Old School Incubating

[LOSTCOAST_BALLZ]

we had an awesome convo on the natural v incubator method thread. anatess is the go to for natural incubation!

[anatess]

we had an awesome convo on the natural v incubator method thread. anatess is the go to for natural incubation!

Not me... I learned most of what I know from Quiet Tempest. She's the reason I went with maternal incubation.

[anatess]

Yeah but even if you do that it won't matter... if you go in and see one has been flipped, it's still flipped and the egg has probably had it at that point.

I looked and looked but I couldn't find it anymore. Somebody did an experiment on the "flipping eggs" theory. I thought it was a thread on bp.net but I can't find it in the search.

If I remember correctly, there was no conclusive evidence that flipping an egg harms the baby.

But, just by logical thinking, I think if the egg rolls over when the snake is already big enough in the egg could cause the umbilical cord to get wrapped around the snake.

My observation with maternal incubation is that the eggs are "stuck" together so that it is not an easy task to get them flipped.

[ace_singapore]

IMO if you have an ambience temp at a constant 88 and humidity of around 90%, I don't see why you shouldn't let the nature takes its course.

[LotsaBalls]

I let my only female breeding do it herself (mostly) last year. I started with five good eggs. She rolled two out after a day or so and I marked them and put them back. She pushed them out again within a day and they soon went bad. About three weeks later I (she) was down to two eggs. Both hatched but one had to be put down it was kinked bad. I'm planning on having an incubator setup this year.

[anatess]

I let my only female breeding do it herself (mostly) last year. I started with five good eggs. She rolled two out after a day or so and I marked them and put them back. She pushed them out again within a day and they soon went bad. About three weeks later I (she) was down to two eggs. Both hatched but one had to be put down it was kinked bad. I'm planning on having an incubator setup this year.

It is possible that those 2 eggs were bad that's why mama snake rolled them out. Bad eggs will go bad even in the incubator. Kinked snakes, snakes wrapped in its umbilical cord, snake with 2 heads, snake with its heart on the outside... all these things happen in the incubator.

But yeah, the good thing about using the incubator is you get to control the entire thing yourself so that if an egg goes bad there's no question about it.

And yes, that's the bad thing about maternal incubation too. The mama snake has control, we're just the sidekick, so that if an egg goes bad, we are always left to wonder if mama snake is to blame.

[Chris Knowles]

Maybe I'm just confused, but with maternal incubation, wouldn't raising the humidity to 90% put the mother at risk for RI? From what I have read and heard, an environment that is too moist can cause RI. Am I wrong about that?

[dr del]

Hi,

This is the thread about eggs getting turned around during incubation.


dr del

[TrpnBils]

I looked and looked but I couldn't find it anymore. Somebody did an experiment on the "flipping eggs" theory. I thought it was a thread on bp.net but I can't find it in the search.

If I remember correctly, there was no conclusive evidence that flipping an egg harms the baby.

But, just by logical thinking, I think if the egg rolls over when the snake is already big enough in the egg could cause the umbilical cord to get wrapped around the snake.

My observation with maternal incubation is that the eggs are "stuck" together so that it is not an easy task to get them flipped.

Yeah I've heard both ways but prefer to err on the side of caution I guess. I think the first time I actually saw eggs being flipped was on a RDR video (not 100% sure though) where the breeder was turning them all over the place as he took them out from the female. Whoever it was didn't seem at all concerned with it, but it seems like maybe the time in incubation might affect it.

For example, when the female is laying the eggs, obviously they're getting rolled around and it has no effect on them. I'm wondering if once everything settles and the embryo grows it becomes more of a problem for it to move. This is just a guess on my part, not scientific data.

[Quiet Tempest]

Yeah but even if you do that it won't matter... if you go in and see one has been flipped, it's still flipped and the egg has probably had it at that point.

I maternally incubate and the eggs usually fuse together shortly after being laid so that they stay in place. It doesn't always happen that way, though. Last year one of my females laid eggs that were snowflaked and didn't adhere to one another. Not once but TWICE I had an egg roll out of the pile when the mom would move to get a drink or eat. I was worried to death about that egg and frequently candled it to see the baby move inside. As it turned out, it was perfectly fine and hatched alongside its siblings without any trouble.