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incubator

K

kittie56

New member
Hi

Im looking for some advice and I was just wondering if you guys could help. I have two big healthy corns. Amazingly I caught my snakes doing the dirty a week ago and im now having to prepare for some squiggles.

I need advice on the incubator. Last year she had a clutch of 23 eggs with 2 slugs they started off amazing veins the lot. I keep them in a homemade incubator but things started going wrong. I couldn’t control the humidity and the temperature kept fluctuating. Sadly mould grew on a few and after a huge hot spell they died.

Im looking to either buy an incubator or make one I have saw an incubator that looked really good but I just wondered if I could get ur advice first. I can buy a thermostat and I hygrometer and place it in a poly box but would that be enough?

Also how long does it take from mating to eggs so I know how long I have to get an incubator
 
A homemade incubator should work, but if the room temps get too high again then no incubator, homemade or not, will save the eggs.

Is there an air conditioned room available?

As for the humidity, I think most here use air-tight egg containers to keep in the moisture and that seems to do the trick.
 
If you weren't using a thermostat last year, then the most likely explanation is that the eggs overheated and died that way.

I'd try the same setup this year, just with a stat to control the temps. I usually aim for 82-84 degrees, which gives a bit of headroom before the 90 degree danger zone.

As for humidity, it isn't too difficult. I use vermiculite in the egg boxes. I wet the vermiculite until it's just damp enough to hold together in clumps. I place the eggs in slight indentations (or a big identation for a clump) on the surface of the vermiculite, then a layer of similarly damp moss over the top of the eggs. I put a lid on the (airtight) egg box and the humidity stays about right for the incubation period. I don't put any air holes in the egg box, so I don't lose moisture that way.
 
Great advice so far guys!
Kittie56: If you use the search feature on this site... you're sure to find all the info you need. But I'll still try to help! As far as a homemade incubator, test the temps in the top of a closet at the highest point of your house. If those temps are still too cool, you could even safely place a ceramic bulb in the closet, then monitor the temps. Monitor the temps in the closet using a digital indoor/outdoor thermometer that way you can measure any temperature variances throughout the day. The ceramic bulb would probably produce enough warmth in that small of space. Another alternative, though some would argue not nearly as safe... is to buy a small quality space heater to heat the closet. Monitor the temps the same way if you end up with a space heater.
**As far as how long you'll have to wait. She should shed in approximately one month. As soon as she sheds, have a lay box prepared for her. Put a plastic tub 5-8 inches tall and with plenty of space for her to fit comfortably. Place moist moss inside of it, put a lid on it, and cut a hole in the top approximately twice her size. She'll lay her eggs anytime after she sheds, but it's usually 8-11 days.
**Incubating eggs will take approximately two months to hatch.
**BTW, if your snakes were hooking up, hopefully you placed them together for this reason. Otherwise, don't let them live together (on a day-to-day basis), it will 'cause unnecessary stress. You'll can let them hook up again in the next week or so, in hopes to improve fertility rate. LOL
 
Put the eggs in the egg box, put the box somewhere that it stays about 80 degrees. Leave alone....let hatch. It's that simple. Don't even worry about an incubator. You can always put them in a styrofoam box if you're worried about big fluxuations, but cornsnake eggs are pretty tolerant. Mine just hatched out after being kept at 78-80 degrees the whole time. All but one hatched out fine. The other was dead in the egg.
 
The only problem with the 'room temp' approach in this country, is that you'll not be guaranteed 80f in our summers. I've got a heatmat on a thermostat inside a styrofoam shell. (inside an old hi-fi cabinet) It's holding steady at 80
 
I did the same thing as an emergency when we go a spot of cold weather. I ended up hooking it to the thermostat that controls my Green tree python's cage and it kept the temp inside at 80 the whole time. It probably would have been fine though. If I had just placed them up high where the heat usually rises, they probably would have needed nothing.
 
The only problem with the 'room temp' approach in this country, is that you'll not be guaranteed 80f in our summers.
Click to expand...

Ain't that the truth! I'm sitting here in shorts & a T-shirt thinking it's quite balmy, and according to my thermometer it's 75 degrees in my lounge.
 
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