Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello, I accidently ran over a red rat snake's head and stopped to see if it was ok. Well the little girl didn't make it but i noticed her belly looked like she had eggs. So i opened her up and she had 8 eggs that looked fully developed. I gathered the eggs and put them in a coffee can filled with potting soil until i could get all the info i need to hatch them.. can someone give me a full run down on how to build a quick incubator, materials, and temp. they need to be at.

Where talking corn snake correct? Southeast USA?
Incubator:
An aquarium or cooler; fill with several inches of water. Heat with an aquarium heater or human heat pad underneath (won't work on the insulated cooler) to approximately 83F.
Set a brick in the middle to form a platform. Place your container with the soil onto the platform. You can replace the soil with more traditional incubation mediums if you'd like, and they'd be vermiculite or perlite. The substrate should be moist, but not damp or wet.
Cover the contraption with a solid lid to remain humidity. Measure it if you can, a 90-95% humidity should work. Barring a hygrometer, just judge by eye that there is a little condensation on the sides of the aquarium, but it should not be solidly dripping wet. Check on the eggs every week or so, opening up the incubator to get a bit of fresh air in. Doing so too often will reduce your humidity frequently.

Release hatchlings immediately to a secure location very close to where the adult was found. Offering them captive prey or mixing to any extent with captive animals (moreso herpetiles), will create the chance of introducing exotic disease into the local wild snake population.

Good luck, and drive carefull!

Ian