Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello, I have had my speckled kingsnake, Cosmo, for about 1 month now. She was wild-caught, and she had been eating very good until 2 weeks ago when she stopped eating. I think I know why now. To my surprise when I came home tonight, I found 9 eggs in her cage!! I haven't decided whether or not to incubate the eggs myself or let a local, trusted pet shop take over, but in the meantime I need to keep these guys alive and healthy, and I do not know the first thing about snake egg incubation.

I have read some threads here and there on this site, mostly about incubation temperatures, but I am in need of some additional basic information to get started. How soon can the eggs be handled, what kind of container and substrate should I use to store them, should they be buried, partially exposed, or fully exposed....the list goes on and on. Any and all information I can get will be great. I'll keep reading some older posts in the meantime.

Also, Cosmo has been "bathing" in her water bowl a lot for the past few days. Is this normal behavior when/after carrying eggs? Just wondering.

Sorry I don't have pictures of Cosmo or her egg clutch, my video camera isn't working right now. Thanks in advance for any help!

- Unexpectedly proud dad

Get a Sterilite or Rubbermaid plastic shoe box and some vermiculite (available at garden stores, nurseries). Put a few little holes in the top of the shoe box (I use a 3/16 drill bit, but you can use a soldering iron and melt the holes too). Fill the shoebox about 1/3 full with vermiculite, then mist it with a spray bottle of water. The ratio you are going for is 1:1 by weight. If you don't have a scale to measure the appropriate amount of water to vermiculite, then try this: 2 cups of vermiculite weighs about 3.3 oz. One fl oz of water weighs (surprise!) about 1 oz., so three fl oz of water to 2 cups of vermiculite is about right. Most spray bottles are graduated in oz.

After you have your shoebox prepared, with your vermiculite/water, Note the orientation of the eggs before you move them. Take a soft lead pencil or a sharpie and make a mark at top center of each eggs if they are separated. If they are clumped together, do not try to separate them, just mark their orientation as a unit.Now carefully pick the eggs up and place them gently in the vermiculite and bury them up to about mid-line with the marks you made facing straight up. Handle them gently. If they are clumped together, just put them in in the same orientation you found them and bury the clump up to about the top line of the bottom most eggs.

Now put the lid back on the shoebox and find a place on a shelf that stays around 80 degrees f. If it varies between 75 degrees and 88 or so degrees, that will be fine for most colubrid eggs (like your king snake). You will need to check the moisture in the shoebox every 4 or 5 days or so. If it is drying out a little, just lightly mist the vermiculite around the eggs. Avoid wetting the eggs themselves. Now just wait.....