My First Crested Hatchling! :)

Hi Everyone!

I'm sure some of you know of my troublesome history with my crested eggs, well tonight I've had a break through!! Or should I say that a baby of mine had a break through coming out of its egg! The little babe looks to be in healthy shape, looks pretty big. The egg swelled up to a maximum weight of 5.0g yesturday (weight when it was laid was 2.4g), and today I came home after being out for 20 minutes, and found it almost out of the egg, with just it's tail and back legs still in there.

I will post pics in a few minutes!

Sorry, I only have one pic right now. I've moved it into a critter keeper, on paper towel, with egg carton to climb on, some fruit smoothie in a dish, and water in a dish and gave it a light spray.

I incubated the last half on coco fibre, as everything else seemed to give me problems. I incubated at room temp, which is anywhere from 71-79F, but mostly in the 75F range. It took 63 days. This one's clutch mate went moldy a while back, but I've kept incubating it separately, and we'll see how it goes.

Thanks for looking!! I'll get more pics later, once it's settled. I don't want to stress the little one out too much, so they will be pics from the outside of the critter keeper.

It is very exciting that I know. Congrats!!

Congrats!!! Fantastic to catch them in the act. Enjoy your lil one.

Amanda,

I am no crested expert but I do have 100% hatch rate with perilite. I use small sandwich containers with no holes and put in enough water until i can clump it but that it still breaks up easily in my hand.

I do not use heat, I just stick the containers on a shelf in a reptile room.

Maybe this will help for better hatch rates?

thanks, andrew

that's great to hear Amanda...congrats

good luck with the future ones...not sure what to say about coco fiber...I think Anthony Caponetto was saying that it ruined his eggs if he left them in the nest box with coco fiber too long...maybe you'll have better luck with it

not sure what the temps are where you are now but are they high enough now to try room temp?

Congratulations! Glad to see you have some success!

Thanks everyone for the kind words!


About the choice of substrate: I was using perlite, but it was causing more problems, such as when a hatchling tried to get out of the bottom of the egg, the perlite just clogged the hole, so the little one couldn't get out. I talked to 3 prominent breeders of cresteds in my area, and they all said that they have been using coco fibre for incubating for years, so I decided to try it, seeing as my current solution was not working. I have had no problems with the coco fibre ruining any eggs yet, but I've only had 3 since then, and 2 are still incubating, but have no visible signs of problems. Maybe the stuff I can buy in Canada is different than the stuff in the states. It's definitely made by a canadian company, so perhaps the way that they process it makes the difference. Who knows!? It seems to be working for now, and if it ever seems not to be working, then I will change my ways yet again.

About the temps: Yes, the temperature in my house is now suitable to incubate then at room temperature. I was reading a forum on ssnakess.com that showed the difference in crested hatchling size depending on the temperature, it was amazing the difference! The one incubated at ~68F was about 3 weeks bigger than the one incubated at ~78F. I'm going to try to incubate my eggs at a lower temperature, I just have to find somewhere in my house that is that cool!

Thanks again!

Here's another pic. I'll keep posting them as I take more at each feeding. Enjoy!

very cute...good luck