My first clutch! Help me out!

[TheShortBus]

Hey all! So I've been in and out of keeping balls for the past 10 years. I've never attempted breeding until this year though. I snagged a few proven female spiders late 2018 and have been pairing my two males to them since October. I had not seen any signs of gravid females aside from them refusing food, which they do occasionally anyway. Work and life had gotten very busy unfortunately and my husbandry has been extremely lacking in the last month. Unfortunately I've done nothing but feed, water, and remove large waste the last few weeks. Not thinking much of the one female not eating.

Well I came home last night to do a long over due deep cleaning on the rack to find one of my girls sitting on 3 eggs and two off to the side very sunken in. The 3 she was on where also dempled but I've seen viable clutches like that before. I will include pictures below!

Seeing that I truly have no idea when she laid them I'm going to estimate the due date about 5-7 days early just to call it safe and make sure to check on them regularly around that time.

Eggs 1,2, and 3 all seemed to candle well! 4 and 5 how ever seem to be too far gone. I'm going to keep them in incubation for the time being to see if the humidity makes them plump back up any.

My incubator is a little crude but it really seems to be holding steady temps! Used a small but taller tub. Put 250grams of vermiculite and 250 grams of water. I sealed the top of the tub with press and seal and drilled teo small holes in either side just for ventilation. The tub sits on a 11×12" peice of flex wat that's tied to my racks ve-300 set at 91*. I have also stuck a zoomed 4wat heater to the tub not on a thermostat. The temperature seems to be staying steady at 89.3*-90* and 99% humidity. I may end up plugging the little 4w into the thermostat as well, but its seems to be working perfectly.

Has anyone else had eggs that looked like potatoes before lol?

[rufretic]

Hard to tell what your talking about without a picture but if your saying what I think, the dimpling like a patatoe, yes my first clutch of 7 where all dimpled very badly but all were good healthy eggs and hatched out perfect little babies. The eggs were pretty ugly and I thought they might be bad but after researching it, it does happen sometimes and doesn't have any affect on the health of the hatchlings. So I incubated them and that turned out to be correct. I'm not sure why it happens or how often, none of my clutches since have looked like that, but it's nothing to be concerned about.

Now if you're talking about concaved, large areas sunken in, then I believe it could be a problem. If I remember right, it's what happens when they get too dry.

Post a picture and we should be able to give you a better idea if they are alright.

[TheShortBus]

Ha wow im completely forgot to upload them!! Also an update on the incubator box. Took three 4 watt zoomed pads. One on each side and one on the top, as well as the flex watt on the underside. All plugged into the racks thermostat set to 91* on pulse mode. The internal temp of the tub is now staying at at stable 88-88.5*! I'll still probably order a real incubator from work this week but I'm very happy with how the temp has been holding all day.

Ok so first up are the two possible sires! BEL (mojave/lesser) and the Pastel Coral Glow. My moneys on the BEL as hes already proven and he locked the most.






Now the female Spider and the clutch just how I found it.

[TheShortBus]

Now here's each egg being candled. #4 and #5 where not under her when I found them and extremely sunken in. Its hard to see but they do both still have veins so im keeping them in the incubator box for now. And a few shots of my super crude incubator set up.

[fatSNAKEs]

<. I sealed the top of the tub with press and seal and drilled teo small holes in either side just for ventilation. >

... given your situation, you're doing all the right things. My only recommendation is to completely seal the tubs, NO holes for ventilation are necessary. So tape the holes. They're in the egg and don't need any oxygen ... right now you need 100% humidity to plump these guys to survive. Keep us posted and good luck!

[TheShortBus]

Thanks I'll keep that in mind! I followed Brian Gundy's set up for this aside from the press and seal and my heating pads. I originally didn't have the holes drilled and I found moisture building up around the outside edge of the top seal and as creeping in about an inch. Was afraid of it building up more and dripping onto of the eggs. I drilled the holes just to see if it would help release a small bit of humidity. It honestly it did t seem to make a difference at all as the humidity hasnt dropped below 99%.

[TheShortBus]

Well down to 3. Last night I tossed the two sunken in eggs. I noticed my incubator box started to smell so I candled them all again. The other three still look great, but the other two no longer had any red in them what so ever. They where solid yellow

[rufretic]

That's too bad but I think from the looks of them, it was a slim chance they'd survive from the get go. At least you have 3 good ones, much better than none. Good luck with the remaining time incubating.

[TheShortBus]

UPDATE!

Today marks day 42 ASSUMING she laid them the day I found them. As mention previously I had not been home much that week to do anything but give them fresh water so I had only been pulling out the the long 41qt tubs to grab their bowls and take a quick look for any messes. There is a good chance this could be day 50+ because I did not notice her sitting on the eggs and the two she had rolled out when I did find them where on the opposite side of the tub.

Anyway egg #2 has really worrying me. I swear it has gotten as flat as a pancake. Even though it was still showing some veins I was not seeing any movement it just looked like a big glob of nothing. Curiosity got the best of me and I decided to cut it open last night..

I only cut the window quite large still being careful to not damage what was left of it as I was going to try and use it as a specimen display. Low and behold their is a perfectly healthy developed snake. I'm regretting not just waiting to do this until next week now but again theirs a good chance they are farther along than when I found them. It for sure got the spider gene and the coloring is so light! Id say my BEL is the sire and this is a Lesserbee. Very excited to see the others now and crossing my fingers this guy pulls through. I've got the egg cupped in small delli container now to keep the yolk from spilling out the sides and have a damp paper towel draped across that I plan on changing out every few day. I'm not too concerned as I've read some people cut as early as 30 days and others 40-45. It seems to be looked down on and I agree. I wold not have done this If i wasn't sure it was gone. Wish me luck!


Pictures to come!

[Bogertophis]

...My only recommendation is to completely seal the tubs, NO holes for ventilation are necessary. So tape the holes. They're in the egg and don't need any oxygen ... right now you need 100% humidity to plump these guys to survive. Keep us posted and good luck!

For what it's worth, when I've successfully incubated snake eggs (not BPs), I've had a few pin-holes for ventilation & to alleviate excessive humidity.

To say "they're in the egg & don't need any oxygen" isn't exactly true...that's why eggs can drown when too moist- for example when dripped upon from excess humidity,
or when covered over with damp substrate.

ShortBus...I'd really quit cutting into the eggs for best results.