Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey all, just got back from my local Herp Society meeting, and I'm feeling pretty good. Finally bought myself a pen-light, and even though I knew it was probably too soon to see veins on the eggs laid yesterday, I thought I'd have a little look. First thing I noticed, just like with my cal-king eggs, the blotched king eggs look a little dimpled in, just two of them, but still, a little dimpled. I know it's not that the egg box is too hot/cold/dry... could they dimple because it's too humid? The hygrometer (sp) says it's about 80%, temp is 80.9 degrees. The cal king eggs sort of dimpled in, looked very ... well... ugly... But while they did not really fully plump back out, they did get fuller and are just sort of assymetrical. ALSO, and this is the part that has me excited, when I candled the cal-king eggs, I saw veins in EVERY single egg! Plus a dark lump on the gravity side of the eggs (I'm assuming that is the developing snakey) I also noticed very faint veins in the one blotched king egg I inspected. (I also inspected the slug with the pen-light, but all it looks like is yellow jello) Pretty exciting I have to say.

Also, at the meeting I was given the most magnificent adult female cal-king! I'll get pictures of her in a few days once she's settled into her new home. My hubby decided she was his, and named her Licorice. She's a good four to five feet in length and is a beautiful black and white. We also found out that our Arizona Mountain King is indeed a female, so it's a good thing we named her Lady. Maybe later this year we'll get a male Pyro to be her mate. Of course she did decide to bite, musk, urinate, and defecate on the one doing the probing.

Anyway, it was a fun evening, and a nice addition to my collection, in addition to the two ground snakes I was given. Hard to believe two years ago, when my husband and I were preparing for our wedding, and I casually mentioned, on a whim, that I would like to get a snake (to which he responded "NO", that in two years we would have not one snake, but 18, plus 16 eggs incubating. Of course I told myself today on the drive home that I was going to definately have to limit myself. Of course I felt like those cartoon characters, the angelic part of me being rational and saying "you must not buy more snakes" and the devilish part of me saying, as it pokes the angel in the tush, "you know there is no way that you will stop now!"

Anyway, sorry to ramble on.
-----
~Sasheena

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

I usually associate dimpling with insufficient moisture. I keep a spray bottle on the counter and usually mist the eggs when i move them from the laybox to the incubating box (same sphagnum medium, i just move to smaller boxes for convenience & storage space during incubation).

On the other hand, the relative humidity in one box i checked was about 73% at 82 degrees, so your numbers don't seem out of line. Let us know what happens.

Terry

Relative humidity in the box can be deceiving. It could be 73% in the box and 98% around the eggs,or vice versa because of the medium. I would cover the eggs with some moist sphagnum moss or a damp paper towel.IMHO

Tim

Thanks for the opinions. Later on today I'll try to snap a picture and post it online... one of the two eggs that was looking dimpled is now all fluffed out, and the other one is looking the same dimpled amount as yesterday. (All the eggs except the slug have veins!) I'll place a moist paper towel over them to improve the humidity, to see what that does. The hydrometer (sp) is laying on the substrate, and it and the thermometer both have condensation inside the faces of the plastic. It's all so exciting!
-----
~Sasheena

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