Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My Gopher snake layed 12 eggs about 3 weeks ago, and there are a few questions I have about them. First of all, There are 2 eggs that got very slimy, and indented, so I quickly discarded of them. There is one egg that is just as firm, and large as the others, but it is very discolored. What should I do with it?? keep it or trash it??

And is there anything I can do about the subtrate, it looks as if the Peatmoss is getting a tiny bit moldy, but it could just be condensation. I just hope I am doing things right. Temperature is maintained between 76-83, and humidity is relatively high 75-90%

If anyone can help me out or has hatched eggs before, I could sure use some tips.

I would keep the discolored egg unless it starts to indent quite a bit and mold/fungus starts growing. My corn snake's clutches (over the years) took on various appearances: white, off-colored, brown stained, rounded shapes, oval, elongated but all successfully hatched.

Some indenting may start if the substrate dries out. You may need to add some moisture and you'll see them fill-out again. You'll also notice some indentation when the babies are about to pip, which is normal.

I'm assuming you're using spaghum moss and not peat moss. If it starts to mold/fungus you may need to increase ventilation but you'll want to watch temps and make sure you stay the course of what you reported. The temps and humidity sounds about right. All in all I'd watch them every day or two and keep on doing what you're doing.

Ken

Thanks for the tips Ken,

I am actually using peatmoss....Is that a problem??? Is it possible to move the eggs to a different subtrate?? or will that kill them? I hear Vermiculite is a good subtrate, but it was unavailable to me at the time of the laying.

This is the first time I've tried to incubate eggs, and I have read various articles on the internet, but there are still so many things that I am not quite sure on.

I'm not certain peat is a bad idea but in the future I would use the vermiculite as it seems to be the medium of choice. At this point I would leave things as they are unless the peat starts to really fungus.

Avoid moving the eggs. Unlike bird eggs you don't want to move them from the original position they were laid. If you must move them make certain to keep them in their original postion in the new container.

Check out this site for general colubrid breeding info:
http://www.kingsnake.com/colubrid/index.html

Thanks again Ken, I will probably risk moving them to avoid the mold problem.

While keeping the eggs upright in their original positions, I observed that 3 of the eggs have become somewhat moldy on the bottom, while the others are fine.

Will the mold kill the eggs????, or should I leave them with the rest and hope for the best?

I plan on moving the eggs to a Vermiculite subtrate, and will be very careful when doing so. My hope is that the mold will go away with the fresh new vermiculite.

I will get a brand new container, and get the humidity and temperature at the same readings as the other housing. Then I will carefully, but quickly move the eggs from one to the other.

I am hoping this will work, but if you know that it won't, please tell me. I also need to know about the moldy eggs, as I want to try to salvage every egg I can.

Thanks!!

Usually, mold will not damage a healthy egg. Watch them closely for signs the mold is spreading rapidly. I have used moistened paper toweling to gently wipe the egg but caution should be used as it sounds like your problem is mold on the bottom. If the egg gets tipped/turned you could risk losing the baby.

I really appreciate the help Ken.

I have only a few more questions concerningthe eggs. I have transferred them all to vermiculite subtrate. however, the three of the eggs that were moldy on the bottom developed tough blister-like calluses where they got moldy; The rest of the egg shells looks fine. the three also had some sort of small worm-like larvea wher they were molded. So I wiped them off and transferred them to a clean sterile vermiculite container, and seperated them from the others to avoid cross-contamination.

My questions are: Does the blister on the eggs mean that they are bad????

And, if the snake inside dies, is there any way of telling it is dead??? will the egg rot or go bad shorlty after???

In other words if an egg looks to be doing fine, then does that mean that it is??????

Please get back with me asap. Thanks a bunch!!!