Temperature

[Kim_Hansson]

Hi there, a question from Sweden. I feel that I have to try to get an answer to my questions before i totally loose it.

Both last year and this year I have hibernated and bred my corns. The breeding-process has never been any problems, nor the egglaying. The snakes has been brumated at around 59 F. And all of the females has been over 275 grams (minimum), and the males has all been over 200 grams (minimum).
Obvious slugs has been thrown away and all whitey's has been put in the incubator. I have used a classic "wet-incubator", aquarium-style with a tilted roof. However, while in the incubator the eggs has just turned brown, "sunk in" and gotten all mouldy. These eggs has never hatched. When cutted open most eggs has been unfertilized.

My first theory was that the temperature in the incubators has been fluctuating too much. But the temp has never gone above 84 F and never below 79 F. So now I'm thinking about the temp. in my racks and vivs. In the room wich I keep my snakes it gets really hot during summer. In the hot side of the vivs there has been around 90 F and on the cooler side there has been 80 F.

Is it a possibility that while developing the follicles inside, the females has been too warm and the eggs has'nt developed fully?

Any answers at all would be helpful. I've already lost about 50-70 eggs and next year I'm NOT WILLING TO LOSE ANY since I got some top notch hets. breeding.

Regards
Kim H, Sweden

 

[Mrs InsaneOne]

It may have something to do with the temperature, but there could be other factors involved too.

What sort of medium are you incubating the eggs in? IE: moss, vermiculite, paper towels? What was the humidity in the incubator? Were the eggs getting wet?

Did you pair each female up with the same male each year? How many times did you hook the males up with each female? Did you actually see them hook up, or did you just leave them together for a short time period?

knowing the answers to those questions might help us to help you pin-point where things are going wrong.

Sorry to hear about the lost clutches too - I know that really bites. Especially if you don't know what went wrong. We've lost three clutches this year ourselves. But one was from a female that we suspect is infertile (we've paired her up with different males with the same results), two are the suspected result of a near 24 hour power outage during one of the hotter days this summer. The rest we've been pretty lucky with when all things are considered.

 

[Kim_Hansson]

Thanks for the reply!

Well, the first year I tried vermeculite and this year I tried with peat. I don't have a hygrometer but I extimate the humidity in the inc. to 75-80%. However both this and last year I felt that the medium wich the egss was bedded in sometimes dried out very quickly. When I then refilled with water they might have gotten too wet.

The females I bred last year didn't breed this year because of various reasons. The females that I bred this year was all virgins. So was the males too. I placed the males in the females cage for good. I.e the females and males was together for a month or so, until the they lost interest of eachother.

Sorry for your loss aswell.

Next year I have planned to rebuild an old fridge to a dry-incubator and then place the egss in own containers with lids on. Any experience with this sort of incubating?

Regards
Kim Hansson, Sweden

 

[Mrs InsaneOne]

Thanks for the reply!

Well, the first year I tried vermeculite and this year I tried with peat. I don't have a hygrometer but I extimate the humidity in the inc. to 75-80%. However both this and last year I felt that the medium wich the egss was bedded in sometimes dried out very quickly. When I then refilled with water they might have gotten too wet.

The females I bred last year didn't breed this year because of various reasons. The females that I bred this year was all virgins. So was the males too. I placed the males in the females cage for good. I.e the females and males was together for a month or so, until the they lost interest of eachother.

Sorry for your loss aswell.

Next year I have planned to rebuild an old fridge to a dry-incubator and then place the egss in own containers with lids on. Any experience with this sort of incubating?

Regards
Kim Hansson, Sweden

From the sounds of it, the dry period followed by a wet period could have been what did your clutches in - though I'm far from an expert. I've known one or two people who have had success in incubating in converted fridges. They seem to work quite well, though the top shelf tends to have higher temps than the bottom.

I have successfully used sealed egg containers (basically tupperware without holes and the larger deli containers with the holes taped over) to incubate our clutches for the last three years. Which helps to keep the humidity fairly constant. We open them at least once a week for oxygen exchange and once the expected hatching date gets close, we open up the holes or crack the lid just enough to let air flow freely.

I also have heard that peat moss tends to have PH issues, but people have successfully used to in the past. My husband and I use a mixture of vermiculite and perilite with spangum moss (Sp?) covering them for the first 6 weeks of incubation. Other people have used slightly damp paper towels with good results.

One thing you might consider, instead of placing the male in with the female for such a long period of time, is to set up a breeding cage or tupperware lined with paper towels that you place the male and female into after her first shed out of brumation. (or when she ovulates.) Leaving them in there until after the male is finished, or if they don't hook up right away and they seem interested, leaving them over night.

This set up lets you view the evidence that the pair has actually copulated with the female, in that you'll see a yellowish spill after they disengage. Whereas, if they are on aspen or some other substrate, you may never know if the pairing was 100% successful. At this point you can return them to their individual cages for a rest.

If you want them to be paired up more than once, to insure maximum fertilization, just put them in the breeding cage again after giving the male a couple of days to recover.