Quote Originally Posted by nimblykimbly View Post
LOL you are right about that! I don't care what kind of babies I get - as long as they don't cry and are healthy! I just can't wait for the experience! You have got to be on pins and needles; I know I am! I got this girl already glowing and hoped and prayed that during transport she wouldn't reabsorb her follicles (I picked her and a few others up, and had to travel 9+ hours with them) and I just wish I KNEW what stage she is in. Every day she just gets bigger and more miserable looking... lol I don't think she has ovy-ed yet.

I have my incubator all set up and running already too! I need to get one more thermometer, I think... I have one and the probe is hanging about 1/3 the way down inside and the temp stays right at 88.2... I want a probe for further down. I am trying to incubate at between 87-89. I also want to get a tub set up and test it inside the incubator. I am so paranoid! lol
That's hilarious and absolutely on the healthy babies, minimum crying, please! I'm excited to see the process, start to finish with her and her little ones. Doing my best not to stress it and the incubator was the biggest worry I had but since that's done, now it's just a matter of waiting...which I'm terrible at, lol! That's awesome that you bought yours glowing/hopefully gravid. I don't know how a car trip of that duration would effect her or if it would make any difference or not. I worried about that with this girl, if the flight over from Africa and then from Virgina to my house would have a negative impact on her or not. I'm hoping she's as hardy as they're rumored to be and that it won't have any adverse effects on her or her eggs. That's funny you mention that about the thermometer probe; I have one set up that same way and considered getting another one as well to monitor the temps closer to the bottom of the incubator where the egg box would be located. I also bought and wired a computer fan to hook up if the temps fluctuate too much from top to bottom but so far I haven't needed it.

Tomorrow I'm mixing up the vermiculite and setting up an egg tub to get it warmed up and ready to go so I can make adjustments if I need to. Seems like it never ends and amen to being paranoid, lol! I could stand it if something goes wrong or the eggs were slugs or she doesn't go but if it was something I did that caused me to lose the clutch...I might take up scrapbooking instead and sell my snakes rather than risk losing a clutch again, lol! I was shooting for a range on the temp too, as from what I've read that's more realistic and mirrors natural conditions more closely. I've read (true or not, I don't know)that babies that are incubated with a mild range of temps (2-3 degrees variation) tend to be healthier/more robust out of the egg than ones that are hatched at a constant temp, so long as it's a gradually increase/decrease cycle and not a massive spike or drop, which can lead to deformities and such. This is a first for me as far as trying to hatch any out, so it's been a constant debate of what temps to incubate at, substrate or substrateless incubation method, build an incubator or buy one, etc. My wife and I are expecting our first toward the end of May, so if that's anything like what this is, I'm sunk, lol! I thought this would be a great distraction from worrying about drywalling, painting, picking nursery furniture, OB appointments, childbirthing classes, etc. and instead, I'm a worse wreck now than what I was just thinking about A baby instead of multiples! AC/DC's "Crazy Train" comes to mind quite often, for whatever reason, lmao!