Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I posted 64 days ago about LJ's clutch of eggs, well the first one poked its head out of the egg at 1030 yesterday morning. There were a total of 7 fertile eggs and 5 duds. I incubated 5 of the good ones on vermiculite and placed 2 in another container on the plastic screening used in light fixtures (the new rage in incubation)with moistened perlite underneath. The vermiculite seems to have worked better.
Results Vermiculite: 3 big fat normal babies
2 smaller babies with a protruding eye (the right side) Dont know what to do with these as they are normal otherwise. I believe they may have damaged the eye coming out of the egg - the slits in the shell were very small.

Results Perlite: 1 fully developed embryo dead in egg
1 empty egg shell that looked totally fertile all the way through - it wasnt until I picked the egg up and saw that it had caved upwards from underneath and dried up.
This is LJ's first clutch, at 3.5 years of age, I believe the next year will prove to be better for her.
Thanks to all who answered my questions and to whomever has questions about what I did, fire away!
Cheers
Brett

Brett,
Job well done! That is awesome. It seems to me like it was just yesterday they were laid, although i'm sure it's been forever for you. Congratulations! Best of luck with those hatchlings. How about some photos?
Chad

Thanks Chad!
Yes it seemed like a long wait but was over fairly quickly - they are reported in Ross and Marzec as a "long-incubation" species but it would not appear so. Out of the original 12 eggs, 3 were duds and two more went bad the first week leaving 7 apparently healthy eggs. Of these 7, 5 hatchlings emerged, #6 had a fully formed, but dead, baby and number 7 was completely empty (though it looked good all the way through). The parents are not related but it was their first clutch so that may have ahd something to do with the final outcome of hatchlings.
I am grateful for what I get though! That I got any to hatch, with the incubator I was using, is incredible and next year I should be better prepared with a quality incubator set up. They are not an easy snake to hatch, though Im sure others may disagree. A great experience to see babies born from snakes I raised up.
I HIGHLY recommend these snakes to anyone who hasnt dealt with them, they are "Awesome Aussies"!
Ciao
Brett

Congrats!! Once you get them going, let me know if your interested in selling/trading them. Thamks

Bramley1982@Yahoo.com