Reptile & Amphibian Forums

In your opinion does the exposure of incubating eggs to light have an effect on embryonic development in kingsnake eggs?

Thank you

No sir, at least not normal room lites. I have no experience with any other lites so I cannot answer about them.

I do not like to expose eggs to the bright sun, but I have no reason or negative experience for that, it just doesn't seem right. Thanks FR

I once had a corn snake that was very abberant in pattern and scalation. It was given to me by a herpetologist who had collected a gravid female. He let her lay the eggs before he preserved her. The eggs sat on his covered patio and for about 1/2 hour per day, right at sunset, the sun shined into the jar. Somehow this one egg survived to hatch, but I'm sure these abbernacies were caused by the heat and probably the ultraviolet rays that reached these eggs each day. I guess this egg was at the bottom of the clutch and was thus somewhat protected.
Jim McLean

Thanks for the quick response, it was just a thought provoked by your recent threads about nesting.

Thank you, Craig

Forgive me, this is a little OT, but what does "aberrant" mean?

I'd think that since wild snakes tend to try and provide their eggs with covered shelter, it'd probably be the safest thing to just avoid elongated periods of direct sunlight exposure.

Straying from the right or normal way; deviation from the usual or natural type.....

In the herp world aberrant refers to something patterned/colored etc.. from the norm.

Kerby...