Reptile & Amphibian Forums

That is what my snake room is at.

I am not as knowledgeable as most - but my eggs all look good. I believe that my eggs that went bad did so because of three reasons:

1. Infertile
2. I set them up too wet.
3. They became too dry.

I have had about 315 eggs laid so far (give or take 15). About 20 have gone bad...

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Peter Jolles
East Coast Colubrids
www.eastcoastcolubrids.com
peterjolles@eastcoastcolubrids.com

Peter,
Are those all getula eggs?
Great numbers man....I love to see success......
John Lassiter

My eggs are incubated in my snake room which varies from the mid 70's to the mid 80's. I do not use a heat source under my cages, just ambient air temps.

On my cal kingsnake eggs, I have only had a few (out of thousands) go bad during the incubation process, approx: 99% success rate.

In the same setting I do have more corn snake eggs go bad. Still well above a 90% success rate. Just not as good as my cal kings.

Now I have had a few cal kings over the years lay infertile eggs, which has nothing to do with incubation temps.

Also, I do not breed nearly as many cal kings as I use to. This year I have 25 clutches with 2 more to lay.

Kerby...

Kerby,
So there is no "cool side", "hot side", in your cages???? Isn't that radical????
Pat

I've been doing it this way for about 15 years on this scale of having approx 100 breeders. I do keep about 5 digital thermometers around my snake room. There is about a 4-5 degree difference from the bottom shelf to the top shelves of my snake racks. I do keep my males on the bottom racks with the females on the top racks. I'm sure there is some temp variance from the outer cage wall compared to the back cage wall. I have never measeure the temps for that though. My snake room does fluctuate from the 70's to the mid 80's. Heat kills, cool temps do not. Here in the high country of Arizona (5,000 ft) snakes are active from approx: March to November and there is almost always a 20-30 degree temp difference from highs to lows. Where I live we rarely get above 100 degrees but the night time temps can easily be 30 degrees cooler. For example: 90 degrees for a high in the afternoon and 60 degrees right before sunrise. There is NO WAY a snake where I live can find an 80 degree place to live during that 24 hour period. After sunset they may find a warm spot for a few hours but then the temps are going to fluctuate.

My snake room fluctuates somewhat like that with the coolest time being in the early morning.

This is just what has worked for me. None of us can mimmick nature in our snake rooms, although we try LOL

Kerby...

Kerby,
Yeah, I've been doin' the same thing for about thity years!!!! I just wanted to bring attention to the fact that a lot of us dont do the heat tape, heating pad, and what ever, when we have our critters in a room where we can cotrol the temp. of the room. And it works!!!!

Pat

I am always open for better ways to help our herp friends. But I also do not like to deviate from success. That's the old dog in me. LOL

Kerby...

Since I moved into a house and had my own snakeroom 3 years ago, I've found thats the easiest AND most cost efficient method to take care of all the snakes, so Im sticking with it. Soon I'll be building a garage with a snakeroom in the back and it'll be controlled by a hotelroom style AC/Heat unit. I wouldnt ever go back to heat pads, lights, or any of that mess. I've never owned heat tape before either.
I keep my room at about 82-84 degrees (old school thermometer)and everybody digests fine and doesnt act like its too hot.
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Tom
TCJ Herps
"The more people I meet, the more I like my snakes"

When you do the new room. Will you let the nite time temp go down or keep it at your 82-84 temp 24/7 ?

a bunch of years ago thats how I kept mine. A spare bedroom, a delonghi oil filled heater and no heat pads ( did use clamp lites for some animals to bask though)

One year I had a bunch of animals get eggbound and thought that maybe I was doing something wrong by not allowing a gradient. all the lit. stated you had to allow them to choose ( still sounds kind a reasonable)I just wanted the best for my animals.

Years later, and I have a large cellar and independently heated cages and racks.I think it would be way to expensive now to heat my whole cellar to those temps.

Lot of food for thought. Thanks for sharing. I ultimately want the best for my animals. breeding is not my emphasis anymore. I enjoy cashing in on the fruits of the labor of others and enjoying THE nicest looking animals!

Peter

You should put on of them der Oil Heaters in their and crank it up every 12 hours to simulate the wild ! ....Im kiddin Pete dont do it !!!! Seriously thats a ton o' eggs man from those pics you sent me the only thing more fertile than your snakes is you pappa ! Congrats on that as well very cute baby.

Keith
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Hey Peter, from what I can see there's many air holes in your egg boxes? You may want to try a few clutches in boxes with a lot less air flow. I myself use only a single hole on 2 ends on each box that are only one eigth of an in in diameter. I do open the boxes every few days and let a bit of air in them but I usually do not have to add water. I do use an incubator with a large fan, and it does have a large pan of water inside to help the humidity. That is a lot of eggs you produced this year, congrats on that and I hope they all hatch. Tom Stevens

I also have no thermal gradiant. kerby, I have noticed the same thing about diff. temps from bottom to top shelf.

Tom - Yeah, too many holes; but what you can't see is that I covered most with clear tape

Keith - Thanks man! 2 boys --- gonna try for a girl next time!

And those eggs are mostly rat snake (corn and yellow rat - my other ophidian love). I have about 70 king eggs and the rest are corn snake and yellow rat snake eggs.

Thanks,
Peter
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Peter Jolles
East Coast Colubrids
www.eastcoastcolubrids.com
peterjolles@eastcoastcolubrids.com

And those eggs are mostly rat snake (corn and yellow rat - my other ophidian love). I have about 70 king eggs and the rest are corn snake and yellow rat snake eggs

Best of both worlds.

Probably a joke to most of you but I think they are pretty. A het to het cross of a albino yellow rat with a speckled king. Babies will be albino.

I thik it better to have less air holes. This year I opted for more airholes in some of my egg boxes and I have had some boxes dry up pretty bad. Last year I used boxes with zero air holes and had much better success....less knats to