need help

[chago11]

i bought some cresties last summer 1 male and 4 females but i want to know whats the best mix of bedding to put the eggs in. i've been told to put them in a container and put the container in the closet which i have done but after 1.5 months the eggs die. what can i do.? should i inccubate? what temp?

[bad-one]

This is my first year breeding and I'm using eco earth with great success.

The trickiest thing imo is getting humidity right, too wet or too dry will kill eggs. With eco earth you want it to be moist enough to clump up when to squeeze it but not to be able to squeeze water out. (at least thats how I do it)

I like temps to be 75-78*F. From 72-80*F is the temp range many people incubate in

Also what are you feeding the geckos?

If this is the females first season you are a lot more likely to get infertile eggs, eggs that just die, or eggs that simply never hatch.

[chago11]

its not her first year breeding. i bought these from a friend who was going over seas and i have watched their eggs hatch but i cant get them to hatch. they are eating cgd and dusted crickets

[mainbutter]

Tell us more about your setup. Temps, humidity, everything.

I keep around 80-95% humidity. I use plain perlite as my substrate with great success. I like it better than hatch-rite or perlite/vermiculite mixtures.

I keep my temps at ~74 degrees. Room temp, no heat or cooling.

All I do is use perlite, soak it in water, squeeze out as much water as I can, and place it in a tupperware. I cover the tupperware with its top. Bam, egg container. It really is that simple. Perlite is great because the bottom layer can be pretty wet to provide humidity and the top layer can be a bit drier to keep the eggs from direct water contact. No precise mixing required at all.

I had a few clutches go sour early this year, and I blame it on fluctuating room temperatures during summer. No A/C causes problems with that. I just had my last clutch of the season hatch out on x-mas day.

[RichsBallPythons]

are you able to keep a room heated at 75-77 during incubation period. At those temps your only concern would be moisture levels being too low.

I have succesfully done corn snake eggs at 81 room temp for 100% hatch rate, and im sure you could as well with a controlled room temp for the cresties.

[mainbutter]

81 degrees is pretty darn high for cresties. You might hatch some eggs, but hatch rate goes down significantly over 76 degrees. They also hatch out much smaller.

Cresties incubate at a lower temp than most snake eggs, as they are usually buried a few inches under soil in new caledonia, not in a nest and incubated by a female for months.

Many people incubate as low as 65 degrees. I prefer a warmer temp for faster hatching (I really don't like my eggs taking 150 days to hatch) and I don't use a heating or cooling element, so 74 (aka my room temp) is my chosen incubating temp.

[RichsBallPythons]

81 degrees is pretty darn high for cresties. You might hatch some eggs, but hatch rate goes down significantly over 76 degrees. They also hatch out much smaller.

Cresties incubate at a lower temp than most snake eggs, as they are usually buried a few inches under soil in new caledonia, not in a nest and incubated by a female for months.

Many people incubate as low as 65 degrees. I prefer a warmer temp for faster hatching (I really don't like my eggs taking 150 days to hatch) and I don't use a heating or cooling element, so 74 (aka my room temp) is my chosen incubating temp.

Did i ever state to incubate cresties at 81. I merely stated with a temp controlled room you can have a 100% success rate as i did with my corn egg incubation at room temp. When incubating at a controlled room your only worry would then be humidity in the tubs.

[mainbutter]

I was just making sure that the OP didn't take it as such, please don't take it as a personal attack.

[chago11]

i have been using perlite/vermiculite mixture humidity is at 74% and temps are 75-77 the eggs last about 50-55 days and then they flatten out. i cant figure it out. are the eggs just drying out? or are they getting to wet? should i use a incubator and see if it works for me? i have even tried leaving the eggs in the tank to see if they hatch.