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I just put all my adults into brumation this week and Im sad to see em go but I wont miss cleaning their cages lol. Anyway after talking to folks Im thinking of changing my incubation medium. Ive used vermiculite and sphagnum moss in the past but I think Im gonna try perelite(sp). Seems the consensus is it keeps the moisture off the eggs. Anybody use something different ?

Keith
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If your already using vermiculite, then I would recomend sticking with it, theres nothing wrong with it.

With that said, I use pearlite, but I do so because if the type of eggs I normally incubate. I normally incubate varanid eggs. With them, incubation times can reach over a year. Also, they are very sensitive to excess moisture and/or condensation.

Kingsnake eggs or most colubrid eggs are short term and not ver sensitive. So there is no real reason to switch.

But if you do, be careful, as they are opposites of eachother. With vermiculite, when it starts to dry out, the eggs dent from the top, so its easy to see. With pearlite, its the opposite, they can cave in from the bottom and not be seen until too late.

Consider, each medium as a learning curve.

You are right, vermic holds moisture and egg emissions, on the egg, where pearlite lets the moisture drop to the bottom of the box and allows humidity to surround the egg. I believe the latter is more natural. But it does not make it more dependable in an incubator.

Consider, kingsnake eggs are amoung the easist most tolerant eggs in the reptile kingdom. They are relatively fast, no diapause, take denting and rehydration well. And can be turned, dropped, and used to play billards with. Once I had a pet ferret steal some cornsnake eggs, drag them out of the snake room, into the living room and stuff them inside the couch. I found them, they were full of little tooth holes, and they still hatched.

Good luck, FR

Good points I never thought of them denting from the bottom. I actually have been using Sphagnum the last few years. Ive been getting 100% hatch rates but the moisture was a bear to control with some eggs really swelling with excess moisture. I think I will try the Perelite and thanks for the response.

Keith
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I like Frank's response too, but I have a little different response. One thing I noticed about my eggs in the past and also a problem for lots of others was that we were putting too much water in with our vermiculite. Since that time I've reduced the % of water mixed in and have better results with no molding and no lost eggs, other than infertiles.

I've thought about using perlite for several yrs, but have always been a little afraid to use it. The reason is because perlite is somewhat abrasive for the hatchlings when they try to burrow down after coming out of the egg. I also think it's natural for a small amt of moisture to be in contact with the egg or eggs from the vermic. But for the sake of experimenting and reducing the amt of contact bt. eggs and vermiculite, I have tried mixing small amounts of perlite with my vermiculite the last couple years. It has worked very well and I'm pretty happy with this medium (@ 75% vermiculite, 25% perlite).

One more thing is that I've always used the small grained vermiculite. I'd like to try the large grained vermiculite, but I've never been able to locate that. I've been to several nurseries and pet stores and looked at several websites that have supplies. I think that might work better also, and if anyone knows where I can order it, I'd appreciate the info.

When I moisten my vermiculite I use new vermic, so it'll be close to sterile, and moisten it a little at a time. As soon as it starts clumping into a moist ball I stop adding water. If it starts to dry out too much during incubation, or the eggs start to look shriveled, I add a little water to the incubation box. In other words I experiment to find the % of water that works best for me w/o overdoing the water part.

As far as brumation goes, I like to start just before Christmas, if possible, which is the official start of winter. Some snakes, like a couple of my Eurasian species, won't wait that long, so I have to start them earlier, but most of my snakes will wait. From the end of Dec to the end of March is three months which is a good enough cool time for most species, and they come out near the beginning of April, which is a time we are getting more humidity and warmth outside in n. MI. The snakes like this a lot. This is only in reference to my adults, btw.

Just thought I'd through my 2 cents worth in while I have a little time to spend here

TC

Hi Keith, I like both vermiculite and perlite and have had good success with both. A few years back I was having trouble finding vermiculite locally and switched over to perlite. Like Frank mentioned they have different characteristics and getting the proper humidity takes a little bit of trial and error at first but both are just as easy to work with, just a little different. I usually moniter things closely for the first week or so and proceed from there. Phil

hey keith,
i see that you're considering making changes with your incubation routines, are you also thinking of making changes in your brumation cycle or do you plan to keep it status quo?

daveb