Getting some rat snake eggs..

[Ginevive]

Well, Mark sprung something on me; my friend's yellow rats bred, and she has some eggs; wants me to incubate them here with my incubator. Well, I am pretty nervous; I don't even know, is it safe to take them from a rubbermaid with an UTH for heat, and put them into the Inc? I am pretty scared for them; wish I could have just gotten them after laying but it doesn't look like they'll be here until tomorrow evening.
Geez, I love surprises... hopefully this all goes OK.

[joepythons]

Well, Mark sprung something on me; my friend's yellow rats bred, and she has some eggs; wants me to incubate them here with my incubator. Well, I am pretty nervous; I don't even know, is it safe to take them from a rubbermaid with an UTH for heat, and put them into the Inc? I am pretty scared for them; wish I could have just gotten them after laying but it doesn't look like they'll be here until tomorrow evening.
Geez, I love surprises... hopefully this all goes OK.

Jen,as long as the person has kept them warm and enough humidity they should be ok to place in the incubator.Do you have it turned on now and set at 80 degrees? If not please do so .Have you ever incubated any eggs before? If not respond here and i will fill you in .

[Ginevive]

I tried incubating the BP eggs my female had last year, but unfortunately they molded off and died; I think that the problem was that I unknowingly sprayed water directly onto them in the beginning; I had no idea this was bad but now I know.. but I will definately turn that sucker on and get it pre-calibrated now.

[joepythons]

I tried incubating the BP eggs my female had last year, but unfortunately they molded off and died; I think that the problem was that I unknowingly sprayed water directly onto them in the beginning; I had no idea this was bad but now I know.. but I will definately turn that sucker on and get it pre-calibrated now.

Jen,i am sorry i forgot about that .Well get the incubator at 80 and keep the vermiculite kinda moist and in around 60 days you should get some pippers.You will know within a week if the eggs are good or bad.When you do get the eggs make a mark on the top as they lay in the container they bring the eggs to you in.Make sure this mark is up still when you transfer them to the container you are using in the incubator.I check my eggs maybe once a week to see if it needs any water added or not.Let me know if you have any questions

[Ginevive]

OK, I just got home w/ the eggs and the inc. is at a steady 80 degrees; they were in a heated tank so the temps aren't way off. I am going to go set things up right now! There are SO many of them! (think, 12? ) Wow...!

[Ginevive]

Here they be! 15 of the little suckers.. I am definately keeping one if they do hatch out.

[joepythons]

Jen,it looks like a couple are really dimpled in.It should come back up after they get some humidity going on.If you want to you can hold them up to a light to see if you can see any veins.This is totaly up to you though,if you do make sure not to turn the egg as it will move the embryo.Well wishes for the next 60 odd days till we see some pippers .

[Ginevive]

I am debating on candling them. It is pretty bad, but they were at a pretty low humidity in the tank at my friend's store.
I am really thinking of keeping one if they do hatch; I was never crazy about the parents, that my friend owns; both are skittish as heck, but I figured if I have one from birth, I can accustom it to handling..
This got me pretty mad; but after laying the eggs, my friend says that the female has escaped. She really could have had a better-locking lid on the tank; only the male was left in the tank, ignoring the eggs of course. I feel abd because the mother is probably dead or a least will be, since she probably got out of the store and into the woods or creek area, or worse, the road, as it is in a rural area.
They did seem pretty dried out though; but they were in moist cypress over there, so they weren't done-dry. Maybe the dimplings came from the warmer substrate (UTH) with cooler ambient temps?
I just hope I am doing all I can now for them.

[joepythons]

I am debating on candling them. It is pretty bad, but they were at a pretty low humidity in the tank at my friend's store.
I am really thinking of keeping one if they do hatch; I was never crazy about the parents, that my friend owns; both are skittish as heck, but I figured if I have one from birth, I can accustom it to handling..
This got me pretty mad; but after laying the eggs, my friend says that the female has escaped. She really could have had a better-locking lid on the tank; only the male was left in the tank, ignoring the eggs of course. I feel abd because the mother is probably dead or a least will be, since she probably got out of the store and into the woods or creek area, or worse, the road, as it is in a rural area.
They did seem pretty dried out though; but they were in moist cypress over there, so they weren't done-dry. Maybe the dimplings came from the warmer substrate (UTH) with cooler ambient temps?
I just hope I am doing all I can now for them.

Wow that is bad they let mom escape .Jen you are giving these eggs the best chance they will have if they are infact fertile.Do you know why i say this? Its because you care enough to try to get them to hatch out .Now let me make sure i read this correctly,they had dad in with mom while she was gravid .That has probably made her so stressed out and then some .

[Ginevive]

Yup, you're right.. they were in the same tank. I bet mom couldn't wait to fly the coop.. pretty sad
The eggs look pretty good now; really un-denting a lot since the humidity they're in, is great. If you look at the image here of the eggs in the tackle-box thingie (first pic on this thread) you can see, it is a really nifty container; I added some water to the verm of course, but also some in the empty spaces in the container; with the lid closed, it's a darned nice humidity container!