Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This is my first time breeding and I think I did all of the steps right. I’m just a little confused about incubation. I bought a Hovabator and got that all setup and I was planning on using a shoebox with hatchrite. My questions were: Do you put holes in the shoebox if so how many? How long do you wait to start taking the eggs from the female? How high should you fill up the shoebox with hatchrite? How much do you cover the eggs? I had 1 person tell me to completely cover them others tell me ½ and others tell me 1/3. Sorry I know it’s a lot of questions but I’m excited about breeding for the first time.
I would really appreciate any feedback. Thanks

There are many ways to successfully hatch eggs, including using no substrate at all. Eggs require a certain range of temperature and a certain range of humidity to hatch - and the range for both is fairly wide.

It would probably be easiest to half fill the shoebox with substrate and half bury the eggs in it. Though Corn Snakes often lay they eggs in a clump, meaning the eggs are all stuck together. It is best to leave them in the clump. This means the eggs on top will have no contact with substrate, while the eggs on the bottom will pretty much be completely buried in substrate.

As far as holes in the shoebox, it does matter much. If you open the box every few days for oxygen exchange, then you don't need holes. There's no "right" number of holes.

When taking eggs from the female, it doesn't matter, though most poeple feel that it's best to let her lay the complete clutch of eggs undisturbed. Also, you don't want to wait too long to remove the eggs - if they're in there for several days, they could begin to dehydrate. So as with temperature and humidity, there's a range of time when the eggs can be removed from the female. I'd simply wait until it looks like she's done laying all her eggs before removing them.

Tim

Third Eye Herp