Reptile Forum, Reptile Classifieds - CaptiveBred

[zarozinia]

Very interesting Rick. I have a similar problem with boigas ( cat snakes) - they are reknowned for not making it out of the egg, there are quite a few of us boiga keepers who make a slit in the egg or peel back a small part of the outer eggshell leaving the membrane intact. I do this when they are due to hatch and cover the area over with damp moss, so far since doing this I have had a 100% hatching success compared to 66% before I interfered. So far all are doing well, but it is early days.
There are other reptiles that have difficulty getting out of the eggs too, such as some ratsnakes.
I do wonder about our incubation methods being so very different to what occurs in the natural habitats. For instance, in the wild the eggs are subjected to natural temperature fluctuations and it is thought that some species actually require these fluctutations to develop properly, or with some that the seasonal changes prompt hatching.
Another point is the incubation medium, I wonder how much the medium helps with eroding the egg or making it softer/keeping them supple. Do some soils or leaf litters etc actually play a role in helping the reptiles hatch? We know that the eggs will absorb some moisture from the medium so what about absorbing the other constituents of the medium?
Oh its going to one of those days, where my brain wanders, lol. Scary eh!
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Cheers Angi
Proud to be a Geordie!
My Images - http://anginelson.deviantart.com/

[Rickeezee]

Some very interesting points there Angi.

My knolwedge of snake egg incubation is zilch however; certain chameleon species such as Parsonni, Lateralis lateralis etc do require various diapause periods to incubate successfully. Usually I vary the tempretures of some of my incubators for certain cham species, starting off with lower temps then a gradual increase in temp after a set time to break the diapause and kickstart embryonic growth.

The point about moisture absorption in the egg; being Sunday morning some details escape my brain , but I have read various research articles regarding moisture in cham eggs that have shown an increase in the surrounding humidity does not correlate necessarily to a marked increase in moisture content within the egg, there seems to be an ideal cut of point.

I would imagine that certain various substrates may well affect the outcome of the incubation success via potential absorption of certain trace elements from the substrate, not to sure on this one but interesting. I have got somewhere a detailed analysis of vermiculite and perlite but again its Sunday morning

Very thought provoking and interesting subject. I suppose there are so many potential variations on incubation, temps, substrate, humidity levels etc that a detailed study of how all the variables compound and affect one another would be very difficult to measure and monitor.

With my Melleri eggs I incubated them extremely dry in open tubs no cover on actual tubs just incubated inside a polly box and hatched in 3.5 months, temp was quite low. I think we have a long way to go as regards fully understanding the various incubation requirements of many reptiles. Mother nature knows best!
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[zarozinia]

To be honest I have not read anything about diapause with reptiles, I know more about it with regards to insects and plants. Something for me to read up on once the sunday morning fog has cleared
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Cheers Angi
Proud to be a Geordie!
My Images - http://anginelson.deviantart.com/

[redbelly]

I have had a few groups that have gone that way also
But if you think about it the baby has grown in the egg to the point of hatching so its egg sack has either run out and it has starved,or there is a problem with the shell of the eggs the top of the egg allows for air exchange and if the eggs are incubated with to much humidity the egg shell turns to a very hard to break leather/rubber like shell and the babies efforts to break the egg are wasted and the baby dies.
Hatching eggs generate alot of humidity in the final weeks as hatching gets closer.So i keep the lids of all my egg boxes in the last month so the tops of the eggs are dry and if you look very close you should see the layers of the egg shell and the light lines on the eggs(they should look kind of chalky)
This helps because the egg is allowed to dry making the shell more brittle and easier for the young chameleon to star the egg and breath, once the egg has stared i have had babies take 3-4 days to emerge.
The first couple of times i lighty pinched the bottom of the egg so the head pops out but now i just leave them be.
One more thing about the too much humidity thing... if there is lots of the clear slimey plasma stuff when the egg hatches,they have been kept to wet
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