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Vermiculite and Humidity??

joseydiann

joseydiann

S&S Dragons
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Hey guys, is there something I can use or something I can do to hold eggs up off the vermiculite some? It's pretty damp and my eggs well idk they are starting to ripple, or dent in? It says it's 70% humidity.

I know some people do it, but not sure how. I just worry with the eggs laying right in the vermiculite. :shrug01: I worry about mold and stuff too..

Thanks
Amanda
 
Also I'm curious as to why some peoples BP's lay 10-14 eggs and mine laid 5? Is it because their females are older, or maybe weigh more?
 
I don't use vermiculite, I use water with light defuser. ( sp ) You could go to the local home depot, handy andy, menards, ect and buy a sheet of light defuser and cut a piece to fit your egg tub and put the eggs directly on top of that to keep it off of the vermiculite. The way I do it my eggs are on the light defuser suspended above 3 inches of water. So it should work for you.

As far as the size of snakes compared to the size of their clutches, I have only been breeding a short time and all of the females that have produced for me were purchased as adults and were all in the 3000-4000g range when bred. That may very well be whyIi got 10 egg clutches. Guess I'll know for certain if my 1500g spider ends up gravid.
 
Your eggs are probably denting in because they don't have enough moisture. 70% humidity is not high enough; they need as close to 100% as possible.

If you're worried, though, you can do like Dorsey said and put a light diffuser in the vermiculite and put the eggs on that. I know a lot of breeders who do it that way.

I'm fairly certain that clutch size has to do with female length and weight. How big are your females? (My four-foot female peaked at ~2200 grams this year and ended up laying 8 eggs.)
 
Definitely Amanda, you need 95% to 99% humidity. If they're too wet they'll get water spots. Denting will be caused by them drying out. You should have a cling wrap over the tub to hold the best seal. Also the vermiculite on the eggs isn't at all a problem. The substrate helps to keep a more stable temperature.

Of course the "substrate-less" method works for a lot of people, but for your first ball python clutch you should probably keep it simple. 95%+ humidity, 86 to 90 degree temperatures for 55 to 60 days will get the job done.
 
And also 5 eggs is decent for a 1200 gram female. It is pretty size relative. My 2600 gram girl ovulated 9 or 10 eggs ( can't tell ), my 1900 gram girl ovulated 7 eggs, and my 3 girls between 1200 and 1500 grams are about to lay between 4 and 5 eggs each.

They will ovulate, and lay whatever the conditions have afforded them. Their fat storage is the most important factor next to age ( sexual maturity ). Then you also have to consider the temperatures and other basic conditions while the females body was selecting follicles for ovulation as well. Then the fertility of the eggs after ovulation depends greatly on successful mating ( copulations ), and overall condition. At the point of ovulation the females body has already determined the number of eggs. If the female isn't able to support the eggs in her body ( not enough body fat ) it can be fatal for her. Also humidity is a big factor. This point is argued a lot, but I personally keep my gravid girls a little more humid. In the wild they stay in a moist termite mound to lay so you gotta figure their wild instinct should somewhat influence our actions to imitate nature.
 
I agree here, 70% humidity is too low, I keep my humidity atleast 97% but most of the time 100%
 
I keep my eggs in vermiculite do not like the raised tech. make a depression in vermiclite cover about half the egg put plastic over entire top of box to hold humidity in and then put cover on never had an egg go bad or not hatch. good luck
 
I agree, your humidity is too low. Get some more water in the vermiculite, and do it ASAP, since your eggs are already denting. But DO NOT spray water from a bottle to up your humidity. Pour water into the vermiculite AROUND the eggs, mix it together with the rest of the vermiculite the best you can, and spread it back around your eggs. The vermiculite/water mixture should clump when squeezed, but break apart easily.

What kind of incubation method are you using? Hova Bator? Tub? The reason I ask is, in Hova Bators, they are so short that it makes the heat source very close to your eggs, and mostly burying them with your damp vermiculite would help most in that case (it helps them retain their moisture better), but if you're using a tub, it isn't necessary.
 
A neat trick I learned from a friend, some of the foam fish shipping box's are the perfect size to use as an expansion ring in the hovabator.

Ditto to the size, fat etc.. If this is the het albino girl, this was her first clutch and she was on the smaller side. I believe first timers usually have smaller clutchs. My albino girl that was barely 1500 grams before breeding laid 6 for her first clutch. My bigger girls lay 8+

The suspense is killing me with that het girls eggs. lol
 
Ok thanks so much guys. I'm just used to incubating dragon eggs, turtles and torts, gecko eggs, ect.. So this is my first with BP eggs and with all the other eggs that much humidity rots and molds the eggs or just kills them right off.

Anyway I just added water, it's 100%.


Thanks
Amanda
 
phew... You had me scared for a while. If the humidity falls below 93% I start to worry. As long as the dimples pop back out within a day or so everything should be alright though.
 
Melinda said:
A neat trick I learned from a friend, some of the foam fish shipping box's are the perfect size to use as an expansion ring in the hovabator.

Ditto to the size, fat etc.. If this is the het albino girl, this was her first clutch and she was on the smaller side. I believe first timers usually have smaller clutchs. My albino girl that was barely 1500 grams before breeding laid 6 for her first clutch. My bigger girls lay 8+

The suspense is killing me with that het girls eggs. lol
Click to expand...

Me tooooo and at this point I'm scared to death I'll do this wrong and won't hatch my first eggs ever. I'm like reallllly worried, bad nerves and all.. :ack2:
 
Nah, just remember keep it simple. People have been hatching at 99 humidity, and 89 degrees for a long time. If you keep it somewhere close to those numbers everything will go fine.
 
dturner100 said:
Nah, just remember keep it simple. People have been hatching at 99 humidity, and 89 degrees for a long time. If you keep it somewhere close to those numbers everything will go fine.
Click to expand...

:censored::censored::censored: OMG!! The humidity is back down to 80% and no way am I going to add more water. That is alot of water I have in there now, if I add more the eggs will be floating. I added a really wet paper towel into the container BUT not on the eggs.

I took pics of the dents I'm talking about.

IMG_4500.jpg



ahhh ok just checked again and the humidity went back to 90% :rolleyes:

Does the eggs look bad??? :(
 
The eggs don't look too bad (I have seen worse that made it just fine), if you have them in a tub then leave em alone for a day or so and then check on em, if you keep opening up the tub then you'll keep letting the humidity escape, the vermiculite looks wet enough to me, what is you incubator set at for temp?
 
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