Egg Questions

[jonarnold85]

Hi All!

Looking for some help with a few questions. With the help of some friends and the people of this forum I've got healthy eggs in the incubator but now I've got a few additional questions. I've got 5 currently healthy eggs incubating. All candled with nice veins. I'm using press and seal in a tub with no air holes. Temps and humidity are remaining perfect within the tub. I'm "burping" them every few days to circulate some new air and plan to do it daily once I hit somewhere around day 50. So here are my questions:

1) How long can I continue to candle the eggs?
2) How long is it ok to have the tub out of the incubator for?
3) Should I start daily burping sooner than I mentioned above?
4) Anything else I should know?

Thanks!

[Bogertophis]

While candling doesn't harm the eggs, I would personally "error on the side of caution" and not do it more than once a week, especially since yours
are in an actual incubator. (When I bred snakes- not BPs- I was able to incubate all my eggs successfully at my normal room temperature- I lived in
the desert then & have always prefered to use minimal A/C.)

You want to keep the egg temperatures steady, & it's impossible to tell you how long it's OK for them to be out of the incubator because we have no
idea what your room temperature is. My guess is that you wouldn't need the incubator if your house was that warm...? So be quick about it.

I've used plastic wrap over the containers too, but didn't "burp" it: instead, I put a few pin-holes in the plastic for the eggs to breathe- that works too.
It also keeps flying insects (that may lay eggs) out of the eggs better than opening the plastic.

The only reason I ever removed the plastic was if I happened to get condensation on the plastic, then I'd remove it for a bit to get the humidity correct.
I'm sure you're aware that condensation on the plastic can drip onto the eggs & 'drown' them?

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Stop messing with your eggs, candle once when laid, put in the incubator and air out every other day during the last week of incubation, the more you mess with them the more you are bound to have issues such as the eggs drying out since every time you are letting moisture out.

[paulh]

....

1) How long can I continue to candle the eggs?
2) How long is it ok to have the tub out of the incubator for?
3) Should I start daily burping sooner than I mentioned above?
4) Anything else I should know?

Thanks!

I have never incubated ball python eggs. These answers are things I learned from incubating colubrid eggs.

1. One successful candling is enough. Handle eggs as little as possible. As I said to myself as an egg slipped out of my fingers and went bouncing across the floor.

2. 10 minutes. Less is better.

3. Depends on how big the incubation box is. The bigger the box, the more O2 is in the box.

4. Herpers need glacial patience.

Good luck.

[Bogertophis]

Just to clarify: when I candled snake eggs, I seldom picked them up...so less chance of dropping them. I just opened the plastic & candled them
in place, as "planted" in moist vermiculite, then re-covered them. The biggest reason to re-candle them is if they started to develop mold or funny
colors...they still might be good, but you want to know & toss them if they aren't, so the mold doesn't spread & a rotten egg doesn't attract flies.

Besides the chance of slipping & dropping one, another reason not to handle them is that you might get distracted & mess up their orientation...
they must not be turned.

I certainly 'second' what paulh said: whether you're waiting for to eggs to hatch, trying to get a fussy snake to feed on a different color rodent, or waiting
while they insist on eating it backwards or sideways, we herpers DO need "glacial patience".