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Completely New and Unexpected

terrysangel79

terrysangel79

TVM Reptiles
Hello, I am new to the group, as I was frantically searching for info on what to do with corn snake eggs....You see, we recently bought a female albino corn, and about 3 weeks later (which was just a few days ago) we ended up with eggs!!! Had NO idea that she was gravid, because I hadn't researched into breeding, as we are just starting to increase our collection.

Anyway, onto the point of this posting...We have done what we can, to keep the eggs healthy, and have an incubator on the way. Right now we have the eggs in a plastic shoe box, with damp peat moss. Our room temps usually stay in the lower 80's, and we have a heat light for when the temps drop...Ummm, the temp in the box usually ranges from 79 degrees to about 83 degrees...Are my eggs going to be okay??....Do I want to switch them into the incubator when it gets here, or will that somehow damage them, killing the embroyos??

Also, any info that you have to share on how to care for newborns would be GREATLY appreciated!! Are they hard to feed starting out?? Do they need to be seperated right when they hatch?? When are they old enough to sell, should we decide to??...How am I going to tell what kind they are, like common, albino, ghost, and all those others??......I have no idea what she was bred with!!!

Anyway, thanks!!!

terrysangel79
 
you have got quite a few questions huh!...LOL

first off, welcome to the forum. your in for quite a ride!!!

number one/ it seems like you are doing ok with the eggs at this point until the incubator gets here...you must have done some researching? the temps are good. i keep mine at like 81-84 degrees. they are in an incubator so that i can keeps my temps exactly as i want them with out any fluctuation. second/ you just want to make sure there is a good amount of humidity within the egg container/incubator contraption that you made for yourself. and if you would feel more comfortable with the eggs in the incubator when it gets there you most certainly can switch them to it. just dont turn the eggs upside down or anything cause that will drown the embryo.

about the hatchlings....that is a good while away for you but, each little hatchling may or may not be a pain in the butt. many of here can attest to some real winners when they come out of the egg!!!LOL some times i wanna just tell them to go back in the egg and come back out when you are ready to eat!!! sometimes it just happens where they are picky eaters to start...that is whole new thread for remedies for that problem.

that should be good for on my part...my fingers need a breather form all this typing. i am sure someone else will chime in as well...

Good luck and stick around here and you will be much more comfortable when the eggs are due to hatch.
 
It sounds like you have things under control. Just watch the humidity and temps and they should be fine. Mine hatch at around 60-64 days at 82 degrees.
 
Hi and welcome to the forum. Congratulations on your clutch of eggs. Always neat to have such fun surprises, hey?

As has been said, it sounds like you have them under control at this time. As long as they are in a sealed container with moist bedding and with heat in the proper ranges it doesn't matter if they are shelf incubated or put into an incubator.

If I were you I would do a bunch of searches on the topics you are questioning. Many of these topics have lots of good info already on the forum. There is a search button on the box above the message boxes here. I think you will find it very useful, I know I did when I first started out.

Good luck with the eggs. Since you don't know what the male was you may have some fun surprises. :)
 
oh yeah as dianne said ...you are gonna have some nice surprises when they hatch so make sure you put up pics!!!
 
Your room temps sound fine, but should you prefer to put them in the incubator, there is no problem with this. One word of caution, though: Set up the incubator and let it run for a few days with a min/max thermometer probe in it. You want to be sure it's working properly and the temps are stable before transfering the eggs in, obviously. Most incubators take a bit of tweaking before they stablize out at whatever temp you choose. I personally don't use them, just a shelf at 82 degrees.
 
A couple of tips (from someone who's just hatched his first clutch!):

(i) don't assume the incubator will automatically keep your temp where you want it even when it appears to have stabilised. Mine has an electronic pulse proportional thermostat, but I still needed to tweak the knob a couple of times to stop the temp spiking;

(ii) eggs can hatch quicker than you think. I incubated mine at 82F, and they started to hatch on day 51.

Good luck


David
 
Thanks so much for all of your help!! *LOL* Yes I have dozens of questions!!!

Thank God for computers and internet, as that was my salvation in this case!! I had done research on all of the snakes habitats that we have, humidity and such, but passed over the breeding parts, as I didn't expect to need that info quite so soon..Silly me!! *LOL* The only reason I knew what to do with the eggs was from searching the computer, but didn't really know if what we had done would be okay, so again Thank You!!! Sounds like we should be okay for now...

Hurley>> How much success do you have with just sitting them on the shelf like I have done?? Like if you have 10 eggs to start with that all look good, do they all hatch??

I am so excited!!! Wasn't planning on getting into breeding until next year, well cooling and such this year, but this unexpected suprise has me wanting more!! *L* Guess that's what unexpected suprises do for me!! *L* Did the research all Friday evening after discovering eggs, and than when my husband got home (works swings) made a late night call to Walmart for the necesaries..*L*

Thanks again!!! Will try to post pics in a few months when they hatch, although I will have to figure out how on this site....
 
I get darn near 100% hatch rates by just putting them in barely damp vermic in an air tight box on a shelf at 82 degrees. My boxes are clear, so if water drops are forming on the lid, I take the lid off and reduce humidity by wiping the water away. (Sometimes takes a couple times.) If it's too dry, i.e. the eggs start to lose turgor, then I just add a little along the side and let it dissipate. I bury the eggs 3/4 of the way in vermic, but I haven't noticed a difference between those on top of the vermiculite and those buried...in a closed system, humidity reaches the same plane pretty much everywhere with time. There is more than enough air in the egg box to last those eggs beyond incubation, but I usually do open the box time to time if I need to adjust humidity in the system.

Really, the only ones that don't hatch are those that shouldn't. You get one here and there no matter what you do. I did have one entire clutch go bad, but those eggs weren't right from the git-go.
 
terrysangel79 said:
Hurley>> How much success do you have with just sitting them on the shelf like I have done?? Like if you have 10 eggs to start with that all look good, do they all hatch??
Click to expand...


Obviously I am not hurley, nor am I answering for her, but my first and second clutch of eggs I hatched out by sitting them on a shelf. the first clutch I had a little too wet, and most of the eggs died out. only hatched one snake out. The second clutch was of 6 eggs, and I hatched out all 6.

But, the temp in my ouse usually stays between 80 and 85 degrees with a very high humidity during the summer. (I live in a 100+ year old house that is un-insulated and not air conditioning nor heat. so the inside is just like the outside.)
 
I always do the "shelf" method. I figure if the "shelf" works, why spend money on something else? Last year my cornsnake eggs (first year) were all too moist and I got near 100% deformity rate. (My kingsnake eggs were just fine). This year I made the vermiculite BARELY damp, with only a very little bit of moisture.... and I kept an eye on the humidity levels. The inner lid surface got just the tiniest bit moist, but never developed any droplets of water. There is a little spray of moisture on the inner "walls" of the airtight containers. I check on all the eggs once every week or two. Give them a breath of fresh air, remove any eggs that have gone bad. (I have 8 clutches of eggs right now... 3 corn and 5 kingsnake). I believe that when the moisture and temperature are in the "ballpark" the eggs just do their own thing without help from us humans. My first clutch is on day 64 now! (ooh, the excitement!). I can only hope that my corns this year fare better than last year.

Good luck with your hatchlings, please come back and post any/all questions, the people here are VERY helpful!
 
My first couple of clutches I managed between 30-60% hatch rate.

Got the setup a bit better now ... more stable. First clutch this year is just finishing hatching it looks like it's going to be my first ever 100% clutch! 11 out of their eggs and remaining 3 have all pipped so I'm well pleased. :)

Stick with it. Your temps sound OK, trick seems to be get the humidity right. Damp but not wet ....

Good luck! :)
 
Forgot to say .... I use a spare tank I have with a side and overhead heat source. Inside the main tank, I put smaller tubs with each clutch in them. I can get a max of four clutches in there, I have three on the go this year.

I don't use totally airtight containers ... if it's totally airtight I found it harder to avoid mould. I only have 5 small air holes in the lid, one at each corner and one in the centre.
 
dave

:-offtopic

I am a new member to the site and hope that i can receive help with my problem, i have read on the internet that there is a such a thing as a dwarf corn snake which grow to 3 feet/1 meter but have never heard of this before and wondered if anybody could shed some light on this for me?
I currently have 2 corn snake an adult who has now apprached the 5 feet mark who is the more traditional darker orange and a smaller 1 and a half to 2 year corn snake which is more brownish purple (picture will follow asap).

at this moment in time i will be adopting 4 recently hatches corn snakes and as i am relatively new to this but loving every minute would like to know how well they will live together and if so how long for?

i would appreciate the help

cheers

dave
 
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