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56 days.

K

Khaw

New member
I haven't posted much, but I have been lurking and reading often over this last year or so.

Last year our girl double clutched. It was our first attempt at incubating and hatching eggs. The first try lasted about 2 weeks before coming in and finding them all covered with mold. The second time made it a little over a month before they got covered in mold.

We decided to give it another try this year, knowing now which was the female and males of our 3 (they had been cohabed but from advice given here they have been changed to individual tanks for each). So, we put our girl with our oldest boy. She laid 19 eggs on May 23rd.

Belatrix our female.

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Draco our male.

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About a week of incubation:

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I put them in perlite 1:1 with distilled water. We put them in an icechest with an aquarium heater to try to keep the temperature as close to constant as we could. We kept them around 80 to 82 degrees as best we could checking the temp/humid gauge several times a day.

About 2 weeks ago:

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One of them started turning yellow. I think maybe we lost that one?

Day 56:

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The eggs have began to deflate a bit and the shells feel thinner. From what I've read it looks like they should hatch within the next week or so right? The one that has yellowed badly. Should I leave it alone and see what happens or remove it?

I hope they hatch this time. I don't know if I want to go through another several months of breeding and incubation if we lose them this time.

I do want to thank you all for the amount of information you all have amassed here. It is a great resource and I truly appreciate the time so many of you have taken to post what you know, your advice and your experiences.

Thank you.
 
They should be fine. Usually they'll hatch within a few days after collapsing a bit. Btw, eggs are quite resilient...if you think about all the things they have to survive in nature our incubation chambers are like a resort in the Bahamas!
 
They look healthy and ready to hatch, to me! Just leave the "bad" egg. It won't hurt anything, it isn't contagious. It -might_ contain a viable hatchling. If it's attached, you risk hurting the healthy eggs by trying to pull it out.
 
Thanks!

I goofed in my first post. I don't know why I posted May 23rd, I meant May 13th.

I held off on posting this planning to wait until they hatched. I hope I didn't jinx myself. :awcrap:
 
Well, it ended up the eggs starting to deflate was because all the eggs on the outside of the clutch died. A couple of days before they started deflating our AC broke and the incubator spiked in temp to 95-100 degrees. I don't know how long it was at that temp soince I was at work but I opened it and cooled them down as soon as I saw it when I got home. After that we only had 4 eggs that appeared to not die. I guess they were insulated from the temperature spike by the eggs on top of them and the perlite below them.

Today, 2 of those 4 pipped and I expect the other 2 to pip any time now.

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The first two are out.

This one has been named Dobby while it is with us. It's paler than the second one to hatch.

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This is the other, named Ginny while it is with us also.

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These are the last 2 eggs that we are still waiting on.

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Unless we get a paler hatch-ling out of the last two eggs and assuming we don't lose it from refusal to eat, Dobby will be the one that stays with us. I hope Dobby doesn't darken up to much but even if it does it's my wives favorite so far.

I'm just happy that I was at least able to get a couple to make it hatching. Hopefully if we try again the AC won't break on us again...
 
Glad some made it! Every time I think about buying a fancy Hot Boxx incubator, I remember that if my AC dies, at least my mini fridge incubators will keep the eggs cool...
 
Thanks all :).

I'm glad we have at least a couple make it all the way to. I'm pretty sure from what my wife is saying that Dobby will be the one we keep. I took a picture of him without the flash to show his paleness a little better. I told her it can change and get darker in the first couple of sheds, but I don't think it will get as dark as Ginny is.

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You've hatched out a pretty little ghost and anery so far. :D Can't wait for the other eggs to pip!
 
The other 2 pipped tonight and have a very similar appearance to Dobby. So if Dobby is a ghost, we appear to have gotten 3 ghosts and a anery from the eggs that survived. :)
 
One of them is partly out of the eggs, about 2", and so far it's pattern isn't "normal" saddles. I'll try to get pics of it up tomorrow if it's fully emerged.

Draco was bought at a local chain pet store and Belatrix was acquired when a friend could no longer keep her. We lost contact with that friend so I have no way of finding out where she got it. So honestly, we have no idea what their genetic backgrounds are.
 
From the searching I've done it looks like it may be an extreme aberrant pattern. If so, does that say anything genetically about the parents?
 
Well, the aberrant apparantly got stuck in its egg slit and was dead when I got home today :(. I'll take a picture of its pattern anyways because it really was neat.

The other one is doing okay so far but still hasn't come all the way out.

On a side note, I went to get momma out to let her have some exercise and was surprised. Apparantly she is just a double clutcher. She double clutched last year and was in the process of laying another clutch when I went to get her. So... To incubate or not to incubate when she gets done laying...
 
Okay this is the one I suspect being aberrant that didn't make it :(.

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I wish it would of because I really liked the markings.

As to momma, she's laid 2 eggs so far and neither are small and yellow so they look fertile. I'll check on here every now and then to make sure she's not egg bound, but otherwise I'm going to let her do her thing.
 
Sorry about the baby...It's more likely that he wasn't going to make it- wasn't strong enough or viable, than he got stuck. It's amazing how the most deformed baby (not saying that one is) can survive so long in the perfect conditions of the egg, and even have the instinct to slit, and then it's like that's their last move- they don't even try to emerge.

Some people theorize that aberrant patterns _can_ be caused by a temperature disturbance during incubation- maybe the pattern is an outward sign of more serious internal issues.

I just don't want you to think- if only I'd gotten home sooner- I could have saved him...

Isn't it interesting how momma snake lays her second clutch right at the time the eggs are pipping? It's like clockwork. I would base the decision to incubate on how healthy the eggs look, and if you're prepared for more babies in two months. Second clutches aren't always fertile, (even if they start out looking like it) so if you _do- incubate, and they don't make it- that's not unusual. If you don't decide to incubate, make sure you freeze the eggs for 24 hours before disposing of them.
 
So she ended up laying 6 eggs total. One was real yellow and waxy looking, so an obvious slug. The other 5 where white and appeared fertile so I stuck them in the incubator. A couple of days later I candled them and I could see the starting of red veining in side so it looks like they are fertile. My wife wants to incubate them and see what happens, so I'm leaving them in there.

I do have a question though. I got some sphagnum moss to dampen and put on top of the eggs in the perlite but it started to grow little white hairs in 2 days. Is there a way to avoid that? Did I buy the wrong kind of moss?

Today I when I checked on the little ones they both have very cloudy eye caps, so they should be shedding soon. Once they shed I'll offer them a pinkie and report back with hopefully, success.

Once I have a chance to get some better pictures of momma and the babies, post shed, I've got a couple of other questions.

Thanks all!
 
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