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Are these eggs duds, or should I try to incubate?

Lovin2act

Lovin2act

I gave my wife herps
A couple months ago I purchased an adult female Pueblan Milksnake. She was being sold as a pair but the seller contacted me and offered her to me alone since I had a wanted ad up on fauna looking for one of these as a pet snake only. Well, she laid these eggs the other night and I have no idea about hatching snake eggs myself. Don't even know if I should try or not. She laid them on 07/09 after I had gone to bed, and I found them the next day when I got home from work around 6pm. Took these two pics of them after I moved them. They don't look much different now than they did then, maybe a tad better, but not worse. I put them into a plastic shoe-box style container with an air tight lid. I filled the bottom with about half inch of water, added a good amount of moss and aspen to the water, and the eggs are in a small bowl inside of that filled with soil my wife uses in her garden. So it is staying nice and humid in there, but they were probably a bit too dry inside the main cage for that day before I found them. Anyhow, my guess is that these eggs are bad, but I've read many times that even the bad looking ones still hatch sometimes, so I guess I will wait it out and see. Like I said they haven't rotted yet or gotten worse, so maybe there is hope for them. Any tips or opinions, feel free to post :)
 

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They look pretty fertile to me. I'd cover them with either a very wrung out damp paper towel, or a very wrung out layer of sphagnum moss, and see if they plump up.
 
And, as long as they don't mold away, I wouldn't give up on them until 90 days, and I always freeze eggs for 24 hours before discarding, no matter what.
 
Okay thanks Nanci! I'll add the paper towel to them when I get home. I spray them once in a while too with a very fine mist sprayer my wife has. Am wondering how to heat them up better as I only have UTH type heaters. Thankfully it's been pretty hot and muggy here in So Cal, but as it cools down I worry it may get too chilly for the eggs. I have a space heater for bedrooms, might give that a go possibly :)
 
I would NOT NOT NOT mist them. Do you have somewhere that stays an even temp, like a closet shelf or a kitchen cupboard? You are okay if you can keep them at 78-80, I'd think. Do you have a slot in a rack?
 
You don't need a lot of heat...put them in a Styrofoam
cooler and put it up on your refrigerator or tv set....whatever...they will hatch at most temps. I generally just let mine go in the snakeroom and it varies from 78-84....if it's cooler they take longer to hatch.
 
You'd be surprised at how funky they can be! You'll know soon enough if they are going to last or not....some surprisingly crappy eggs have hatched.
 
Nanci said:
I would NOT NOT NOT mist them. Do you have somewhere that stays an even temp, like a closet shelf or a kitchen cupboard? You are okay if you can keep them at 78-80, I'd think. Do you have a slot in a rack?
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Crap. Ok I wont do that anymore. I only did it maybe twice and it was very brief and light misting. I have them in a closet right now. Problem is keeping the temps right as it fluctuates to mid 70's at night to mid/high 80's by day. I put a small low wattage repti heat bulb/lamp in the closet (about 2 feet away from the eggs) this morning and asked my wife to spot check the temps in there every hour. I think maybe I will go with lamp by night and no lamp by day to keep it even as possible depending on what she finds in the next few hours as the day gets more heated outside.
 
MegF. said:
You don't need a lot of heat...put them in a Styrofoam
cooler and put it up on your refrigerator or tv set....whatever...they will hatch at most temps. I generally just let mine go in the snakeroom and it varies from 78-84....if it's cooler they take longer to hatch.
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Thanks Meg! So I take it they are better off being slightly too cold versus being slightly too hot? Right now I have them in a closet and put in a very small heat lamp this morning to see how it will affect the overall temps in there. My wife is going to check it every hour and keep me posted while I'm at work. Thinking I will do a lamp by night, no lamp by day type thing as it gets mid to low 70's in the snake room at night time, and lately mid to high 80's by day. This was a not a planned pregnancy so I am learning on the fly here. I better get her on birth control asap ;)
 
Absolutely!!! Cooler is always better for eggs...or snakes for that matter. They tolerate cold (at least non tropical species) better than heat any day. LOL...on the birth control..that part is easy...don't co-habitate...simple. They can't get pregnant otherwise. Some females might lay eggs anyway but they will be duds. Too much water on the eggs is bad as well as too dry...that's why misting is not a good idea...they drown. I doubt a misting will hurt them if it was light. I usually incubate in perlite as it's almost impossible to drown an egg in it...excess water runs off and into the bottom of the egg box and as long as they don't sit in excess water they are fine. Vermiculite can and does drown eggs.
 
MegF. said:
Absolutely!!! Cooler is always better for eggs...or snakes for that matter. They tolerate cold (at least non tropical species) better than heat any day. LOL...on the birth control..that part is easy...don't co-habitate...simple. They can't get pregnant otherwise. Some females might lay eggs anyway but they will be duds. Too much water on the eggs is bad as well as too dry...that's why misting is not a good idea...they drown. I doubt a misting will hurt them if it was light. I usually incubate in perlite as it's almost impossible to drown an egg in it...excess water runs off and into the bottom of the egg box and as long as they don't sit in excess water they are fine. Vermiculite can and does drown eggs.
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Aright coolness I think they are set for the long haul then and we shall see what comes of it. Fear-eth not, the birth control thing was a corny joke, I don't even have a male to put her with to co-hab even if I wanted to. She is the only puebo in the household. Twas her prior owner whom I purchased her from that had her with a male every year. I dont think he knew she was with child(s) when he sent her to me
:eatpointe
 
Welp, we did it! Here is our firstborn! The rest are working their way out as I write this. They been at it since late last night :)
 

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Looks like 4 out of the eight that were laid. 2 we already cleared out a while back as they went bad pretty quick, and another 2 look like they are going the same route. Here is milky number 2 who just came out to say hi :wavey:
 

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