Lower incubation temps and babies hatching out faster?

[RobNJ]

I have in the past incubated at 89-90 degrees, and am still doing some clutches at that temp this year, but also have incubated my first 3 clutches at 86-87 degrees. All 3 of these clutches hatched and were out of the egg by days 53 and 54, perfectly healthy with fully absorbed yolks. The clutches at the higher temps have not hatched yet, but in the past, they've hatched and been out of the egg from days 57-62. It could be pure coincidence, and I have not hatched out enough clutches(on the high or low end of temps) to really draw any logical conclusions...or even educated guesses for that matter. I just find it really interesting, as I would have expected quite the opposite for the eggs incubated at lower temps.

The babies I've hatched out so far have been a little on the smaller side(46-60 grams), but I think that's just more of a result of them coming from smaller eggs, but is not something I'm overlooking either. I'll be monitoring them closely as they start feeding to see how quickly they take to food or if they are more stubborn starters.

Any thoughts on this? I really don't have any one way or the other, and if the babies all start feeding well I may do this again next year.

[Andybill]

I say keep us updated on their progress cuz I might try this too. very interesting to see that a couple degrees cooler made them come out of their eggs a few days sooner. You would think bringing the temps up a couple degrees would do it.

[Rat160]

Would be good to know, Im incubating at 89 degrees and today is day 57 and I got nothing yet. Actually considering cutting today.

[joebad976]

Interesting......

Kelly at Kellys balls did this experiment last year and got completely opposite results. It took longer for the eggs to hatch when incubated at a lower temp. No difference in feeding response, growth, male to female ratio etc. I am pretty sure she posted her study on here.

[Mike41793]

Very interesting results. You said that coincidentally the eggs incubated at a lower temp were also smaller so my guess would be that they just developed quicker so they were able to come out of the egg sooner.

[Andybill]

So what do you suppose could be other factors? What were the pairings of the clutches you incubated at lower temps? were they the same as the previous season? Hmmm. . . . I sense a lengthy science experiment!

Ok so just reread your post and saw that this was the first year!

[m00kfu]

How many days after POS were the eggs laid? Generally if the female takes longer than 30 days to lay you can expect them to hatch that many days earlier.

[rlditmars]

How many days after POS were the eggs laid? Generally if the female takes longer than 30 days to lay you can expect them to hatch that many days earlier.

Is this just your experience or is this something that other breeders will agree is an accurate statement?

[LLLReptile]

I routinely incubate my eggs at home at cooler temps, between 84 and 86. Mine usually hatch later, between day 60 and 70. However, my babies in general are slightly larger, and I have had better success with them feeding quickly.

I don't do any crazy large quantities of eggs to say for sure that the larger baby size and quicker feeding after hatching are a definite trend, but out of my last 8 clutches incubated at cooler temps, that was the trend I noticed.

I wouldn't say I did any kind of official scientific type study on it, just an anecdotal "This is what I've noticed".

Let us know how yours work out!

-Jen

[m00kfu]

Is this just your experience or is this something that other breeders will agree is an accurate statement?

It's what I've been told by other breeders, although if you keep your girls cooler it's going to take longer for the eggs to develop to the point of laying. I've always understood that counting the days from ovulation to hatching is more accurate than the lay date to hatching just for that reason.

As far as my personal experience goes, I keep things a bit cooler with my snakes. Ambient of 82, hot spot of 85, and incubator at 88. This year my girls are consistently laying right around 37 days after POS, and being incubated at 87-88 degrees they've consistantly hatched out around 60-62 days in the past years.