The story, as I understand it, is that there was ONE vermiculite mine that had asbestos contamination of those that are out there, and so the odds are that you wont' get contaminated vermiculite...
BUT... my cornsnakes have had AWFUL luck this last two years that I am beginning to think mean I have a contaminated supply of vermiculite. Here's the stats regarding my cornsnake clutches:
Last year (first year hatching cornsnakes):
Clutch #1: 10 eggs... all deformed, some dead in the egg, none lived.
Clutch #2: 5 eggs, two hatched, three dead in the egg, both that hatched were kinked.
Clutch #3: 21 eggs, 19 went full term, of those only two produced viable babies, the rest were deformed, including one hideous monstrosity of a set of conjoined twins with their heart on the outside and fused heads...
Clutch #4: 3 eggs .... 2 preemie dead in the egg, and one deformed (clutch from same female as clutch #1)
After last year's problems I changed a LOT of things in case they were the source of my problems. All my clutches had the same daddy snake, so he didn't breed this year. I had an AC disaster, so tried to avoid that this year (and have). I used tap water to feed my snakes, my feeders and to moisten the vermiculite. (this year it's bottled water for the snakes, mice, and eggs). I also avoided using any sort of pesticide this year but not last year. And I felt last year that my eggs were over-moist, and had distress due to this, so this year I kept them almost bone dry (but moist enough).
My results so far this year:
Clutch #1 (same female as clutch #2 last year).... 10 eggs, 3 dead in the egg, 6 kinked, one perfect.
Clutch #2 (same female as clutch #1 last year).... 9 eggs, 8 dead in the egg at full term (some slit the egg, but never came out)... one perfect baby.
I have two more clutches incubating that are cornsnakes, one from an egg-bound female and the eggs aren't expected to actually produce anything viable (but I still have hopes for 7 of the 24 eggs laid). The next clutch was a shocker, not expected, and the eggs got dehydrated, laid by the snake who laid Clutch #2 this year. 5 out of 7 might make it.
NOW... since I still have problems I have come to feel that it is one of three things left that could be the source of the problem... ME, the Vermiculite, or all my corns have a dominant "bad" gene (which is not really statistically valid). I've had no trouble hatching kingsnakes last year or the year before, and my 5 clutches of kingsnake eggs this year are incubating nicely... so my final variable is the vermiculite. I won't use it again next year, instead I'll use Perlite or Sphagnum Moss.
