First year of breeding

[CurtisCr79]

Ok, this is my fist year breeding. It was kinda unexpected, I purchased a pair to breed next year and it turned out she already had eggs in her. Well I have had the eggs cooking and next Thursday will be day 55. I have had a couple issues during incubation with to much condensation in the incubator causing my heating element to go out. I have been lucky enough to catch this within a day. The first time the temp got down into the lower 80's. I have seen movement when candled since then, but they seem so small compared to the size of the egg. I also am not seeing any dimpling of the eggs. With the hatch date only a week away, should they have dimples? When would this start? I was originally going to cut on day 55, but have been thinking maybe I should wait till day 60.

Anyways, with this being my first year I have a couple of concerns. The eggs seem to be mainly fluid, could this be just the fact that the eggs are kinda big? Or did something go wrong when the heating element went out? When should the eggs start to dimple? I am at day 47 and thought I would have seen some by now. With my situation, should I cut or not? I really want this clutch to survive because the guy I her from had spider and pastel males that he was selling as known breeders. It case it makes a difference the temps have been between 86F and 89F.

Here is a picture of the eggs.

[sho220]

I wish I could remember where I got this info from, but it was a reputable breeder...


"Much has been written about incubation, too much in fact. In truth, a healthy clutch
will hatch in just about anything other than the glove compartment of your car. The only
requirements are that humidity be held rather high and that temperatures stay within
reason. We hatch all of our Ball Pythons at 88-92 degrees, but it can vary a bit. I've
seen eggs hatch anywhere from 78 to over 90 degrees with no ill effects. During a spring
power outage at our facility, our eggs cooled to 65 degrees for a period of at least
twelve hours, and all hatched without problems. Stable temperatures are not as important
as most breeders believe. In fact, recent research indicates that some variation in
temperature may actually produce a more even sex ratio in the hatchlings and produce
larger, stronger hatchlings.

Eggs usually hatch around 52-60 days of incubation. When babies start pipping we
move them into a hatch box which is a slightly larger container with moist paper
towels and extra ventilation holes. They remain in this container until they leave
the egg completely. At that time we rinse them off and place them into a tub with
moist paper towels, many hiding places and a shallow fresh water dish."

At any rate...not much you can do now other than hope for the best...

[LadyOhh]

Don't cut.

Keep incubating.

I would wait until day 60, personally, if they haven't already pipped on their own.

Good luck, and keep an eye on them

[CurtisCr79]

Thanks for the info. It makes me feel a little better. My fingers are crossed and I will wait till at least day 60 before I cut.

Thanks
Curtis