• Hello!

    Either you have not registered on this site yet, or you are registered but have not logged in. In either case, you will not be able to use the full functionality of this site until you have registered, and then logged in after your registration has been approved.

    Registration is FREE, so please register so you can participate instead of remaining a lurker....

    Please be certain that the location field is correctly filled out when you register. All registrations that appear to be bogus will be rejected. Which means that if your location field does NOT match the actual location of your registration IP address, then your registration will be rejected.

    Sorry about the strictness of this requirement, but it is necessary to block spammers and scammers at the door as much as possible.

Please Help Dying Eggs

B

Buschjs

New member
I am currently incubating a clutch of 17 eggs. Recently, they seem to be dying off one by one. I have them in a Hovabator incubator set at 84 degrees F with vermiculite as a substrate. I have been keeping the vermiculite damp.

How can I be sure that I have the temperature and humidity correct?
 
Goto any hardware store or Wal-mart and purchase and indoor/outdoor digital themometer with a hygrometer!

I picked mine up at Sears Hardware but only because I had a gift card, otherwise I hate Sears.

Less than $20 and is priceless in our hobby!

Quigs
 
How much Vermiculite is there? How much water has been added, and how often? How deep are the eggs buried? Are you seeing any fuzzy mold? Are the eggs changing colors, such as green or black? Are the eggshells dimpling in?

From the "I have been keeping the vermiculite damp." comment, my first guess would be that the eggs are drowning. I've been wrong before, though.
 
I have the vermiculite covering about 90% of each egg. The eggs just began to exibit a fuzzy mold on the outside. When I initially put the eggs in the vermiculite, I saturated the vermiculite then squeezed out all of the water that I could. At about 2 weeks into incubation, the eggs began to dimple in a little, so I added a small amount of water to the vermiculite. The eggs then seemed to spring back and seemed fine for about two more weeks. About the 4th week into incubation, they seemed to begin dying off.

I still have 7 of 17 eggs that appear good.
 
Just a side-note, it is very important to me to find out where I went wrong with these eggs, as I am certain that she is gravid again. She will not eat, and the only time I have seen this snake refuse food was when she was gravid.

Also another question:

What are the chances that some of the dead eggs were slugs from the beginning? (This was the snakes first clutch ever)
 
You probably would have realized that some were slugs from the very beginning. I don't have a ton of experience, but in the last clutch my female laid, the slugs were obvious. They weren't the bright yellow or orange I've usually seen in photos, but they weren't bright white either. They almost had a translucent quality to them and they were much softer/pliable than the good ones.

As far as what's going wrong with them I don't know, but maybe when you added the extra water you added too much. Maybe you should do a quick change of the substrate to see if that will help.

One of my eggs is going bad too. Actually I think it's probably dead, but I still have hope. What I've done with it is just removed the mold by using a Listerine soaked Q-tip. Kathy Love mentions doing this in The Corn Snake Manual. You can also use Anti-fungal foot cream/powder to retard growth of molds, etc., or at least so I've heard.

Good luck!
 
Like Amanda, I think the substrate is too wet. Every time I've seen mold, it meant too much moisture. I would also start over with fresh Vermiculite. I'd weigh the Vermiculite and then add an equal weight of water. Measuring cups are usually marked in fluid ounces. Using a measuring cup provides repeatability. And I do not have the hand strength to squeeze out all the excess water from saturated Vermiculite. I like the Vermiculite that is about the size of coarse sand. Others like coarser grades. The grade I use hardly seems damp after the water is mixed in.

As a temporary measure, if you don't have Vermiculite handy, you can uncover the eggs til they are less than 1/4 buried.

Good luck.
 
Next time try placing a damp paper towel on top of the eggs and the medium. This little trick helps prevent loss of moisture. If they start to dry out just re-wet the towel.
 
I would like to thank everyone for their responses. I plan to do a substrate change and remove all of the bad eggs that I can. Hopefully it is not too late to save the remaining live eggs.

Thanks again

Justin
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top