Advice needed please!

[Cazzy]

Our 5 yr-old cornsnake has laid for the first time and we generally don't have a clue! We don't know if they are fertile or not as we were told we had 2 females but you never know. We've put a lay box with damp vermiculite in and we think she's laid about 20. What do we do now? Is it safe to just raise the temperature of the tank and leave them with her or do we have to incubate them? She's very protective of them! Also, 2 or 3 of the eggs have turned yellow, do we leave them in or take them out? Didn't expect any suprises like this after 5yrs! lol

 

[Gungirl]

Are you housing the snakes together?? The really yellow eggs are no good but as far as the rest if you are sharing the viv with the 2 snakes they might be good eggs. I would do a search on incubators and try and make one up. I also wouldn't advise in housing your snakes together..(ever)

 

[Cazzy]

She is very over protective of them so we are worried about taking them away from her. The two snakes are housed together because they always have been together, that's why we're so suprised, it's been 5yrs. If it is possible to leave them with her, do we remove the yellow ones or are they ok to leave with the white ones?

 

[rich333]

I would 2nd that thought! You can get a Hova-bator for about 40$ at most feed stores....they are used for hatching chicken eggs. just make sure you get the one that DOESNT rotate!! And I would most certainly remove the eggs and put them in the incubator. Set the temp at 82-83 degress. I've also heard of people putting the eggs in a container with vermiculite covering it then placing it on top of the fridge. where temps stay in the high 70's low 80's. As for the yellow eggs..those are infertile...no good...if they arent adhered to the other good eggs you should toss them out.

 

[Cazzy]

What about natural hatching? Has anyone here tried it?

 

[rich333]

Nope..not me...But i suppose it's possible...i mean, they do it all the time in the wild.
i think most of us use the incubator method to ensure the best possible hatch-rate. i'm sure if you keep the humidity levels in the correct range (between 70-100 %) and the temps in the correct range....everything should be fine......but you would have less control over those factors outside of the incubator. And doing it the "Natural" way...the eggs will take Longer to hatch. Again...i'm no expert..as I'm experienceing my first clutch of eggs as well.

 

[Susan]

What about natural hatching? Has anyone here tried it?

I'm not sure what you mean by "natural hatching". The female does not stay with the eggs. She is not protecting them, just coiling around them because you are there reaching for her and she doesn't want to be disturbed as she just laid eggs. You can't leave them in the viv without a moist environment to keep them from drying out. Plus, you have to make sure the adult snakes in there don't disturb them. Take them out, put them in a container with moist sphagnum moss (easily obtained from Lowes or Home Depot) and sit them someplace warm (75-85 F) and if they are viable, they will hatch. You don't need a fancy incubator to hatch corn snake eggs. And separate your adults as you have a pair, not 2 females. Most of those eggs look fertile.

 

[rich333]

LOL,

Exactly what i was TRYING to say....It just flows better from someone who has hatched Many more corn eggs than i have...thanks susan for saving me here.

 

[Cazzy]

Thank you all. We'll try and sort something out for them. If I seperate them after being together for this long would it affect them at all? Do snakes get seperation stress? We worried enough when they didn't eat for a month after we moved house, don't want to go through that again!

 

[cobained]

Not to sound like the bad guy here, but if you weren't expecting and prepared for eggs and the possibly 20-something hatchlings to feed and find homes for, it is an option to choose not to incubate them. you can refrigerate them to stop development. if you choose to incubate them, good luck! several years ago before i REALLY got in to corns and before i knew about keeping them individually, i had a pair cohabbed. i bought them as hatchlings from different breeders at a show and was told it was fine to put them together by both. they lived uneventfully for 4 years before laying a clutch (surprise!). that was my trigger to learn so much more about corns and really get in to the hobby. i think only 3 of the eggs hatched, but it was a good experience and now i have a nice collection, all housed individually. snakes are not social and do not become attached to cagemates...mine never noticed they were apart when i separated them and continued to eat normally.

 

[Cazzy]

We have decided we are going to try and incubate them. Am posting a picture of our makeshift incubator. Going to put the box with vermiculite on the bottom and cover it over with moss in and hopefully it will work. We have a thermostat to attach so we can keep an eye on it. Any last advice before we might become parents?

 

[bitsy]

Best advice I can give you is to make sure in advance, that you can sell the hatchlings. The market for Corns has been very slow in the last couple of years and you could find yourself feeding and housing them for some time.

Just to give you an idea, I sold my last four from 2009, a couple of months ago. And they were low cost but "interesting" morphs.