kinks

I just don't get it. Over the last 10 years I keep getting a lot of kinks in my clutches every year. I tried coco fiber this year on all but 2 of the clutches. Maybe The Sphagnum moss was contaminated ??? IDK whats up I never had problems before.
One clutched hatched 1/2 coco fiber 1/2 Sphagnum moss. out of 9 eggs 7 kinks one perfect and one still in the egg.I got a clutch that went all bad except for one egg. That one is on the 50/50 mix the rest are all on pure coco fiber. One of the clutches that on pure coco fiber is hatching today . I hope they are all fine and the problem was the Sphagnum moss.

Temps were between 76 to 84 it only went up to 84 a few times and not very long. It stayed between 76 to 82 most of the time In the past I would have clutches in 76 to 86 with almost no problems I just don't get it. I see people hatch perfect clutches from 74 to 90 with no problems

Defects such as you describe are due to either genetics or environment. Not much you can do if genetics are at play (short of infusing new genetics in to your collection), but if this is happening with multiple clutches in multiple pairings then you are probably correct to suspect something in the environment. Sounds like your temps are reasonable, but you could try incubation trays if the incubation medium is still a worry. You might also want to consider the diet of your snakes... that is, what are the mice that you feed your snakes being fed. Lastly, IMO, you might want to consider air quality ...for feeders, near your incubator, and wherever you keep your snakes.

Man, I used to REALLY hate getting kinked snakes hatching out. Especially those that aren't kinked bad enough to be euthanized, but basically pretty much without any value. And then there are those that somehow will develop kinks days or weeks later after hatching for some reason. Or perhaps I just missed seeing it. :shrugs:

Really would piss me off to see the head and neck of some snake emerging from the egg that was wildly exciting looking, only to find that the rest of the body still in the egg was a tangled knot.

Yeah, I do miss the hatching season, but this reminds me that it wasn't all a pleasant experience. Some disappointments really knocked me back a bit each year.

Hewy Rich LTNT brother

I'm thinking there was some type of contaminant in the bale of Sphagnum moss. I have a clutch hatching that is only laid 3 days apart from the first clutch. I have them on coco fiber. So far 3 are out and no kinks. I'm going to have to wait till the whole clutch hatches and the rest of the clutches being they are on all coco fiber.

The 2 clutches on 50/50 coco fiber/sphagnum I had all but one egg die on me and this clutch with only one baby not kinked.

SnakeSmithS said:

Defects such as you describe are due to either genetics or environment. Not much you can do if genetics are at play (short of infusing new genetics in to your collection), but if this is happening with multiple clutches in multiple pairings then you are probably correct to suspect something in the environment. Sounds like your temps are reasonable, but you could try incubation trays if the incubation medium is still a worry. You might also want to consider the diet of your snakes... that is, what are the mice that you feed your snakes being fed. Lastly, IMO, you might want to consider air quality ...for feeders, near your incubator, and wherever you keep your snakes.

Click to expand...

See the reply to Rich above this post

So far 7 eggs hatched in the coco fiber clutch and not one kink I hope this was the problem. I will have to wait till all the clutches hatch with coco fiber

Well, eggs are absorbing moisture most of their lives. Matter of fact, one test I used to do to detect good/bad eggs was to lightly spray them with water. A good egg will absorb the water. A bad egg will just continue to look wet. Don't take this as an absolute test, as there is probably a period just prior to hatching where this test will no longer hold true. But early on in the egg development, it has been really accurate for me.

So anyway, it is not unusual for manufacturers to put additives in sphagnum/peat moss. Most often it will be fertilizers for the plantings most people use this stuff for. But there could also be fungicides and who knows what else added. You have to closely read the containers to make sure of what you are buying. Generally speaking, this stuff is NOT being sold with hatching reptile eggs in mind.

I bought it from orchid grower who swore to me it did not come in contact with chemicals or and anything added.

I will wait and see how the rest of clutches with the coco fiber do and this clutch that's hatching

BTW Rich what substrate did you use ?

I used Canadian peat moss for the egg laying containers, and coarse (HAS to be coarse!) vermiculite to incubate the eggs within.

That's a really frustrating scenario, Vinman. If the new substrate yields unkinked babies, of course you'll likely have your answer. I hope so, since that's an easy correction. It sounds promising so far. Have you had any more babies hatch out?

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Vinman said:

I just don't get it. Over the last 10 years I keep getting a lot of kinks in my clutches every year. I tried coco fiber this year on all but 2 of the clutches. Maybe The Sphagnum moss was contaminated ??? IDK whats up I never had problems before.
One clutched hatched 1/2 coco fiber 1/2 Sphagnum moss. out of 9 eggs 7 kinks one perfect and one still in the egg.I got a clutch that went all bad except for one egg. That one is on the 50/50 mix the rest are all on pure coco fiber. One of the clutches that on pure coco fiber is hatching today . I hope they are all fine and the problem was the Sphagnum moss.

Temps were between 76 to 84 it only went up to 84 a few times and not very long. It stayed between 76 to 82 most of the time In the past I would have clutches in 76 to 86 with almost no problems I just don't get it. I see people hatch perfect clutches from 74 to 90 with no problems

Click to expand...

Do you have a minimum/maximum recording thermometer in the incubator?

Reason I ask is a long time ago when Connie first started working with the leopard geckos, someone loaned us an incubator because he wanted us to try to manipulate the incubating temperatures to influence the sex of the hatchlings. Just on a whim, I set it up and put in a min/max thermometer and just left it running for a few days. Well at sometime(s) during that period, his thermostat had temporarily failed, then righted itself. Just looking at the temperature display itself, you would think everything was going along just fine. But the min/max thermometer showed that the high temp had reached 120 degrees inside that box at least once. So had we used that incubator, likely BAD things would have happened to the eggs, and we wouldn't have had any idea about what went wrong.

Anyway, just an idea. Might not apply to your circumstance, but anyone reading this needs to keep in mind that thermostats DO fail. And you likely won't get any warning beforehand.

I got way better results with the coco fiber. in this clutch the next one is hatching and I will see what the results are

Glad to hear you had better results on the coco fiber! I hope the next clutch brings more good news.

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I only had 2 with a very slight kink. I think it insolates the egg better . So far only one can out of the next clutch to hatch and that one was perfect . I hope the rest come out like that


Thanx for the kind words