3 deformed pastels, any ideas why?

Well this is my first year breeding and I got a nice clutch of 9 eggs. One got moldy and the rest seemed fine. They hatched last week (I cut most of them after the first pipped). Well there are 4 pastels and 4 normals. All the normals were fine but only one of the pastels was fine. 3 of the pastels came out dead or deformed. All had deformities in the mouth and 2 of them were kinked badly. As far as I know the temperatures during incubation never changed drastically always staying between 87-90 and humidity was constantly above 90%. Could this just be genetic from the father pastel? If I breed him again next year you think the same thing will happen?

It sounds like an incubator issue. Deformed babies usually come from egg problems, so you may want to take a very close look at your incubation techniques.

I'm using a hova bator with a tub filled vermiculite. Their were no large temp swings that I am aware of, that's why it surprises me. I checked the temp and humidity most days and it never changed too much. I don't know whats up.

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Originally Posted by slither9192

I'm using a hova bator with a tub filled vermiculite. Their were no large temp swings that I am aware of, that's why it surprises me. I checked the temp and humidity most days and it never changed too much. I don't know whats up.

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Ive heard those hovabators are bad news. Next year I would go with something else.

Normally I would say incubator.. but you said the normals were fine. Were they all one clutch? Were the normals on one side, or any way that they would get different conditions?

....sometimes it just happens unfortunately.

I would point fingers at the incubator or incubation technique if they all hatched deformed, but seeings this was not the case....

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Originally Posted by JasonG

Ive heard those hovabators are bad news. Next year I would go with something else.

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Not always :colbert:.I used them and never had a single problem.To the OP sadly it happens sometimes the babies dont complete the development :(

Sorry about your clutch. :( If you have more than ONE badly kinked PASTEL in a clutch -- it is almost surely to be a HIGH TEMP problem (95+ degrees for more than 48 hrs.)

I would not trust what your temps are telling you -- your clutch is telling you something different. I would advise going wih a more substantial cooker next season. My 2 cents. Best of luck. :)

Hovabators are ok if you use a tub with a lid inside and a good thermostat.

Having said that I might mention I have never used one except for the last few days of incubation when sometimes I will put them on cam and do live streaming, letting people see them hatching online.

A friend just produced 4 normals and 3 mojave. All three mojave had kinked tails. 2 are being sold as pets as it's only minor. the other one had to be put to sleep :(

Beautiful animals. it was a sin. I had heard from some people that sometimes genes just don't agree.
Try the same pairing next year. if you get the same problem than you can prove it to be a genetics issue between mommy and daddy? But I found very little info to back this theory.

I had a similar problem last year one baby had a deformed mouth and did not survive. The same male produced 5 clutches last year and 6 this year including the clutch with the same pairing. Zero more have been deformed.
Sometimes this just happens and I would agree to try the same pairing again to find out exactly why. Key is not to change incubation methods, change one thing at a time to find out why. Hope this helps.
Jonas

Well I'm not sure if these were the eggs closer to the top but I would imagine the top eggs being hotter because they are closer to the heating element. In the end I have 1 pastel and 4 normals all healthy. I guess I'll have to see next year.

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Originally Posted by Dave763

Hovabators are ok if you use a tub with a lid inside and a good thermostat.

.

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This is what I did, although the week before they hatched I took the cover off because the humidity was getting high.

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Originally Posted by slither9192

This is what I did, although the week before they hatched I took the cover off because the humidity was getting high.

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Did you use the thermostat that came with the hovabator, or did you use another thermostat instead?

The Hovabators make for bad incubators. And thats because its not a stable temp. The hovabator turns off and on evey few minutes. Heat up cool down heat up cool down. See where im going with this? You need a solid unchanging temp especially in the first few days.

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Originally Posted by rabernet

Did you use the thermostat that came with the hovabator, or did you use another thermostat instead?

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I used the thermostat that came with it but also put a digital thermometer/hygrometer in with it. I feel stupid now because I had a ranco thermostat I could have used. :tears:

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Originally Posted by Darkice

The Hovabators make for bad incubators. And thats because its not a stable temp. The hovabator turns off and on evey few minutes. Heat up cool down heat up cool down. See where im going with this? You need a solid unchanging temp especially in the first few days.

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Ya, what does anyone suggest for a better incubator for next year?

Or is a good thermostat enough?

Natures Spirit Incubators are a great choice..

And thermostats should be, in my opinion, proportional for incubators, so I would suggest Herpstat or Helix.

By the way, I still stand by my thought on it being the incubator issue. Lets put it this way.. Just as the odds for hatching out Pastels are, so were the odds on hatching out your kinked babies due to the incubator. It just happened to be the Pastels.. I'm sorry, and good luck!

O no i just got a free hovabater...i think i no y it was free now....

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Originally Posted by slither9192

I used the thermostat that came with it but also put a digital thermometer/hygrometer in with it. I feel stupid now because I had a ranco thermostat I could have used. :tears:

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A Ranco certainly would have been better than the wafer thermostat that comes with the Hovabator, but I agree with Heather, I use a Helix for my incubator.

Incubators are so easy to make, and I've heard way too many horror stories about hovabators - there are some success stories, but there were too many tragic stories for me to ever trust a ball python clutch to a chicken incubator.

I use a mini-fridge that has a fan and a strip of flexwatt and a Helix, and I've (knock on wood) hatched 5 clutches in it so far with no issues. I know that's not a large sampling, but it's been worry free.

Deborah made an incubator using Degei's design.
http://www.eyehit.com/degei/supportf.../inc/index.htm

...one of my incubators was made using the hovabator heating element. Seeings you already have a hovabator, get yourself a nice sized cooler, a T-stat and you have a hovabator on steroids. :D

I never lost a clutch in this guy. No spikes.

http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...ghlight=cooler