Egg incubation frusteration...

[picklestick]

Hello, i am fairly new to the herp game.. I've been keeping cornsnakes (babies and adults) for about a year and a half now.. I have had several clutches of eggs slip through my unprepared fingers. When my first corns arrived, i was told one was a male and the other a female. Well when two weeks later both of them (male and female huh) dropped clutches i had no clue what to do.. I lost them both (clutches, not snakes).. Thinking i'd be ready the next time, i bought a hova bator incubator and lost that clutch probably because since both snakes were female, i can't see how the eggs could be fertile. And now i just bought a new breeder pair and have another on the way.. Can someone please tell me what the heck to do before i destroy some more eggs! I have pearlite, vermiculite, the hova bator and disposable tupperwares... I just don't know how to fit the pieces together! Help!!..

 

[Susan]

I've been breeding corns for 6 years now and have yet to buy an incubator. I live in Florida and have chosen to go the "easy" way...incubate on a shelf at "room temp". Of coarse, the room I use is my snake room, which is kept warmer than the rest of the house, i.e., temp range of upper 70's at night to mid-upper 80's during the day. This way, I don't have to heat my snake cages individually. It's been said that incubating at average "normal" room temp (somewhere in the 70's) is fine for corns, it just takes a little longer for them to hatch. Putting them on something warmer, such as the top of the refridgerator, will bring the temp up closer to the ideal range.

I incubate my eggs in moist sphagnum moss (a layer under and on top of the eggs). I mist the moss when needed to keep it moist (as much water as the moss will hold after being thoroughly soaked and wrung out as much as possible by hand). I also use disposable tupperware with small holes placed in it for ventilation (no larger than about 1/8 diameter holes...don't want any excaping newborns!). My females actually lay their eggs in this container. I just remove the snake afterward laying, do any re-arranging necessary, put the lid on, and set the container on a shelf in the snake room. I check it every week or two, count the days, and in about 9-10 weeks...babies!

 

[picklestick]

thanks for the info

Yeah, i keep my snake room in the upper seventies and was halfway thinking of just going that way.. I figure if i keep the eggs by my space heater, they'll stay pretty warm and consitently warm at that.. I got a digital thermometer I can use to check on that as well. But I really appreciate you getting back to me on it.. Also, do you think I'd have a problem using vermiculite or pearlite (hah, its all i have right now) and if i can use them, which of the two would be best.. Thanks again.. Ty..

 

[hosstheman]

I had the same thing happen to me the first time my corns mated
I wasn't prepared at all lost 13 eggs. It was rough because the second clutch of 6 hatched out fine and the result were unreal.
bred normal brown female with amel male and got 1 like mom, 2 like dad, 1 anery motley,1 beautiful amel or cremesicle stripe,and 1 amel hurricane motley. So it makes me wonder what could have been in those first 13.
Anyway take a look at my website this is how i done it. my house is very drafty so room temp incubation is out.

http://www.geocities.com/cornsnakeman2003/

click on breeding tips

Hoss

 

[Skye]

I use vermiculite, moistened in a 1-1 ratio with water by weight, and mixed well.

I found I had too many mold problems when I used sphagnum moss even though I thought it was meant to have anti-mold properties. Anyway, the vermiculite worked very well for me this year, and I will be using it again next year.

I use an incubator, kept at 82. Hatching occurs 60 day later.

Skye

 

[paulc]

I use vermiculite at 1.1 with water.
Temp. 28c (i dont know what that is in f).
four 3mm holes in container.
News paper covering eggs,( if paper dry add water).
I find that i do not need to add any more water with this method.

 

[picklestick]

Just wanted to say thanks

Hey, i just wanted to say thanks to everyone who replied to my thread.. The info varies quite a bit, but im deffinetly pulling together an idea of what i should be doing.. A friend of mine just told me how to build an incubator out of my old broken dorm sized fridge.. So im looking forward to adding that to my arsenal. I got some more snakes on the way too... Best wishes to everyone.. Ty..

 

[Skye]

Fatso - 28 C is 82 F - it is one of only two temperatures that you can switch the numbers around to get the conversion when going from C to F or vice versa. The other one is 16 C = 61 F.

Anyway, just wanted to let you know that we use the same temperature. I also do the paper on top thing - just use paper towels not newspaper. When it is dry I mist it to make it damp again.

Good Luck, picklestick

Skye

 

[Susan]

I've occasionally gotten mold growing in the sphagnum moss, but most often from bags left over from the previous year, even if unopened. It's never caused a problem with the eggs. I just remove the moldy moss and put in fresh. I used vermiculite when I was breeding veiled chameleons, and would end up with moldy eggs with that too.

I did try perlite one year with my chameleons, and hated it. The particles had more of a tendancy to get stuck on the new hatchlings, and was a real pain to get off.

 

[Skye]

thanks Susan,
that might have been my problem too - this wasn't freshly purchased moss as I bought a whole 20lb. bale a while back, and have been using it ever since.
I thought it would make more economic sense to buy in bulk, but I guess it didn't help if "older" moss tends to grow more mold. Anyway, I don't use it for incubation now, and have no plans to use it for that purpose in the future - I'll stick to vermiculite. I do use it in the laying tubs though.
I had heard bad things about perlite being a pain so you have just reinforced that opinion.
Skye