Emergency Post!

[Lennycorn]

I understand where Josh is coming from.

But to the OP. Just do what you can but keep in mind that if you save the eggs you will have to take care of them. Even into adulthood if you can't find home for them.

On a side note. I wonder if that pet store is open.
You could ask them... WTF!!!

 

[VickyChaiTea]

Also think about whether or not you have the funds to house/feed/water an entire clutch of babies. Do you know what to do if they don't eat? Do you know how to euthanize deformed babies? Do you have homes for them all? Are you prepared to keep all of them if no one wants them? Can you afford emergency vet bills, or vet bills in general? Do you know how to care for hatchlings? Do you have space for a small/medium sized rack? Do you have the time to take care of them daily for the next however many weeks until you can get them homes?

If you said no to any of those questions, you're probably not ready to raise them. It's important for you to seriously think about not incubating the eggs.

 

[jessicalb]

Have you thought about checking craigslist or with any of your friends who are into herps if they have any extra equipment laying around? I mean if everything is closed, it's closed, and there's nothing you can do about that, but individuals who are into herps would likely be open to helping you out.

And I will say I could easily miss something in a large tank. I change the water, glance at the temps, and peek at the snake. I don't dig around or bug them until I take them out to play or weigh or swim or eat, which is definitely not daily as they eat fairly often. Don't beat yourself up. You seem very open to better advice and that is a good thing!

 

[smallet]

Not going to judge but some good advice has been given. I am pretty sure you live in rural Canada somewhere. Kijji just hasn't really caught on the US. Plus, others don't get that you can actually live that far from a walmart. But living where I do I can get it. In Canada it is possible to live where there are pet stores and walmarts are like 12 hours drive one way or more. But I digress. Can look up on search engine here as well for substrate less incubation. But the long and short of it is suspend the eggs on like aquarium glass beads or sterile rocks (boil them for 5 min then let them cool.) fill container half way up the rocks or beads with water. Keep container in warm place with lid on till you can find an incubator. Unless you have a place in your house that stays warm and the temp is constant, but not over 85 deg (for safety sake) and not under about 78. I think someone tried lower but wound up with issues. Someone will correct me I am sure to what the lowest temp successfully used was, I am to lazy to look it up. Without using moss or some other medium you will have to remove the water level when the eggs pip or find a way to prevent hatchlings from entering the water as they will drown when first born. Mark eggs lightly with a pencil so you know which way is up or the eggs will die if they have sat for too long, before moving so you can keep the eggs in the same orientation. Have seen discussions on how long is too long, but why take chances if you are serious. Remember hatchlings will need separate homes after their first shed at the latest. So be prepared. Also the cooler the temp they incubate at the long the incubation. Water direct to the eggs will drown the young in the egg. That is about all I can add that hasn't been already. Other than don't count on kijji for selling off your hatchlings. Success rates there are terrible.

 

[Draekaar]

OK what is tomorrow, because where I live next Monday the 30th is the holiday.
Yes you were probably correct in your thinking about people thinking you are not responsible. This time of year there are numerous emergency snake laid egg threads. Bottom line co-habbing is bad. So if you intend to co-hab babies once they hatch I would do a lot of searching on here. Also I would not be willing to give a baby snake to just any friend and with snake sales down unless you have some great morph?????

here in canada it's a long weekend because of queen victoria day (may 24 weekend is always a long weekend for us), which i think is on what her birthday was. pretty much all the stores are closed today and we get to watch lotsa fireworks

 

[Draekaar]

Oh! OK but don't you have Walmarts in Canada because even in the very small town I live in they are open on Christmas.

its a statutory holiday, christmas is not. government, post offices, etc, they're all closed, and so are pretty much every shopping centre. though timmies (and other fast food places) are open.

 

[Draekaar]

Also think about whether or not you have the funds to house/feed/water an entire clutch of babies. Do you know what to do if they don't eat? Do you know how to euthanize deformed babies? Do you have homes for them all? Are you prepared to keep all of them if no one wants them? Can you afford emergency vet bills, or vet bills in general? Do you know how to care for hatchlings? Do you have space for a small/medium sized rack? Do you have the time to take care of them daily for the next however many weeks until you can get them homes?

If you said no to any of those questions, you're probably not ready to raise them. It's important for you to seriously think about not incubating the eggs.

I think that's a bit harsh, granted it's a surprise to the person and they don't have supplies at hand, but they really want to try to make it work, and eggs take 60 days anyway, so they have 2 monthsish to at least try to learn about what will be necessary, find people around who can help them, and prepare all the necessary supplies like a bunch of f/t pinks, the separate tupperware containers, etc. You can always learn about these things. If in the time it takes for them to reach the hatchdate, they really don't feel like they're prepared, they can make the final decision then whether or not to try to hatch and raise them. I mean, they said there's only a couple of eggs, so it's not like its a full clutch of 17 eggs that needs raising.

You should try being more constructive and offer more useful options/suggestions before resorting to a final choice that wouldn't leave any options, and then you get the what-ifs. better to try and decide later it's not for you than to throw in the towel from the beginning, i think.

 

[bitsy]

better to try and decide later it's not for you than to throw in the towel from the beginning, i think.

The problem in this situaiton, is that by the point at which you "decide later" that it's not for you, you could have hatchlings to consider. They're a bit more difficult to deal with than eggs. My first clutch consisted of three - nearly gave me a breakdown and I was expecting them!

I don't think it's harsh advice, to think ahead and work out what you can cope with. Very happy if the outcome is that the eggs are incubated successfully, as long as the pros and cons are known and considered. Getting hatchlings first and trying to figure out what to do with them later (which is more the problem than learning how to care for them initially) is enough to turn anyone grey!

 

[susang]

its a statutory holiday, christmas is not. government, post offices, etc, they're all closed, and so are pretty much every shopping centre. though timmies (and other fast food places) are open.

I was with the it's a long drive Canada has a lot of wilderness... But Walmart is open today, home depot and others. I was ready to say Wow a country that does allow merchants to be greedy and open like in the US. So I don't feel so bad now, since things in Canada are open.

 

[starsevol]

I am so glad the OP is listening to us and is going to seperate the snakes. So many don't listen. So many reasons why co habbing is bad but this case might just end up ok
Just my story quick (for those of you who know this, sorry I'm repeating). I never liked co habbing, but had the heat unit in one of my racks blow out and nearly start a fire. Thinking that they would be ok, just til a new rack came in, I housed 2 males corns together. Well, the rack took 3 weeks to come in, and one of my males laid eggs....
then my poor girl became eggbound and even my vet couldn't save her.
My avatar is one of her surviving babies. Out of 14 eggs (not counting the ones in her that killed her) only 3 hatched. I kept all 3 babies but one passed away last year. I still have the one in my avatar, his name is Kato.

What I fing TRULY irratating is that we have here a newbie that never intended to produce eggs, while my snakes are throwing down slugfests right and left!! NOT FAIR!!!!!!!!!

 

[quidamphx]

Alright I'm going to slowly respond with what steps I've currently taken as I also read the up to date posts. Yeah I do live in Canada, not really rural but the only adequate store I have in town in Pet Paradise (actually I should take off adequate cause they BARELY pass when it comes to snake supplies) and a Wal-Mart, which stupidly closed yesterday at 5pm. It's not big enough to warrant anything other than the garden centre being open today.

I still had one of those tiny plastic vivs they give you with a baby snake, and two regular sized vivs, one of which was occupied by a Prairie King. I fully cleaned out the 2nd tank for the male corn and moved the praire king (who's still a very small snake) into that little tank until i can get a third tomorrow.

Btw when I suggested a cardboard box it wasn't your typical 4-flaps kind :grin01:, but I avoided that anyway.

It's quite hot and humid in my room so I hope despite my lack of preparedness there's a chance these eggs will be alright. Seeing as the sex of my snakes is not what I thought (at least one anyway), is it safe to assume the other is a male. How would I know if these eggs are fertilized, or does that step come later?

Rich, as far as the not noticing the eggs immediately, I do change their water often but if one of my snakes decides they want to hide while I do so, I'm not worried as it's pretty normal. The eggs were also buried making spotting them difficult. The poo check comes regularly after feeding, they have certain spots they use (water dish for one of them) so I don't have to go digging too often either. Also they were sexed, but I obviously need to have this done again by a more reputable source.

I've tried everything in town to no avail today, I even drove around hoping there was something I didn't know of that existed.

To Vicki, I can and would put in the effort to raise them, however there were two no's in that group. One being the deformed babies, I haven't seen an article about that yet in my searches, if you care to enlighten me I can make an informed decision. The second being vet bills, there isn't a vet within at least 75-80km that will deal with snakes. I had an issue with one of mine about a year back and searched extensively.

Craigslist and Kijiji are both good suggestions, there is one egg turning incubator about 100km away and that's it, plus it's from a place that says to call during business hours. Helpful.

I do have another issue, and I checked every couple hours throughout the night and day to try my luck... Uhh, I can't get the female to move. She's snugly wrapped around the eggs, and will not budge. Usually I'd play with the tip of the tail a bit and it's never failed to send a snake on its way. I got a nice tail whipping around this morning as a sign she really isn't impressed.

Any other methods you'd suggest?

 

[quidamphx]

Also, the ambient temperature in my room is 28C, and has fluctuated down to 25C throughout the night. (I happen to have a digital probe thermometer with memory at timed intervals... go figure).

 

[Christen]

You are going to have to unwind her from the eggs. I make it a two man job and my husband unwinds the snake while I hold the eggs steady. You are going to get side thumped as I call it. You can incubate at those room temps. I do and that is about what my eggs are sitting at right now. As far as fertility. If you are able to post a picture of the eggs we could give you an idea by looking and/or you can candle them (hold a small flash light to the eggs) and see if you can see any veins in the eggs.

 

[quidamphx]

Alright, as soon as I get her off and the eggs transferred I'll post the best pics I have. I won't assume my room will stay this temp though, proper incubation setup is still coming tomorrow. I'm just hoping it's been good enough so far to keep the eggs alright.

 

[Christen]

Yeah that temp is fine he biggest question is going to be humidity right now. But a pic will helps us make suggestions if that was an issue.

 

[quidamphx]

Oooh the tops off the eggs were fine but i think the rest are shot. They're turned orange and almost translucent near the bottoms, the area where my snake stayed wrapped around.

Absolutely terrible shot, but here it is. Let me know if these need to go straight into the trash...

Btw the colour is a bit off here, everything is lighter. The tops being an off white, but I still think these are no good. They don't look healthy.

 

[quidamphx]

Also can someone please explain how I can check my female to make sure she's not eggbound and is healthy?

 

[Christen]

Yeah those all look like slugs to me. Here is a great thread that Nanci did that shows a bunch of different fertile and unfertile eggs just in case the photo is really off. http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=112013 It looks like there is more under the carefresh, Are there? Do those look any better?

Usually, you can tell they are done by looking at them if they have anymore eggs. You wont see any more lumps or bumps particularly by the vent. But you can take a soft cloth in your hand and let the snake slither through your hand as you are putting slight pressure on the belly. If there are any eggs left you will be able to feel them. They feel like little beads.

 

[Shiari]

A couple of those eggs might be good (the larger, whiter ones) But those small skinny blotched things are dud eggs.

 

[quidamphx]

There's just the 5, all very stuck together. Either these eggs are unfertilized or just died from improper care? If so I'll get rid of them. Is there a chance there are more in a different area of the tank? Do snakes ever do that?

I can't feel any bumps or irregularities along her belly down to the tail. Nothing visible either.