If anyone can offer advice/share experiences, I would appreciate it. I am so anxious about this, and probably worrying way too much.
Kim
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Kim Heller |
A few questions about a gravid girlie |
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So, I have a gravid Chondro
If anyone can offer advice/share experiences, I would appreciate it. I am so anxious about this, and probably worrying way too much. Kim "Wow, that is a hot snake, I would definitely hit that."
Last Edited By: Kim Heller 07/30/08 03:56:18.
Edited 1 time.
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John Romano |
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I haven't maternally incubated before but what I found with artificial is the less you pay attention to the eggs the better off you are. I was away for ten
days during incubation before and it went fine.
j
Live every week like it's shark week.
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dbrotto |
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Kim
I would look for egg laying from about 12 to 28 days post shed with 18 to 21 being just about right. I would have expected her to be in the nest box, at least checking it out, by about now. You might want to close her in and see if she settles in. I had a female reject various nest boxes and lay on the enclosure floor. For her, I placed a nest box over top to provide some privacy.
Have that incubator ready just in case though.
I went away on business for 2 weeks when I was doing my first chondro breeding. It was a maternal breeding and I pretty much had her do all the work. During my absence, I did have someone drop in every few days to mist the insides of the enclosure (not inside the nest box.) To up the humidity while you are away, you could drape a wet cotton towel over a branch and into a water bowl. The towel will wick water from the water bowl and provide a large surface area to disperse water vapor and increase humidity.
Something to think about though. If you get wet slugs, they will start to foul and potentially harm the other eggs. That's the scourge of maternal incubation and you need to be ready for that. From my experience if this happens, it will be about 5 to 12 days post lay. You will smell a slightly wrong smell in the nest box. I would recommend pulling the female as soon as that smell happens. It's not a clean earthy smell, but a musty, foul smell. The odor may not be intense but it will be foul; you'll know when you sense it.
Best wishes for a healthy progress with this breeding.
Danny Brotto |
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aaron florian |
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I still say do the elevated nestbox in a rubbermaid tub. plenty of water, plenty of humidity. if you can get it to stay around 90% (not 100%) you should be
fine.
Otherwise, if you can have someone mist a couple times, that should be fine. The wicking idea is excellent. |
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Mike E Lockwood |
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Hey Kim,
Big congratulations! Is this a late clutch or a very early one? At any rate, I had my first clutch of eggs hatch this year. They were incubated maternally. One thing I suspect after watching her is that humidity isn't all that critical. I mean, she wrapped herself so tightly around those eggs that not much water could have escaped. Like suggested, I hung a damp towel over a perch in the cage. At the most, there was a very light fog on the cage window. Danny's idea sounds really good. I'd recommend experimenting with it ahead of time to make sure no condensation builds up inside the nest box. I also noticed that she started loosening her coils a little bit around two weeks prior to hatching. I could see the eggs a little better and they looked a little dented. By the last week, she was really loosening. Best of luck with her. Can't wait to see the hatch pics!
Mike Lockwood
Too Scaley Reptiles |
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Keith Thompson |
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CONGRATES KIM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Lots of good advice above. My experiance has been that maternal incubation either goes off without a hitch, or turns out to be a disaster depending upon your luck at the time. If the female does what she's supposed to, then there's not much to do. I don't worry too much about her not going into the box until about day 12. If she hasn't by then, I will "lock" her in. Some animals that are locked in will not incubate, but at least they won't lay eggs all over the cage and in the water. As day 14 (or earlier) aproaches you will get a sense of whether she seems content with the box or just seems to go in and out and around the cage worrying. As far as humidity goes, I used wet mulch, but I agree with the statements above, that humidity seems to not be too critical. When she lays, I will look at her the best I can to ascertain whether or not the eggs look viable AND that she has a nice behive coil. Visible bad eggs are worrisome but not always a problem. Some dry up and never cause a problem and others rot and smell. A female that does not have a nice behive and instead lays "flat," is a sure sign to switch to artificial. And keep the incubator going. But I'm sure you knew all this anyway. After all, you are Kim. |
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aaron florian |
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Hey Mike, thanks for that input. My girl started to loosen halfway through, and now she's been very loose... so good to know
You can see her at the cam at http://www.iherp.com/chat Kim, hope you've been watching, because your eggs are going to be fertile. |
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CarlosEcharte007 |
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Hey Kim,
Regarding the humidity, i would put a container with a ponctured lid in there with soaked sphagnum moss in it to help your levels stay high. I wouldnt place it directly under the heat panel because it will evaporate rather quickly, I would put it somewhere where the heat is enough to create some nice humidity and not get dried out. Hope this helps,
Carlos Echarte
Coneroks1@aol.com |
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Sony Raju |
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all great ideas that i need to write down or make a mental note of. best of luck kim. you deserve it!
Sony Raju
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Christopher Feenan |
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Kim- A HUGE congrats and even bigger good luck !
regarding maternal incubation- my girl is at day 32 right now, and it's been pretty smooth sailing. I took the suggestions and tried to keep up humidity with damp moss, towels, etc., but summer in the northeast is pretty humid anyway, so I relaxed a bit. Your houses heating system may kick on in a month or so, and humidity will be trickier. Misting the enclosure daily is a guarantee that humidity won't be a limiting factor in your success. I had two bumps in the road. I used the damp moss, but really wanted a water bowl in there. It is heavy, glass, and set into the sphagnum so that I didn't think she would tip it over. She is so perfectly coiled that cage wandering seemed unlikely. First, while changing the water one night, she came off the eggs a bit, like she wanted to tag me. I got a good look at the eggs. Turgid, wrinkled from being so tightly coiled, and a little black mildew on them, but no mold - better results than any of my artificial inc. attempts. Anyway, when i finished and got out of there, she came right off of the eggs, cruised around the cage for two hours, all the time I was holding my breath, and kicking myself, but she eventually settled back on them !! Then, she tipped the water a week later ! How, I have no idea. She occasionally does a full inspection of her work area, probably said "get this frickin'water outta here, idiot "! I had the incubator fired up, so I tried something. I set up a new , dry nest box, pulled her off of the eggs, and set her up in the new box. If she hadn't re-coiled, i would have finished them in the incubator, but she did. Don't use a water dish Kim... |
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Kim Heller |
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Thanks for the input everyone. Your support, advice and kind words mean so much to me.
I am going to go throw up now. Chris....that is crazy! Amazing that she left the eggs and went back to them. Kim "Wow, that is a hot snake, I would definitely hit that."
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Jack Sadovnik |
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ive had maternal go superbad before. if you can manage artificial, do it that way. there is actually a formula i learned in one of my ecology classes that
determines how much life-span is decreased with increasing energy put into progeny...............dont know if i can find it......one could interpret that to
mean that the less taxed the female is during her production of offspring the better off she is health-wise......... mom is tired she could use a break from
having to sit on eggs for 52 days without food/water and having to do all that shaking like a polaroid picture.
good luck whichever way you choose if she doesnt show interest, lock her in it. jack-0
Jack Sadovnik
Baltimore/Philadelphia http://www.chondroweb.com/onalimb chondr0@aol.com |
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