind in the incubator? What kind are you using?

I've been keeping my eggs in vermiculite in a normal Tupperware container. I keep one corner popped up or just set the lid loosely on top. Never have issues with eggs drying out or the vermiculite drying out.
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4.4.4 Western Hognose
1.1 Ball Pythons
1.0 Everglades Rat Snake

I find this interesting. As one who has been doing this a while. I started hatching colubrids in the early sixties. Back then, it was gallon jars with petroleum jelly around the lip and a piece of glass to seal the top. It worked.

Then came plastic bags, So in the bags with sphagum moss and tied shut, it worked. Then saran wrap, wrapped on jar lids, it also worked but the dang snakes hatched out of their eggs, then hatched out of the jar. Then about a zillion years and tens of thousands of eggs in sweater boxes with sand, then vermic, then perlite, all worked fine. As in no problems.

Yet, folks have to invent another wheel, which is fine, except if that wheel causes more problems then the wheel before it.

The real problem is not the wheel, in this case, its more about their approach on husbandry. Cheers

Our incubator is made by natures spirit and controlled by a Herpstat1 at 81-82 degrees. The air is circulated by a computer fan. The fan really circulates the air well. We were also using a sterilite 6 qt. shoe box. they dont fit nearly as tight as tupperware. One thing I did was to create a difuser for the fan.

Is there a need for air circulation? In the ground there is no air movement...why is it needed in a incubator?

The maker of the incubator put in the fan to circulate air so that the temp would be even throughout the incubator. It is quite large holding up to (12) 6qt. shoe boxes.

I think we would have been fine with the shoe boxes just sitting in a room 78-82 degrees. But we didnt have one available. So, lesson learned.

I am just not sure about all this concern over hatching colubrid eggs,

I would think KISS is best,(keep it simple stupid).

Colubrid eggs do not require the use of an incubator in most cases, room temps are normally great. OR at least warmer areas in some houses. Here its cooler areas hahahahahaha, in the high seventies to low eighties. Fans, electrical devices, moving parts etc, are NOT required and do not add to success. They only cause the possibility of failure. Everything that works, BREAKS.

What you do is entirely up to you, but I would love to know why folks think they need all this commerical stuff.

There are other reptile eggs that have special requirements, but colubrids are not those. Cheers

We dont have any experience, but would have to agree "in most cases" one would not be needed. Ours is not "most" unfortunately. We also use it for python eggs.