Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi. We mated our male with my friend's female 31 days ago and sure enough, she is right now laying the eggs after a long day of digging. We have everything prepared as far as incubation goes. We're using a constant substrate temp of 28 C and we are keeping the substrate wet enough so it will clump but dry enough that you can't squeeze any water from it.

Alright here is my question. What should the relative humidity be in the incubation chamber? Because of the type of incubator we are using, I feel that humidity might be an issue because I've read about eggs molding. I just haven't come across anything on the subject.

You said..."We're using a constant substrate temp of 28 C and we are keeping the substrate wet enough so it will clump but dry enough that you can't squeeze any water from it"...you have the right idea for the substrate. I incubate mine around 74F and have done this for years. The temperatures fluctuate several degrees from daytime to night time because I don't use a proper incubator. I use a human heating pad (the kind that have 3 settings) and put a wooden frame over it with screen on the frame. They hatch at about 8 months. I have 100% hatch rate of fertile veiled eggs using this and about 95% survival rate of the hatchlings at 3 months of age.

You said..."What should the relative humidity be in the incubation chamber?"...never measured it...I can tell you that I use shoebox sized plastic containers. I punch 2 VERY tiny holes in the lid. I fill the containers about half full of coarse vermiculite prepared the way you said. I lay the eggs in rows in dents that I make with my thumb. There will be condensation on the lid and sides of the container....never been a problem. If you take the lid off too often and things start to dry out you will have to add a little water around the edges of the container (not on/near the eggs).

Good luck!

When we bred Veileds (we produced thousands each year) we used fine vermiculite (same as we currently still use with our Ball Python clutches) and added water to the point that I could pinch 1 or 2 drops of water when squeezing my fingers together. We incubated all of our veiled eggs in our shop under the work bench shelf at room temperature which was slightly warmer that 80 degree. We almost always had a 100% hatch rate with the babies normally being larger than the ones that we hatched in previous years using a hovabator. While there are those out there that hatch them using incubators we had awesome success with the room temp method. And normally the babies hatched with a just slightly longer incubation time that at a constant temp in an incubator.
-----

usark.org/join.php

....I would rather have a Bottle in front of me.....than a Frontal Lobotomy....

Rob Trenor
RK Reptiles
www.rkreptiles.com
www.rkreptiles.net
www.ballpythonmorphs.net

_____