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Incubation temps

mattsnake

mattsnake

snake hunter
My female motley corn is now in shed phase, 3 weeks after coming out of brumation. I want to breed her after her first shed, but Im concerned about my snake room temps being a little too low for incubation of the eggs.

What is the ideal mid to low range temps for egg incubation? The temperature of the rubbermaid at room temp will probably be about 68-73 deg. I know if I put a uth on the box I will cook the eggs. What are the lowest temps for an incubation?
 
You could always get a $50.00 chicken egg incubator at your local co-op or tractor supply. Get a different thermometer than comes with it(they tend to be off by a few degrees). Then you have no worries, once you get it set at 80-85 degrees.

You could also take a thermometer and see how warm an interior room, like a water heater room, is. Water heater rooms tend to be warmer than most of the house. Thats always an option.

Just thought I'd throw a few ideas out there. 68-73 just seems way to cool for proper hatching. Most people will tell you between 80-85 is "ideal". But I have seen lower and higher incubation temps. In fact Kathy's Loves book mentions 70-90 can be tolerated by the eggs but the optimal temp. is 85.
 
I go for 82-84. The danger point is 90 - if the eggs get to that or above for any length of time there's a chance that the embryos will either die or suffer developmental abnormalities.

Corn eggs seem more tolerant of lower temps than higher one, and some folks here are able to incubate at room temps which are below the 80s. Depends where you live and whether AC is used in the room.

I know if I put a uth on the box I will cook the eggs.
Click to expand...
If you use a UTH + thermostat - problem solved!
 
Buzzard said:
You could always get a $50.00 chicken egg incubator at your local co-op or tractor supply. Get a different thermometer than comes with it(they tend to be off by a few degrees). Then you have no worries, once you get it set at 80-85 degrees.
Click to expand...

I second this! I hatched babies in a chicken incubator and out of 15 eggs, I had 2 mold over and die, and one DIE (and one that was a twin DIE when the first baby crawled out before the second was done).
 
I don't use an incubator and we had lower than normal temps last year but the first clutch of eggs I had incubated at 73-74 degrees. Which is probably the lowest I would let it go without doing something to bring the temps up.

With lower temps you are normally looking at longer incubation times. Usually my clutches hatch around 55 days but that clutch did go to 63 days. Not to bad I was actually expecting longer than that with it staying so cool for so long.
 
I bought a chick egg incubator, and a digital thermometer with probe. The incubator has two glass panels for viewing the eggs. I have the probe wire going into the incubator leaving a small gap in the lid. The digital temp is hovering around 84.0 deg. during this test run.

I don't plan on putting a box with the eggs into the incubator, because there is only a small amount of clearance from the bottom to the heating unit. Im just gona put sphagnum terrarium moss in there and then the eggs in the moss. Is it ok to have some standing water under the eggs and moss for humidity?
 
nvm

The manual says to have water in the incubator for humidity, it even has rings that are supposed to be filled with water.
 
I just use a storage tote, a submersible heater add water and a lid. I hatched at lower temps last year took 65 days. The babies were all big and healthy and 20 out of 20 ate on thier own with no help. I can not say for sure if this was from the lower temps and longer hatch time. I do know that lower temps have been shown to lighten color and produce bigger hatchlings.
A friend had eggs that went over 90 some days it was a long drawn out thing. Some finally hatched about 80 days. Most of the clutch did not hatch.
 
I've used the chicken egg incubatoer as well as the storage tote with great success. The storage tote is a dirt cheap way to bump up the heat, that's basically just the cost of an underwater aquarium heater. Here's the tote setup with the lid off. An aquarium with a lid could be used as well.
incubator.jpg
 
How do you guys manage the humidity?
Do you regulate the percentage or just judge by the quality of the eggs
 
cmalchow said:
I don't use an incubator and we had lower than normal temps last year but the first clutch of eggs I had incubated at 73-74 degrees. Which is probably the lowest I would let it go without doing something to bring the temps up.

With lower temps you are normally looking at longer incubation times. Usually my clutches hatch around 55 days but that clutch did go to 63 days. Not to bad I was actually expecting longer than that with it staying so cool for so long.
Click to expand...

You never use an incubator? And it works just fine? Thats cool!
 
mattsnake said:
I don't plan on putting a box with the eggs into the incubator, because there is only a small amount of clearance from the bottom to the heating unit. Im just gona put sphagnum terrarium moss in there and then the eggs in the moss. Is it ok to have some standing water under the eggs and moss for humidity?
Click to expand...

You'll need to put the eggs in a box with a lid. If they hatch and you don't take them out soon enough they could wrap around the heating element and kill themselves...


greenman How do you guys manage the humidity?
Do you regulate the percentage or just judge by the quality of the eggs
Click to expand...

I use moss to incubate my eggs, when the moss starts to dry I take off the top layer and mist it again. If the moss around the eggs is dry I cover the eggs with my hands and mist around the edge. I'll be using hatchrite(sp?) with my Ball python eggs so i'm not sure how to re-wet it but i know i'll be placing a layer of moss over the top and i'll keep it moist.
 
NickP961 said:
You never use an incubator? And it works just fine? Thats cool!
Click to expand...

Nope they just go on a shelf in my cupboard. Never had any problems other than I have no control over incubation length since the temp can fluctuate.

greenman said:
How do you guys manage the humidity?
Do you regulate the percentage or just judge by the quality of the eggs
Click to expand...

I don't put any holes in the container and if I do need to increase humidity then I mist around the eggs.
 
There was an experiment not too long ago (or it could be longer... my memory isn't the greatest) where someone incubated at lower than normal temperatures. This produced hatchlings that were not only larger, but had both pattern and color variations. I'll try to find where I saw that, but I believe I read about it in the Cornsnake Morph Guide (2009 or 2010, if I remember correctly).
 
Airidies said:
You'll need to put the eggs in a box with a lid. If they hatch and you don't take them out soon enough they could wrap around the heating element and kill themselves....
Click to expand...


Do you have experience with that actually happening? I really can't get a rubbermaid in there because there is so little clearance. Im not sure if that heating element actually gets hot enough to burn and kill babies; Im gona heat it up and feel it just to see. I would try to take the babies out as soon as they emerge anyways.
 
No, I haven't had experience with that but that doesn't mean it couldn't happen. As for getting them out as soon as possible, what happens if they hatch while your asleep? The first one out of the egg of my second clutch last year was in the middle of the night and almost all of the others were sticking their heads out when i got up. And what happens if you come in and they've all hatched. You open have to open the big lid just to get to them, little hatchlings are quick and trust me, they have no problems trying to escape from the big monster reaching out at them :)


I have a hovabator(looks like the one you described) , if you go to your local grocery store you can see what kind of containers they use at the deli. I use a 16 ounce container and it has about 3 inches between it and the heating element. Now if you had a big clutch you can go to walmart and they have a 2.7 quart latch box that is short and wide. they also have one that's bigger and is still short. Also the Dollar tree is now selling the deli containers(like hatchlings are sold in shows) I think they had packs of larger ones too so those could work. I've also used the clam shell containers that salad/lettuce or sandwich meat comes in. Think out side the box ^-^
 
I fired up the incubator,its set so it goes up to about 89 deg. and then settles to and stays at about 81 deg. I felt the heating element and its really not that hot to the touch. I don't think its hot enough to kill babies if they do come in contact or climb on it.
 
Did you check the temp with another thermometer or temp gun? You have to remember what is slightly warm to us is way to hot for them.
 
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