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Help with hatchlings

aitchjay

aitchjay

Crash & Coco.
Hi, this is our first batch of eggs. We are on day 44 and 16 of the eggs look pretty good. I just don't think I'm ready for the day they hatch. I've got boxes to put them in (the ones you get crickets in). I'm just not sure about how to heat them when they hatch or when I should take them out of the incubator. I currently have 4 boxes in the incubator, each with 5 or 6 eggs in them. Any help would be appreciated.
 
Well I think there is a breedng FAQ around here somewhere... That should have some answers. Also I think most cornsnake care books have good section on breeding, and caring for eggs and hatchlings as well.

So I assume these are what you have for the hatchlings: http://www.cosycritters.com/shop/images/575035.jpg

The snakes will probably be fine in those for a while but be careful, I remember hearing of a snake getting out through the clear plastic top. I dont remember the circumstnaces though.

I would say for heating you should line the back of a shelf or two with 3 or 4 inch flex watt and simply place the hatchling cages a little less than half over the flew watt.

When the eggs hatch around day 60 you can remove them from the egg box as soon as the get all the way out of the egg. As far as I know there is no reason to leave them in any longer. Of course they will be perfectly content in the egg box as well for a few days so you have an easy window to move them into their new homes.

One other thing to think about is what you will do with the snakes later on. Do you have homes/buyers waiting? Something like that.

Good luck with them!
 
Well here goes, I check my incubator once a day from about 55 days onwards, the hatchlings will start making slits (pipping) and poking their noses out, when they are ready to hatch. So far this year mine have started pipping at days 64 and 63 (two different clutches), they then take approximately 24 hours before actually leaving the egg, this is the time when they absorb the yolk that's left, which will sustain them for the first week or so of life, so try not to disturb them too much at this time, so they don't leave the egg too soon.

Each day when I check the incubator after pipping has started, I remove any hatchlings that have left their eggs, being careful not to disturb the other eggs and place each one in it's own tub, with tissue liner, a water bowl and half toilet roll tube for a hide.

I then use a bookcase as a hatchling rack and provide back heat using a heatstrip (cricket boxes can be stacked on top of each other when using back heat, as opposed to belly heat), controlled by a thermostat and the temp measured with a digital thermometer.

The hatchlings will shed approximately 7 to 10 days (sometimes sooner), after hatching and after that shed is when I offer their first feed.

Other people do things slightly different but this is what works for me :)

Hope that's helped some and good luck!
 
tbtusk said:
Well I think there is a breedng FAQ around here somewhere... That should have some answers. Also I think most cornsnake care books have good section on breeding, and caring for eggs and hatchlings as well.

So I assume these are what you have for the hatchlings: http://www.cosycritters.com/shop/images/575035.jpg

The snakes will probably be fine in those for a while but be careful, I remember hearing of a snake getting out through the clear plastic top. I dont remember the circumstnaces though.

I would say for heating you should line the back of a shelf or two with 3 or 4 inch flex watt and simply place the hatchling cages a little less than half over the flew watt.

When the eggs hatch around day 60 you can remove them from the egg box as soon as the get all the way out of the egg. As far as I know there is no reason to leave them in any longer. Of course they will be perfectly content in the egg box as well for a few days so you have an easy window to move them into their new homes.

One other thing to think about is what you will do with the snakes later on. Do you have homes/buyers waiting? Something like that.

Good luck with them!
Click to expand...

I don't think they are the cricket boxes that aitchjay is talking about, I believe he's talking about the tubs the livefood comes in, when you buy it from a rep shop over here in the UK :)

Also I don't believe we have flexwatt in the UK but we can get heat strips, very similar but already wired, or heat cable :)

I do agree with you about having homes or buyers set up before they hatch, or very soon after, otherwise he could end up feeding a lot of hungry mouths for the next few months or so :)
 
Thanks for replies, very helpful information. Has anyone got a picture of how they are keeping their new borns. Thanks for the bookshelf idea, I'll definately use that, I feel a bit silly for not thinking of back heat, I just knew I didn't want to put them straight on a heat pad.
 
Ok, just for you, I took a couple of pics of my ghetto rack :D
 

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Susielea said:
I don't think they are the cricket boxes that aitchjay is talking about, I believe he's talking about the tubs the livefood comes in, when you buy it from a rep shop over here in the UK :)

Also I don't believe we have flexwatt in the UK but we can get heat strips, very similar but already wired, or heat cable :)

I do agree with you about having homes or buyers set up before they hatch, or very soon after, otherwise he could end up feeding a lot of hungry mouths for the next few months or so :)
Click to expand...

ahh thanks! didn't realize you were in the UK aitchjay.
 
Thank you very much for the pics. Just one more daft question, then I'm done. Is the sensor on your thermostat just in the centre of the boxes so that the general area is the right temp, because I don't think I'm going to be able to keep a whole room at 84.
Thanks again.
 
aitchjay said:
Thank you very much for the pics. Just one more daft question, then I'm done. Is the sensor on your thermostat just in the centre of the boxes so that the general area is the right temp, because I don't think I'm going to be able to keep a whole room at 84.
Thanks again.
Click to expand...

Actually I haven't got a thermostat on that set up *my bad*, because the shelves are nearly twice as deep as the boxes I'm using, so as the temp in the house changes I can push them closer to the heat mat (when it's cooler) or pull them away from it (when it's warmer) to keep their warmest end (the end closest to the mat) at around 83* to 85*. If the temp in the room hits about 80* when the sun is shining, then I turn the mat off. Also if I have to leave them unattended for a few hours, I keep them pulled away from the mat, as it's better for them to be a bit cooler than too warm :)

I'm at home 90% of the time so I can do this, but I suggested using a thermostat, because not everyone has the luxury of being able to check the temps every hour or so and a thermostat would control the output of heat from the mat, which would stop the boxes from overheating once set up right, if the ambient temperature changes :)

I do have the digital thermometer probe in the highest, middle box, (which is also where I would put the thermostat probe, when using a thermostat) which is set up as if there is a hatchling in it, as this box will usually have the most heat going into it, although there is only a couple of degrees difference between the warmest and coolest box on my set up :)

Hope that helps, if not shout out again :)

Best wishes,
 
You're the best, thank you very much. Hopefully I'll have some pics to show you in a couple of weeks.
 
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