Incubation Question!

Teal · 06-30-12, 07:26 PM

Hey yall! I'm brand new here, and I did a search as thoroughly as I could looking for the answer to my question.. but I didn't find anything quite specific enough, so I hope yall don't mind me asking I apologize for the length of this.. I've NEVER dealt with eggs before, so I'm a bit excited and nervous! If you want to skip straight to the question, just scroll to the last paragraph

Exactly a week ago I caught a lovely California Kingsnake. I would estimate her to be about 3.5 feet long.

I brought her home and set her up in one of the many tanks I have. I've kept a few reptiles before (I mostly keep arachnids), so I had all the equipment.

I decided to try to feed her, since she's been here a week... last night I put her into a feeding box (a clear plastic container with moist paper towels), and was going to go get some mice for her today. Why I put her into the feeding box last night, I couldn't tell you! But...

You can imagine my surprise when I woke up and she was nestled around a clutch of eggs!

Had she been in her enclosure, she would have had access to her decent sized water bowl, which I've read they sometimes lay in if there isn't a lay box.. so I am really glad I put her in the feeding box last night!

Anyways, there are 7 eggs stuck together and one apart. I marked the tops of them all, so they wouldn't get rotated (though I only plan on handling them to candle them once or twice in the future). I candled the apart one, even though it looked fine, because I've heard sometimes slugs will get pushed aside.. but the apart one is fertile. I candled a few of the stuck ones as best as I could, but I've never handled snake eggs before so I was being extra gentle. The stuck ones I candled are fertile, as well.

So, in a near state of panic, I watched a LOT of YouTube videos on how to make a homemade incubator. It just so happened I had a styrofoam cooler, so I put a heating pad at the bottom, put a little shelf in, and put the plastic container with eggs on that. For medium, I used dampened coco fiber (I THINK... it comes in a brink and expands in water? It's what I use for substrate for my arachnids). But IMMEDIATELY the eggs started to dimple! So, I went through all my stuff and found a bit of moss that I had used in a shed box for a snake.. so I damped that, and put it over them. Then I put a moist paper towel over that.

My question is - when should I start seeing the eggs plump back up, if the humidity is okay? I don't want to keep adding moistness, only for it to end up being too much... but I really don't want them to dry out, either! The temperament in the little container is 85F. Thanks for any help!

Snakefood · 06-30-12, 09:03 PM

I have never bred kings but do breed corns. I incubate at temps between 82-84. I cover the eggs completely in damp moss and mist daily. those that dimple usually plump up in 24-48 hrs. corn hatchlings usually incubate for 50-70 days.

Like I said this is for corns and I don't know if Kings are different

Teal · 06-30-12, 10:13 PM

Thank you for your reply! I was hoping it would be awhile to see results (otherwise that would mean I was still doing it wrong!)... so I've got them all set up and I'm not going to mess with them again until tomorrow and hopefully there will be some improvement. I've been checking on them almost constantly, trying to get the temperature correct and making sure it's moist and I'm sure that's been affecting the humidity more than anything too.

Now I'm concerned about the placement of the embryos though. The one that is apart, the embryo appears to be on the side, and ever so slightly on the bottom. I'm being told that's really bad? I didn't really pay attention to the others, but I think they were similar? I didn't rotate them at all...

Snakefood · 06-30-12, 10:17 PM

I dont rorate the eggs at all, I leave them the same way mamma did. you lose some, that's the way of things. But in a good clutch a good percentage will survive

Teal · 06-30-12, 10:46 PM

Thanks again! A few people told me to turn them... but I just couldn't do it. If she accidentally turned one before I got to it and I lose it... like you said, that's the way of things.

Lankyrob · 07-01-12, 06:41 AM

Could you please not type all in bold, makes it very hard to read - thank you

Gregg M · 07-01-12, 08:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Snakefood

I have never bred kings but do breed corns. I incubate at temps between 82-84. I cover the eggs completely in damp moss and mist daily. those that dimple usually plump up in 24-48 hrs. corn hatchlings usually incubate for 50-70 days.

Like I said this is for corns and I don't know if Kings are different

This is not a very good way to incubate reptile eggs. It is never a good idea to mist eggs. Reptile eggs do not do well in wet conditions.

To the OP,
When you set up your eggs using the burried or half burried method, the eggs should be put into perlite with a 1 to .8 in a container with an air tight lid. Add 2 to 4 small holes in the lid to keep the pressure the same between the incubation container and outside environment. With kings and corns, I do not even bother putting them in the incubator. The snake room is between 79 and 82 degrees and I use my SIM containers and all eggs that are fertile hatch out. The eggs should not be denting at all during incubation until they are about to hatch. There should never be a need to mist or add water at any point during incubation. If you need to, your set up is very wrong and your eggs will more than likely die during incubation.

marvelfreak · 07-01-12, 10:35 AM

1012.gif

Nice to have you join us.

beardeds4life · 07-01-12, 12:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lankyrob

Could you please not type all in bold, makes it very hard to read - thank you

YES! I agree.

Teal · 07-01-12, 03:43 PM

I always type in bold on forums. Old habit!

Thank you for the welcome, marvelfreak

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gregg M

This is not a very good way to incubate reptile eggs. It is never a good idea to mist eggs. Reptile eggs do not do well in wet conditions.

To the OP,
When you set up your eggs using the burried or half burried method, the eggs should be put into perlite with a 1 to .8 in a container with an air tight lid. Add 2 to 4 small holes in the lid to keep the pressure the same between the incubation container and outside environment. With kings and corns, I do not even bother putting them in the incubator. The snake room is between 79 and 82 degrees and I use my SIM containers and all eggs that are fertile hatch out. The eggs should not be denting at all during incubation until they are about to hatch. There should never be a need to mist or add water at any point during incubation. If you need to, your set up is very wrong and your eggs will more than likely die during incubation.

I don't have access to perlite or vermeculite (sp?). I don't know what "SIM containers" are. I don't have a snake room - I simply have MY room, and the temperature fluxes quite a lot from low seventies to low eighties depending on what part of the day I wake up in and then get the air cooler on.

So, thank you for telling me that my set up is "very wrong" - I watched a lot of YouTube videos and everyone does their set ups just a little bit differently. So, if you have any advice on how to improve mine to give my eggs the best chance, working with the materials I have... THAT would be nice.

snake man12 · 07-01-12, 06:21 PM

I lightly dampened kitchen towel over the eggs would work for some added humidity. Oh and I like bold

Gregg M · 07-01-12, 07:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Teal

I don't have access to perlite or vermeculite (sp?). I don't know what "SIM containers" are. I don't have a snake room - I simply have MY room, and the temperature fluxes quite a lot from low seventies to low eighties depending on what part of the day I wake up in and then get the air cooler on.

So, thank you for telling me that my set up is "very wrong" - I watched a lot of YouTube videos and everyone does their set ups just a little bit differently. So, if you have any advice on how to improve mine to give my eggs the best chance, working with the materials I have... THAT would be nice.

Well I did tell you what would give you the best chance of success with your eggs. I gave you a run down of the matrials you need. You can watch you tube until your eyes fall out of your head. That will not help you to incubated reptile eggs properly. You are getting advice first hand from me. A successful breeder who hatches a couple of hundred snakes and lizards a year.

You are working with a poor choice of materials. See how successful you are at fixing a car engine with a tree branch. Thats about the same odds you will have when incubating eggs on coco fiber. Anyone has access to perlite. You can get it at any garden center/home depot/lowes/k-mart/wal-mart. You should have atleast one of those no more than 15 miles away from your house.

My post was not ment to be NICE. My post was to tell you what you are doing wrong so you can fix it.
You dont like what I have to say, by all means, ignore what I am telling you and go watch more you tube vids while your snake eggs continue to cave in and collapse.

Teal · 07-01-12, 08:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by snake man12

I lightly dampened kitchen towel over the eggs would work for some added humidity. Oh and I like bold

Thank you! I have dampened paper towels both over the moss, and over the lid of the container.. I'll try an actual towel to see if that helps! (and it's taking every bit of willpower I have to not put the html tags for bold at the start and end of my posts! lol)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gregg M

Well I did tell you what would give you the best chance of success with your eggs. I gave you a run down of the matrials you need. You can watch you tube until your eyes fall out of your head. That will not help you to incubated reptile eggs properly. You are getting advice first hand from me. A successful breeder who hatches a couple of hundred snakes and lizards a year.

You are working with a poor choice of materials. See how successful you are at fixing a car engine with a tree branch. Thats about the same odds you will have when incubating eggs on coco fiber. Anyone has access to perlite. You can get it at any garden center/home depot/lowes/k-mart/wal-mart. You should have atleast one of those no more than 15 miles away from your house.

My post was not ment to be NICE. My post was to tell you what you are doing wrong so you can fix it.
You dont like what I have to say, by all means, ignore what I am telling you and go watch more you tube vids while your snake eggs continue to cave in and collapse.

I don't care if you're rude - I'm not here for niceness, I'm here to get advice on how to rear these snake eggs into hatching.

We don't even have a Home Depot or Lowe's in this COUNTY. I can get to a Wal Mart in about 45 minutes, though. I wasn't aware that it was a material available at Wal Mart until now.

Your 1 to .8 - That is perlite to water ratio, yes?

Teal · 07-02-12, 12:09 AM

Okay, so I went to the Wal Mart and they didn't have perlite or vermiculite.

Tomorrow I'll go to the other end of the county... there's a nursery, and I'm hoping they'll have some.

How long do you think the eggs can be how they are before they are too far gone? They're dimpled, but not caving. Obviously, I'm going to try to get some proper medium as soon as I can.. but if no where in the county has it, I'll have to see if I can get some sent to the post in the town I'm going to tomorrow.

Snakefood · 07-02-12, 08:46 AM

until then just make sure that the moss you're using is damp and sourounds the eggs. There's more than one way to skin a cat, and everyone does things a little different. With my clutch of corn eggs, I used nothing but the moss and I misted the moss everyday (not the egss as they were UNDER the moss) and kept them at proper temps. I had a very good hatch rate and only lost the ones that looked like slugs when they were laid, so I don't think I killed any aggs by using moss and misting. The hatchlings that came out were healthy and are eating great!!