I have lost soOOOO many litters to molding even when i try so hard to ventilate it. Are chicken egg incubators good?
Corn snake eggs are easy to hatch. I have even hatched them in plastic shoe boxes filled with moist/not wet sphagnum moss left at room temps. No extra heat. Open the box at least once a week to change the air. Oh yeah - I've also had good luck using a hovabator incubater + a proportional thermostat. Good luck.
They don't require much ventilation. They need a moist environment (90-100% humidity) that can be achieved by placing them in moist vermiculite or perlite. Just make sure it isn't too wet. You should be able to squeeze it and have it clump together a little bit, but not so much that water drips out. They also need a warm environment at around 80-85 degrees for about 60 days. The temps should stay accurate for the entire time, so you will need a thermostat. They should be in a closed container that you can open up once a week to exchange the air. A chicken egg incubator is not appropriate as they will dry out the eggs too much, and they are usually designed to rotate or move the eggs. If reptile eggs get rotated during incubation, the animals will die. The other option is to allow your snake to incubate the eggs. She will insure that the temps and humidity stay perfect as long as she has the right environment to do so. Keep in mind that she won't eat during the incubation. Good luck!
If you're having trouble with mold, try different incubating medias. Vermiculite, perlite, and spaghum moss all work well -- perhaps you could split the clutch carefully into several groups (if the eggs aren't stuck together) and try the different methods. Too much ventilation likely introduces mold spores. Start with sterile media in the first place and don't keep it too wet -- just slightly damp is best. Make sure your temps aren't too high -- if the temperature climbs over 90F for very long, your eggs will die and then they'll get moldy and rot. Can you describe your setup more fully? Maybe someone will be able to spot what you've been doing wrong. Good luck!
