My first clutch!!!!

I am so happy. I went to check the snakes like i do every morning and I got a nice surprise, my pinstripe had laid eggs!!!. This is the first time I succeed in breeding pythons so I am new at this.
I suspected she was pregnant, but she did not look too fat. I could not feel the eggs inside. She laid 6 healthy eggs and an additional one that I am not sure about it.
I do not have any other female mature enough to get pregnant, so this is the only clutch I will get this season. I just have a "little giant professional farm-grade incubator" (for chicks). It is not tall enough to feet inside a plastic shoe box, so I put the vermiculite in the bottom of the incubator, and the eggs on top. Do you think this setup will work.
What kind of incubator do you recommend if you only have one clutch? How do you setup the eggs. I can't afford converting an old refrigerator into an incubator just for one clutch.

Thanks in advance for your advice.
Will try to post some pictures.

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What temperature does that incubate the eggs at?

I try to keep it at 90 degrees. It is at 93 right now.

It's not ideal. As a temporary solution for this year it will work if you can get it to hold a stable temperature around 89 degrees and make sure the humidity is staying high enough, 93 is a bit too warm for my comfort. When you go to sleep and cant check it overnight you still want to be sure that the temps aren't getting too extreme.

A cheaper option to a fridge conversion would be a cooler(preferably igloo or something made of plastic) insert some heat tape and a small computer fan, hook the tape up to a thermostat (if you have a separate rack for the babies and only one clutch just buy a nice thermostat for them now an once they hatch move it from the incubator to the rack). The best advice I can give is to do the best you can right now. If the incubator you currently have is the current limit, try to make sure the temps and humidity are spot on and make your best go at it. If you can spare a little money and make an incubator you could use for this year and maybe a few in the future - then do that.

Best of luck to you with your clutch, the surprise of some new eggs is always exciting. :)

What humidity should I have in the incubator?


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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Alex Roca

What humidity should I have in the incubator?


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100%

The incubator temps will be more consistent run through a good thermostat.

Thank you very much for all your advice. I went ahead and bought a new thermostat for the incubator. I also started controlling the humidity and realized it was to low (85) and was not able to increase it no mater how much water I was adding. Therefore I decided to build my own incubator so I could place the eggs in a plastic shoebox and increase the humidity. (Please see pictures below). The max humidity I have been able to reach with the new setup is 95. Is that good enough?
What do you think about my home made incubator? with the new thermostat I had no problems keeping a stable 89-90 degree temperature.


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That looks really good man! 95 will work, could be the gauge isn't 100% accurate, but even if it is that's close enough that you won't have issues. It's hard to tell in your picture but is there something between the heat pad and the egg box? I like to have a little space so the air can move freely and there's no extreme hot spots between the heat and the egg box. It looks like you did a marvelous job though, good luck hatching out some babies!! :gj:

There is nothing between the heat pad and the eggs, but i can put a piece of plastic grid like the one that is inside the eggs box. I'll do it tonight. Thank you very much for the advice. I have an additional question: what do you think about the eggs at the bottom left of the picture. One is red in the middle (lack of calcium?), the other is small and has a cone shape. Do you think they will hatch?


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I think the plastic grid would work well for space between the heat and the tub.

It's definitely possible they'll both hatch. If you haven't done so recently, try candling them with a pen flashlight or something similar, if you see veins it's still a healthy egg. I wouldn't give up on those eggs unless you can tell for sure they're bad or they start getting moldy. If the boob egg hatches it will probably have a smaller than average baby inside (because of the size of the egg), but with proper care and appropriately sized meals it should do fine.

I have great news!!!!
I got home last evening after work and when I checked the incubator I saw several cute little heads poking out.
I am so happy with my first clutch!

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This morning even the small egg had hatch.
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Awwww they look so cute!!!! If mom's a pin, what's dad?

Awesome congrats! Can't wait until I can make a thread like this. What was the dad?

Dad IS most likely a pastel yellow belly but she spent some time with a firefly also although I never saw them locking.

So, here is a question for everyone, can you guess what is this morph? Dame is a pinstripe and sire can be a pastel-yellow belly or a firefly (pastel-fire). Could this one be a dragonfly (pastel pinstripe fire)?

http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/14...905ba3301f.jpg

Congrats!