indigo eggs

lol, never had a bald head. Heck, I was born with hair.

As I said before, D. couperi are easy, wait until you've hatched out and started a few clutches of D. m unicolor or better yet D. corais. Of course it's easier now, as old timers like Doug T., Dean A., Fred B. and myself have worked out most of the kinks for you! ;0) Saving you guys much grief and even more of your hairline!
Heck, even Greg Maxwell got out of Drymarchon and took up Chondros, back in the day, to save his hairline! LOL

Now play nice,

Jeff

Holy Crap,...B.W.,...you look just like my nephew! I wonder if my brother ever went to Georgia.

It's o.k. Jeffro, ...it's all in fun. Let's see one of your shiny cranium.

Iv'e been talking to Greg Maxwell. Tempting him to come back, and picking his brain on incubation techniques. ie; the substrate free method. I'm thinking of trying it at some point. Has anyone, to your knowledge ever tried that method on drymarcon eggs? And would you share your method? I know youv'e told me a thousand times, but perhaps others would like to read about your incubation technique.

Go ahead and stop the car dad, I need to pee.
T.

Well it looks like I missed quite the hair discussion.

I was glad to hear the questions on substarate though. I have a question?

Last year I kept all my eggs in two Styrofoam incubators and through our local herp. group and V Willis came up with my strategy. The eggs were all in vermiculite, in plastic container without lid and I was told to keep these very moist. So I misted frequently and my down fall i thought was the lack of drainage and once noticed the bottoms all bloated out and they were lost.

This year moist sand as I have done with all my alligator snapping turtle eggs which 100% hatch and put them in plastic lid covered shoe boxes and was leaving well enough alone(its the 1 month mark on the first clutch so i wanted to check in). I checked them tonight and I still have mild bloating and some even on top?????

They are not in water and the sand is only slightly damp. I put moist surgical towels over then thinking they maybe to dry on top( they felt like rough sand paper)? My experience last time was that the bloating was the dead snake inside. Have I lost this clutch already. They all looked perfect at lay. The incubator is set at 77 and only fluctuates by a degree either way in the dark basement. What do the seniors of the group say?

Please Advise
Jeff Jones

I. I think 77 degrees may be about 3 degrees too high.
2. I wouldn't compare between snake eggs, and aquatic turtle eggs.
3. They should feel rough like sandpaper, and they should swell just a bit. But If they swell to the point of splitting open, that's too much.
4. I check mine daily, as mold can overtake them very quickly!
5. I wouldn't cover them with anything.
My incubator is set at 74 degrees. Last year, at 76 degrees, I got 100 days. So a couple degrees cooler should hopefully bring a few more days of developement before hatch. This year I used perlite. I had some unicolor eggs that started to cave in a bit, so I switched them to sphagnum. And they returned to full shape. I keep mine in plastic shoe boxes with a few holes around the top, inside the incubator. I circulate air with a small computer fan. Of the eggs that were slightly burried, I have had some mold, which I kill with tenactin powder from a squeeze bottle. {not the spray can} With the eggs which were not burried at all, no mold, and they all look perfect. Here's a pic. Now what happened to the other Jeff?
T.