looking to breed

[miya]

i'm looking to breed my cornsnakes, i've checked online on a lot of site but they all say something different one says leave the eggs in the tank in a container the female can get in and out of and one says to take them out and put them in an incubator which should i do

[Snakefood]

I use the incubator method, when/if room runs out, I will still remove eggs from mamma and incubate them on the top shelf of my snake cabinet as it stays the right temp for incubation.

[miya]

so if i take them out do i need to buy an incubator or can i just put airation holes in the container and put it in a tank thats kept at the right temp?

[Snakefood]

you don't need an actual incubator, although having one makes keeping temps and humidity easier than doing it other wise.

Corn eggs should take approximately nine weeks to hatch when incubated at 85F, but ther is quite a bit of leeway there, lower temps will have them take longer, higher temps will have them hatch sooner, however going over 89/90F will kill the eggs.

humidity wise, the trick is to keep ambient humidity as close to 100% as possible without having dripping condensation in the incubator/egg tub.

You can make your own out of a styrofoam cooler (lots of instructions on the net) or just use tupperware in a constantly warm spot in your home (monitor humidity and temp obsessively if you choose this one.

I use a hova-bator which I picked up at a garage sale for $20, but even new they are not that expensive. Any eggs that will not fit in the hova-bator will be put into tupperware tubs with a few small holes, put on the top shelf of my cabinet which stays between 85-88F and monitored for humidity.

A good book to get that has an extensive section on breeding corns is "The Corn Snake Manual" by Bill and Kathy Love.

[Shmoges]

It all comes down to what are you comfortable with. If you leave them in the enclosure and let nature take its course and let mom incubate them it will work however circumstances are hard to replicate in the wild. Eggs may dry out, or get moldy if left in a clump, they could get too cold/hot and mom will not eat for months risking her health.

Incubators are in my honest opinion a safer lower mortality rate way of separating the mom and eggs so mom can start eating again and the eggs can have the best chance of hatching. Again this is just my opinion but separating the eggs is a very good idea but you have to mark them or be very careful to keep the top part up. It helps to remove slugs that with mold/decompose and risk viable eggs and makes it easier to candle them as they progress.

If you want a cheap reliable incubator look no further than the reptibator made by zoomed. Its light fool proof and will pay for itself after 1-2 clutches of even normal corns. It is however delicate and you have to be careful where you set it and taking off and replacing the lid because its made of styro foam. The thermostat and hydrometer work very well IMO though you can place analog meters inside the reptibator for back up monitoring. I myself don't like temps over 85 for corn eggs because I don't want the babies to develop to fast and get to big for the egg shell.

I don't think there is an easier snake to breed or incubate than corns??