First clutch.......Problems!

ALright i just had my first clutch layed saturday(feb 28th). Well she layed them on wet newspaper as she was in shed.I never saw a prelay shed as she was imported.So i was not expecting anything until the end of march.Right from the get go i had bad problems with a lot of condensation.I read to take the probe out of the egg box.I did and still had problem.So i switched the eggs to a bigger box.The eggs are still getting wet.My mix was right i believe.Just wet enough to make a ball but fell apart easily.The humidity is at about 90% and the incubator temp is at 89.6.Is there anything i can do to cut the condensation down?Could i cover the eggs with papertowell until i can get it under control?

One egg has some off white slimey stuff on the top.What is that?One egg looks a little dimply but the humidity is pretty high.So what can i do?I can take pictures if it would help. Thanks

I have a good way to mix vermiculite... 1 litre vermiculite should weight 200g with water in..

2 litre 400g and so on...

I would not put papertowell on them it will get wet..

I use this way to incubate my eggs.. (there is water in the bottom )

http://www.kongepython.dk/billeder/rugekasse.jpg

Pics of the egg box would really help.. is the condensation on one sid of the box.

are the dark areas on the eggs normal?

the condensation is on all sides of the box.Ill snap a pic real quick.

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Originally Posted by pmott1

are the dark areas on the eggs normal?

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Depends it can be thin spots in the eggs which happens or it can be a wet spot that will mold if not dried off. Have to see it to really tell.

Heres a few pics i just took.
[IMG]http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t...oh/eggs006.jpg[/IMG]
http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t...oh/eggs007.jpg

The condinsation looks normal as long as its not dripping on the eggs. How ever the brown one on the right looks like a slug(dud) and the others look way wet.. I'd say get them up off of the substrate using some egg crate from Lowes and keep an eye on them

Ok thanks,ill go grap some light diffuser right now.Yeh i belive its a slug.But its not firm like theyre described.Ive heard stories of pieds hatching out of half slugs so i just put it in there.

Have you ever candle the eggs ?

it can be that the eggs is not fertilize and thats why they start to mold and shrink..

what is the perfect humidity for an egg box?

99% humidity.... pretty damn hard to maintain tho.

so as long as there is no water dripping on the eggs the higher the better?

Just wanted to updat a little.The 3 eggs that werent looking so good have since turned green.Im guessing they were infertile anyways . There are still 2 good eggs.Also the slug hasnt molded or started to rot which i figured it would?

I read your post above, but just wanted to say that the two eggs on the left in the pictures look to me like they had already gone bad. The waxy look, with the slight hints of blue is a dead giveaway.

Good Luck with the remaining two.

just an update. 4 eggs went bad.I believe my mix was too wet.The remaining egg is doing very well as i remixed.Thanks for everyones suggestions.

I candle every egg before it goes in the incubator. If it does not have veins -- it goes in the trash. 305 went in -- only 5 went bad. No need to spend time on infertile eggs or slugs. Candle EVERYTHING. :)

After seeing Bill's post, I wanted to interject my experience. I incubate everything. As Bill said, I candle everything (numerous times throughout incubation). Out of 14 questionable eggs last year, 4 of them went full term and hatched just fine. I say incubate it anyway. It will go bad if was never meant to be.

Just my .02,

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Originally Posted by muddoc

After seeing Bill's post, I wanted to interject my experience. I incubate everything.

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This may sound stupid, but slugs included? I've seen a number of pics where people have them in their egg boxes, but I'm just prone to tossing them out personally.

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Originally Posted by ctrlfreq

This may sound stupid, but slugs included? I've seen a number of pics where people have them in their egg boxes, but I'm just prone to tossing them out personally.

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Excellent catch. You act like a Lawyer finding loop holes. Actually, we don't not incubate slugs. What I meant was anything that is not a slug (i.e. if it looks remotely white), I give it the opportunity to go bad in due time in the bator.

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Originally Posted by muddoc

Excellent catch. You act like a Lawyer finding loop holes.

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I think I'm offended...or possibly flattered...

In either case, thanks for the clarification.

Certainly either call -- trash likely infertile eggs or incubate is all good. I don't put them in because I use the substrateless method and don't open the boxes until 2 weeks before hatch date as a rule. Being a "one man shop" with a full time job and more than a few snakes/clutches :snake:, I am looking for anyway to save time and stress where ever possible -- the candle and toss method does this for me I have found.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by snake-zone.dk

I have a good way to mix vermiculite... 1 litre vermiculite should weight 200g with water in..

2 litre 400g and so on...

I would not put papertowell on them it will get wet..

I use this way to incubate my eggs.. (there is water in the bottom )

http://www.kongepython.dk/billeder/rugekasse.jpg

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what kind of egg boxes are you using ? and where can i get them from?