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Hatching help...

R

rickGamer

New member
Okay so my brother has just moved out but he left both of his corn snakes here, i said i would look after them for him, anyway they are male and female and the female one keep's laying egg's, she layed loads of eggs ages ago too but they died/didnt hatch.

He has tried hatching them before but he doesnt really know how to, he said to me just leave the eggs because they always die anyway, but i wanna try and hatch them, so i was wondering if you guy's could give me some advice on keeping them alive so they hatch.

I will post some pic's of them later if you want to see them and the egg's, any help would be appreciated :)
 
I checked on her before i posted the message above and she was laying some more egg's, i actually see them coming out of her, but i just went to check on her again and i cant find the egg's. she must have buried them or moved them or something ?

Anyway i got some pic's of the male and the tank set up, and sorry for the crappy quality i took them with my camera phone:

Here's the tank set up, i didnt do this my brother did, that's a heat mat on the right over the wooden log thing, and that's a big round water bowl on the left:
s27ur.jpg


And here's the male snake, the female was to the left under the log thing, i couldnt really get a good pic of her so i didnt bother taking one, and like i said before i couldnt find the egg's
snake0xq.jpg
 
i'm new to snakes but I know that you definatly need to keep them moist and warm untill one of the experience people gets here. I hope they don't die again. :cry:
oh and keep them with their tops facing up if you move them - don't turn them over
 
OH my, I suggest you do some reserch on this forum. There are some things in their cage that could use a little improvment. This place has tought me a lot.

good luck!
 
Thanks, i didnt even know you had to keep them moist and i dont think my brother did either, so maybe thats part of the reason they didnt survive before.

By the way she has just had the egg's today but how am i meant to get them out without her attacking me, she is laying on top of them, she get's angry when i put my hand in there and strikes me :eek1:

Oh and does anyone know how long it takes for them to hatch once the female has layed them ?
 
not sure about any of those questions, sorry
but i think i read that it takes about 60 days for the eggs to hatch :shrugs:
 
Thanks alot i have just read through that post and i have some idea of what to do now, i just need to get an incubator, or i could make one.
 
Hi Rick, just use the search function up on the right hand side of the screen and you can do specific searches for incubating and incubation, egg care, breeding, etc. A worthwhile investment is also Kathy Love's book (go to her site www.cornutopia.com) and she's just put out a new edition which is bigger and better than the old one (so I hear, I just have the old one).

You could also try a google search for cornsnake egg incubation and you'll get lots of photos and good advice.

My best advice to you, although it's probably too late, is to sepparate the male and female to avoid any more unplanned clutches. The female may try to make two clutches in a year and it's not good for her to do so if she's not in optimal condition.
 
Thanks for the advice, i'll try google in a bit.

I just checked on her this morning and she has layed LOADS more eggs, i think she has finished now though, she seem's fine to me she is wrapped round the egg's at the moment so i dont wanna try and get them out just in case she bites me.

When are you suppose to get the egg's out anyway ?

Oh and for an incubator i was thinking of a box with pete in it and a heat mat to keep them warm, or wont that do ?

My mum said about an egg box, she was joking around at first but the holes are big enough to fit the egg's in, ans she said about putting cotton wool in it for the egg's to lay on, although she aint no expert on snakes and neither am i so we dont really know what to use, i'll try google and see what comes up :)
 
Corn eggs need to be kept in a high humidity incubator with a temperature that will not excede 31 degrees celcius. The optimal is around 29C Don't rotate the eggs. The embryo will attatch in the first few days after laying on the top surface of the egg and if the egg is turned after that, it will drown. Don't worry about the female. She'll hold onto the eggs but she's not doing them any favours and neither are you by leaving them thee. Go to http://www.zoonen.com/minzoon.asp?oid=385353 for some pics of my incubation setup. My site is in my signature and you can look there under Cornsnake care to get some more advice. There are a lot of better sites than mine out there. I'm just a beginner but I think I'm doing things pretty well and my egs look healthy, so if you're truely starting from scratch, I'm sure you can learn a bit.

Google's a great search engine and you'll also gain a lot by reading up on old posts on this site.
 
Cool, thanks alot for all your help, and i have Google set as my home page so i use it all the time, i just used it now and found some thing, thanks again for the help :)
 
From all this reading i have done i made an incubator, well kinda and almost fried the egg's, you see when people where saying 85 to 90 degrees i thought they meant something different, although i did realise that the box was a little too hot to put them in, anyway i have sorted it now and the tempreture(sp) is ok now, here's some pic's:

Here's a bird's eye view of it:
eggs16nt.jpg


Here's another view:
eggs21zn.jpg


Here's the whole box:
eggs33mi.jpg


And here is where i am keeping them, they are on top of the snakes tank and it has a heat mat underneath it:
eggs64vr.jpg


Couple of question's though:

1) Are the egg's meant to be stuck together like that, and if not shall i seperate them ?

2) I hear that you have to keep them moist, it get's pretty dry in there because of the heat, so should i lightly spray some water over them ?

3) Do you think this set up is ok for an incubator, i also have a box with a light bulb in so that can give it extra heat if it needs it.
 
I'm pretty new to this as well, but I have read the forums on here a lot, and I just wanted to know, are you keeping that incubator covered? it there a lid to that setup? From what I have read, it's best to keep a lid on the incubator to keep the moisture in. Just my lil interjection tho, GOOD LUCK!
 
Oh dear, I might be too late to help you. A heating pad will make it WAY too hot for the eggs. The optimal temp is around 29 celcius and if temps rise over 31 for as little as an hour it can kill the babies. Keeping them in a sealed container with a couple of pinholes and moist but not wet vermiculite or moss inside and placing it at the COOL end of your terrarium should keep it a about the right temp. Err on the side of too cool. They'll survive low spikes, but high spikes will either kill or deform the babies.

Don't try to sepparate the eggs. They'll rip if you do. You can only sepparate them if they're freshly layed but once they're stuck, they're stuck. Being clumped is actually handy because it stops them from being accidentaly turned and drowning the embryo.

Good luck
 
As I can't edit, I will add...

The eggs look gorgeous so far. Nice and plump and white. Sitting on top of the terrarium with no other heat should be fine as long as they can't be chilled by drafts or overheated in dirrect sunlight. I hear many people use the room temp incubation method with great success.
 
Thanks, so is it ok to use the heat pad then ?

I just checked it and it's around 27 now and it's been like that for about 2+ hours, oh and i do have a lid for it, i just took the lid off whilst taking the pic's ;)
 
Where are you checking the temperature? Check the temperature just BELOW the eggs, to make sure that they're not frying.
 
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