I got eggs! Cornsnake eggs and I wasn't prepared...not sure if they are going to surv

[wildlifephotographer]

I am so concerned right now. I'm pretty sure the 11 corn snake eggs that my female corn laid on the 18/19 are not going to survive. You see I thought I had more time to get prepared and I didn't. I thought I had at least another month before she would lay her eggs.

The other night though she started to lay them right inside her enclosure without being in a lay box...now I don't have a proper incubator and because this trailer I live in is falling apart including the heat which is not working at all in most of the house it's hard to keep a steady and healthy temp in the rigged up incubator that I have made for her. The warmest place is in my bedroom which is where I've been keeping the eggs in a tin can with a UTH underneath it and a thermestat to help but since the wall unit heater in my bedroom likes to get stuck on in the middle of the night when I am sleeping and gets really really hot there the temps in the incubator have been sky high at times when that happens last night the heater got stuck on and it got up to 95 degrees inside the container the eggs are in. When we turned the heater down and ran a fan in the room it drops down to 77 degrees in the incubator even with it having a thermestat and humidity guage inside.

I don't really know what I can do for the eggs. I've noticed since this morning when we woke up sweating cause it was so warm in the bedroom that when I checked the eggs they had dipples in them and are sunken in a little on top. I also realized that the humidity was to high at 99% so I took some of the damp spagnum moss and replaced it with some dry spangum moss which I hope that helps. The thing I am really concened about is how I am going to regulate the temps inside that container. It's so hard with the way this trailer heat is in the rest of the trailer which isn't working and the heat in the bedroom not working properly I really don't know what to do?

Any helpful suggestions would be nice and appreciated.

Thanks,
Anjeanettecorns28

 

[Christen]

How are you monitoring the humidity and where is it located? With the eggs starting to sink in, it almost sounds like the humidity is to low. You may want to put a damp paper towel over the eggs to get them to plump up.

As far as the temp 95 is very high but don't give up on them just yet. I would try and keep the temp on the lower end even if you have to move your set up to another room. IMO you want the to stay around 80 degrees so 77 really isn't that low.

I am fairly new at breeding so maybe someone is more and better able help but hopefully that gets you started.

 

[wildlifephotographer]

I'm scared that if I move them to another room they won't stay warm enough since the ambient temps in the trailer are very cold because the heat isn't working in the rest of the trailer...living area,dining area,kitchen,bathrooms and other bedrooms. THe only room that has any heat running is my bedroom which is where the incubattor is being kept and I have a temp/humidity guage digital that sticks to the bottom side of the container and it says the humidity is 99% which I've actually tried to get down a little bit because I figured that 99% was to high not to low. I mixed some of the moist damp moss with some dry moss to try and bring the humidity down. I've got the incubator sitting on top of my highest snake enclosure...I have three that are stackable enclosures and sitting on top of a computer desk so the incubator is on top of the last one. And I have a thermestat and UTH underneath the container incubator to try and regulate the heat but because the room temps fluctuate so much especially when the heater in the bedroom gets stuck on it gets toooo warm. The setting on the themestat is around 85 but again the air in the room fluctuates so much and I have the thermestat regulating two other 20 gallon enclosures at the same time so it's really hard to keep the smaller container just right.

 

[SquamishSerpents]

see if you can incubate them somewhere else, perhaps. how is your snake doing with unsteady temps like that? you don't want her to get too cold, nor too hot.

 

[wildlifephotographer]

The enclosures stay pretty well warmed up, sometimes they get in the low 90's but usually they are steady around 84-87 degrees. So they are good to go. I've not been able to get my female corn Zoe-the one that laid the eggs to take a mouse for me since she laid them but I will try again in a couple of more days.

 

[baitman]

was this an accidental breeding (2 snakes kept together)or was it intentional...

if it was intentional then i am a little bit at a loss, why didnt you have everything in place BEFORE putting them together?

i am not posting just to wind up but really dont understand how anyone can be so unprepared unless it was accidental....


sorry guys........JMHO

 

[Christen]

Your ok baitman definitely in my mind as well.

What are the high low temps in your room? Not the incubator just your room. And are the temps in the other rooms more stable where if you put the incubator in there you won't have peaks. As far as monitoring your numbers, you want your probes where the eggs are. I stick the probes in the middle of the eggs and as far down as the eggs go into the incubation medium.

I don't have an incubator. Now I am not a professional but because my house stays fairly stable. I just keep my eggs in a tubs on a shelf in a closet. It is ok for your temps to change a little, some actually think that it is better for the eggs. Mine will fluctuate between 78 and 83. I live in Arizona so it is a little easier for me since we just about always have our A/C running. It sounds like you would do better taking them off the uth and just letting them incubate in the ambient air.

 

[wildlifephotographer]

I'd say other bedrooms have more stable temps but they are cold.

This mating was on accident. I wasn't aware that I had any male corns and when I put Kasper my Silver Queen Ghost in with my normal female Zoe, Kasper well is a boy not a girl like I thought. And they quickly locked tails. I had put him in there just to clean water dishes and it wasn't a second before they were together. That's why I wasn't prepared and I did order an incubator the night before she laid her eggs from LLLreptile.com but obviously didn't get it in time. I wasn't aware how quickly they laid their eggs.

According to someone on www.iherp.com Zoe must have been developing folicles and ovaluating before her and Kasper mated because normally it would have been a little longer before she laid her eggs . She had a pre-lay shed 13 days after mating with Kasper and laid her eggs 16-17 days after her pre-lay shed. I guess that would be 30 days exactly from when they mated accidentally. I had no plans at all to breed. Obviously, since I am and wasn't prepared. From the other things that I was told I thought I had at least 3-4 weeks more before she laid them. And would have been much more prepared at that time. She was laying her eggs the night after I ordered the incubator and just had to use what I could find and thought would work as one. Didn't realize it was going to be so hard.

The eggs now have indentations in them/sunken spots and even though the humidity says 99 % I read in the book that signs of sunken spots mean that they are dyhydrated. I don't see how that can be. The moss is damp, not soaking wet but damp and should be good.

I've now moved my eggs into a bigger tuperware type plastic container that has some air holes in it 4 on each long side ...small holes. I've put it on top of my highest stackable enclosure with a UTH and on the thermestat. The temps are as of about 30 min ago 84 degrees. I'll just have to do my best with what I have. And see if this new bigger container will work better. I'm afraid that I have been checking them to often and picking them up to much and that might be the cause of the indentations. I'm not really sure.

 

[Christen]

Yeah it is really hard but you want to ignore them as much as possible only because it will drive you nuts. You may want to go ahead and put a layer of moss or a damp paper towel over the eggs so that they are staying moist all the way around and not just on the bottom. If you do that they should plump back up with out adding any more water.

 

[WingedSweetheart]

I've heard of people putting the eggs in a plastic shoebox with damp moss and lid. Then putting the box of eggs on top of their refrigerator towards the back where the heat spot is. Then just leaving them until they hatch.

I don't know about having them in a tin can. Wouldn't that trap too much heat and moisture?

I'm not a breeder so maybe more of the breeders here can shed more light on this situation.

 

[Reptileman81]

I would put it in another room. A low temp for incubating is better then to high of a temp. Plus the extreme temp range is really bad for them. I would really just stick them in another room. If the UTH (which I guess is your heat source never seen this abbreviation before not sure what it stands for) does its job like it should it will keep them at a much steadier temp in a room that does not jump up and down so much like your bed room. Trust me cooler is better. Just means that your eggs will incubate for longer. Some people dont even use a heat source to incubate eggs. They just do it at room temp 70-75C. They actually have a study going on about how cooling corn eggs effect the color and pattern of the snakes. Very interesting study. You can read about it in the back of the 2010 Morph Guide.

 

[Reptileman81]

I've heard of people putting the eggs in a plastic shoebox with damp moss and lid. Then putting the box of eggs on top of their refrigerator towards the back where the heat spot is. Then just leaving them until they hatch.

I don't know about having them in a tin can. Wouldn't that trap too much heat and moisture?

I'm not a breeder so maybe more of the breeders here can shed more light on this situation.

A nother good point. I forgot about the tin can. Yes you need to get them out of that. A plastic shoe box is your best answer. Once again not sure what a UTH is but if its your heat source and it is not working good enough you can use a everyday back heating pad. When I incubated my first clutch over a decade ago this is what I used. You just put it on the first or second setting. If the first is to cold and the second to hot then just put a towel folded up once or twice between the heating pad and plastic shoe box.

On the humidity note you want it high. Other wise the eggs will dip or sink as you said they have. This may have also happen because they are not fertile. What color are they? A pic could help. You may have to girls. Sometimes snakes with just lay a clutch of infertile eggs. They do so for various reasons such as 1. going through a cooling period 2. a male being around where they can smell him so they just produce a clutch 3. and sometimes the reason is just unknown. I would make sure they are in fact fertile. If you have nothing to candle them with then post some good pics here. There are tons of people that can tell you if they are fertile or not from a photo. Myself included!

 

[WingedSweetheart]

UTH = Under Tank Heater

 

[wildlifephotographer]

I'm thinking that this bigger container might work better then the tin can. I've checked a couple times on it and the temps have been relatively steady 82-84 degrees as of so far. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will stay around those temps. Also, I do have moss laying on top of the eggs...not a think layer of it but a thin-medium layer of it over all of them. Which I've been doing since the beginning but they still are dippling/sinking in. Not sure what that is about still.

 

[Christen]

I'm thinking that this bigger container might work better then the tin can. I've checked a couple times on it and the temps have been relatively steady 82-84 degrees as of so far. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will stay around those temps. Also, I do have moss laying on top of the eggs...not a think layer of it but a thin-medium layer of it over all of them. Which I've been doing since the beginning but they still are dippling/sinking in. Not sure what that is about still.

I have a whole bunch of the shoe box rubber maid containers that I use for feeding, nesting box and egg incubation. I bought them for a $1 each and on some of the lids have small drill holes and some have large holes for the mama snakes to go in and out. But anyway if you are able to take a picture of the eggs for us it would be helpful. We could definitely tell you if they are fertile or not.

 

[pridecity]

To the OP, if it makes you feel better, I had a strange experience last year my eggs. I had bought several snakes and a few of the females ended up being gravid. Mouse laid two clutches. The first hatched 12 of 14 eggs I think. The second clutch didn't make it, they molded. Candy and Zig Zig laid clutches that didn't make it because I didn't find them in time and they were just too dehydrated.

With Mouse's first clutch, I put them in a 6qt shoebox with moss. I wasn't prepared one bit for eggs, but decided to try to hatch them anyway. I put the shoebox in a 10 gallon on top of a UTH to protect them from my NASCAR kitties. The temps went every which way throughout the incubation. Most of the time it was too cold, but the eggs started hatching after 75 days or so with the last egg hatching at least a week later. All were sold after I got them to eat. Getting them to do so was a birch tree in a half. They finally did and I sold them.

So, moral of the story: they may make it despite being unprepared. Just pray and try to get things normalized. Good luck!

 

[wildlifephotographer]

Wow, thats crazy to hear...glad at least one clutch made it for you. I guess I'm just worrying to much and just need to relax a little maybe and not bother the eggs so often. I'm just so worried they aren't going to make it. I've never done this before so it's new, exciting and very frustrating especially when it comes to getting the temps set right.
These two pics of the eggs are taken right after I saw them in the enclosure and switched them over to the tin can incubator. So they look really bright and white with no dipples/sinking in spots. Now though they do at least most of them do.I will take updated shots and post on here in a few.

 

[Dreamsnake]

There is a chance she may double clutch, so keep an eye on her and have a hatch box prepared anyway just in case. Corn snakes thrive in areas that get cold and this is their breeding season, keep that in mind.

 

[Christen]

The eggs look good to me. The one by its self looks a little purple, Does it really look like that or is it just the picture? I say cover them with some moss like you have been and let them grow. How long ago did she lay them?

 

[wildlifephotographer]

She just layed them on the 18/19 this month. I first noticed them in her enclosure about 10:45 on the 18th and she was still going at 2am on the
19th in the morning. She laid 11 total. Here are some updated photos that I just took several minutes ago tonight. These photos show how they are dippling and sinking in a bit. One did look a little bruised after being laid but it didn't look purple to me. Might be the picture.