My snakes have finally grown enough to begin breeding! When I first got into snakes a few years ago I wanted a lavender, but I simply couldn’t find any. They are still not super common at expos here in Japan. Anyway, I still wanted a snake so I ended up getting a salmon snow female. (side question: are salmon snows common in other places in the world? They are all over the place here)
After learning more about snakes and morph genetics I decided I wanted to create a strawberry lavender mix. (curse me for wanting to work on a double recessive project)
I brumated my female - Inca - and 2 males - Cinn and Lepi - (hypo bloodred het lavender, and lavender) this past winter. Lepi was more of a backup if Cinn didn’t do his job. I paired Cinn with Inca 2 times in the spring where Cinn was extremely enthusiastic about his job. I wanted to do more than 2 times, but had a health scare with my newest owl that I had to focus on. Because of that I wasn’t sure if I was going to get anything this year.
My worries were completely unfounded. Not only did I get eggs, but even though this is Inca’s first time, she laid 24 eggs this past Saturday! She’s doing fine and I gave her a mouse that she practically inhaled. Last night I candled the eggs and it looks like maybe only 2 or 3 are infertile! The only immediate problem I can foresee is that the rainy season is starting here so I’m going to have to be careful of the humidity getting too high.
I’m going to use this topic as a way to log my progress, and I welcome any comments or advice since this is my first time. Well, I have incubated barn owl eggs before, and I will say that these eggs seem like they are going to be waaaaaaay easier than that experience. At least I hope they will. ptsd flashback to the owl eggs
Going forward, I think next year I might try to pair Cinn with my hypo lavender female Morganite if I think she’s old/big enough to brumate this winter. Also not sure if I want to see if I can find a male strawberry, or just work with one of the hets this year’s pairing will hopefully produce.
And lastly, here are some pictures. I don’t have any recent pictures of Cinn so I will have to take some to add later.
Welcome to the world of corn snake breeding, @ghostowlmerlin. I hope that you’re well rewarded with healthy, beautiful babies this season and in the future. Congratulations on a great first clutch. The eggs which didn’t show veins yet when candled after a couple of days may be fertile, so don’t toss them yet. Some just take longer to show veins.
Don’t fret about the rainy season and its humidity. Humidity should be very high for successful incubation. It is possible to have the eggs themselves become too wet, but only if their hatching medium (like the moss I use) gets truly soggy or they’re actually touching water. They can’t get too wet from humidity in the air, no matter how high it is. I live on the Gulf Coast with extremely high humidity. It’s a problem for the humans, never for the eggs.
I’m not sure Salmon Snows are “all over place” here in the US, but they’re not hard to find. Strawberry Lavenders are unusual. That’s a project I am working on, too!
@caryl Yeah, definitely not tossing any eggs unless they have gone bad beyond a shadow of a doubt. I’m annoyed at myself because I can’t find where I put my candle flash light. Using the flashlight on my phone is so awkward, ugh.
That’s good to hear about humidity! I was a little nervous the other day when the sensor was reading 99% humidity. Managing humidity was so difficult when I was incubating the owl eggs, but I guess it is also easier to see visible changes in reptile eggs with denting, sweating, etc
Hm, interesting. I’d say at expos I go to here, if the booth is selling corns, there is a 90%+ chance of the seller having multiple salmon snows.
Wow, wasn’t expecting to come across someone working on the same project right off the bat! How is yours coming along? You’ve got to be much farther along than me. I’d love to see pictures when you produce them. One part of why I decided on this combination is that I couldn’t really find good pictures to get an idea of what they will look like.
I think it’s fascinating that you incubated owl eggs. I hope that went well. I have about a hundred questions, lol.
Strawberry Lavenders are rare at this point, but there are a few folks working on them. I’m hoping to produce some of my own this season. It depends upon if the possible hets prove actual hets. That pairing was Galahad (Lavender Masque het Amel, Diffused, Stripe, 66% ph Strawberry) with Galetta (Strawberry Tessera 66% ph Anery, Lavender, Sunkissed). She laid 21 perfect eggs on 05 May, so they’re due around 04 July. Next season, I expect to produce some from animals with known hets.
At the moment I have only one. She’s a 2022 Diffused Strawberry Lavender Motley, produced by Eric Westmorland. Her name is Purple Wonder, which is a variety of strawberry. Her colors are hard to photograph. She’s in blue now, but here’s a pic from February.
Forgot to say, you can use a bright penlight or a mag light. Just be sure that, if the light produces heat, you don’t leave it on the eggs for longer than a couple seconds. See what you need to see, that’s fine. Don’t leave a hot light against the egg for long though.
It was a very complicated messy situation actually. I wrote a detailed account of it a few years ago if you’re interested in reading. Merlin’s story You can ask me anything though! Owls are my true passion
Ooh, definitely making a mental note to look forward to your July 4 babies! That one you have now is quite pretty!
I’ll see if I can find my candler over this weekend, and if not, I’ll try and get something like you suggested.
I’ve read that you can try something like athlete’s foot powder to try and combat mold. Is that accurate?
Also, what in the world is going on with the popped/burst egg? Obviously that doesn’t look good, but on the other hand the rest of the egg looks completely fine.
First things first. Verify that temps and humidity are on target. Check to be certain that the eggs themselves aren’t in contact with any water. This is crucial. There should be some small space for air circulation between the incubation media and the eggs.
I am having a hard time telling, but it looks like the mold is fuzzy. If so, that’s usually an indication that there is too much moisture. Try using something soft like the edge of a tissue or a cotton swab to gently remove the mold. Use a fresh tissue for each egg to avoid cross-contamination. Leave the lid of the incubator ajar for a few hours up to a day or so. Controlling moisture is usually all that’s needed to stop fuzzy, whitish mold. Good news, these light fuzzy molds don’t seem to bother the eggs as long as they’re controlled soon.
Yes, you can try this, although I would first try to control it physically with removal and moisture control. If that doesn’t work, you can try jucicious application to the moldy spots with a soft paint brush. If the moss is turning colors other than greyish or white, it’s worth a shot. I have never personally had success with this method but it won’t hurt to try.
This early on, the leaking egg was likely either not properly calcified or was damaged somehow. Try gently sopping the moisture and placing a patch of paper towel or white paper over the area, extending out a bit. It’s possible that this may help. Can’t hurt, anyway.
I’ve been quite busy and not able to check in here.
I’m confident on the temps. I cross reference the reading of the incubator with a sensor I put inside as well as checking with a temp gun. As far as humidity… ugh. It keeps creeping up to 99% so I’ve been trying to combat that by periodically leaving the door to the incubator cracked open and periodically leaving the egg containers open. For the most part, I’ve gotten it to stay down around 89-90%.
I did have to throw away the one egg from the round container (it went bad, smelly bad) and the one egg on the second row of the large container. The others all seem to be doing well. Even the leaky egg which I’m too nervous to disturb since other than the leaky end, it seems perfect. The blob that leaked out doesn’t seem to be getting bigger either.
Also, I finally had a chance to get updated pictures of the male. I present the handsome Cinnabar!
99% humidity is actually perfectly fine. As long as they aren’t in contact with soggy substrate and they aren’t getting dripped on then there shouldn’t be an issue. If you do notice water getting onto the eggs from the top of the bin then try raising one of the sides up slightly.
@logar is absolutely right that high humidity of 99% is not a problem. Things can be problematic if there’s insufficient aeration. It’s fine to do what you’re doing to promote air exchange to help address the mold. Losing a few eggs is a bummer, but it’s not unusual at all. It doesn’t meant that the rest will develop problems.
Appreciate the reassurance about the humidity. I’ll try to stop worrying about it so much.
Candled all the eggs last night and am happy to report that they all are showing lovely veins! Bonus pic of Inca acting like one of those ocean eels that stick their heads out of the sand
The eggs look wonderful. You are well on your way to babies! Inca herself looks wonderful, too. That’s a great shot. You should enter her in one of the “of the month” contests!
. But she really does look like one! It reminds me of this picture I took 6-7 years ago.
