# Oh my god! Oh my god!!!



## candycaine (Oct 13, 2009)

JUST CHECKED MY GIRL TODIGHT AND SHE IS ALL COILED UP LIKE THEY DO WHEN THEY ARE ON EGGS SHE WASN'T DUE FOR ANOTHER WEEK AND SO I THOUGHT I HAD TIME TO GET THINGS READY BLOODY HELL!!! LOL SO EXCITING I DON'T HAVE A ROD TO CHECK THOUGH SO TOMORROW I WILL AFTER I'VE DONE CROC MOVERS...SIGH I TRYED GETTING PIC'S BEFORE MY CAM WENT FLAT. SHE HADN'T BEEN OUT OF HIDE FOR A FEW DAYS SO I THOUGHT I'D GET PIC'S SEE HOW SHE'S GOING AND WELL SHE'S COILED UP WHICH MEENS YET ANOTHER YEAR I MISSED HER LAYING THEM...BUGGER. 

Sorry about caps.


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## Serpentes (Oct 13, 2009)

The caps works to good effect, I got exited just reading it  Awesome post.

Congrats. What kind of girl is she?


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## Lewy (Oct 13, 2009)

Cool!!!! Exciting time's ahead


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## anntay (Oct 13, 2009)

ha as they say they come when their ready well done anyway


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## candycaine (Oct 13, 2009)

I had a look and she appears to be on quite alot of slubs I am going to allow her to incubate herself but how should I manage seperation by myself. forgot I didn't have a spare enclosure for her wile I get rid of slugs.


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## candycaine (Oct 13, 2009)

she's a very large and very protective snake when it come's to eggs.


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## grannieannie (Oct 13, 2009)

aaaawwwwwwww you're gonna be a grandma....lol


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## Dragon1 (Oct 13, 2009)

Wow, congrats!


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## Cuddly_pony (Oct 13, 2009)

probably a stupid question but why do you need to remove the eggs from her??
Congrats and good luck!!


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## candycaine (Oct 13, 2009)

by the way I was prepared with a helper but so much stuff has happened lately and change of plans etc and well ya I am in this dilamma with WHAT THE HELL DO I DO NOW??? lol my heart is pounding and now the excitment of many months hard work has payed off...HOPEFULLY !!! I hope there is only a few nerds and alot of fertile eggs. 

Question??? If I leave it over night say about 18 hours till I get to checking the eggs is it going to be very hard to remove the nerd's (slugs) from the firtile?

thats when I'll be able to get someone or get in to do it. 

cheers


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## Riley (Oct 13, 2009)

Serpentes said:


> The caps works to good effect, I got exited just reading it  Awesome post.
> 
> Congrats. What kind of girl is she?


haha same 

congrats!! how many eggs??


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## Dragon1 (Oct 13, 2009)

Could you post a pic of her and her eggs, please?


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## candycaine (Oct 13, 2009)

cuddly I will only be removing the slug's (dead eggs) the others will be placed back in the enclosure and she will go back to doing what she does best.


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## Dragon1 (Oct 13, 2009)

What breed of snake?


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## Serpentes (Oct 13, 2009)

Do you have a garbage bin you can use? Give it a quick hose out and throw her in it while you remove the slugs. Use the rubbish bin lid as a shield to stop her 'heat sensing' you while you manipulate her with a snake hook, if necessary. Hey, a bite will be healed up before the eggs hatch, you'll have forgotten about it by then eh? 

Throwing a blanket over her might also do the trick, you can get hold of her through the blanket or even remove slugs with the blanket over her head?


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## candycaine (Oct 13, 2009)

sorry about not replying to breed got so much on my mind. shes a cape york coastal. second clutch.

thanx heaps serpentes the rubish bin is a good idea i'll get one tomorrow. 

i'll get a hook tomorrow. i'll post pic's soon but sorry no egg pic's yet.


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## candycaine (Oct 13, 2009)

thanx heaps to everyone elses comments too.


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## Lozza (Oct 13, 2009)

Congrats on the eggs and good luck with her


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## notechistiger (Oct 13, 2009)

You might find that it will not be quite as easy to remove the slugs after a few days. The eggs dry together after being laid and get stuck together. As far as I know, the best way to remove slugs is to cut them off with scalpel, but that might be a bit hard with her sitting on the eggs.


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## wranga (Oct 13, 2009)

removing the slugs maybe alittle hard to do after 18 hours as the eggs will all be stuck together by then. best thing to do is get a needle and syringe and suck the yoke from the slugs. doing that you wont risk damaging any fertile eggs


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## candycaine (Oct 13, 2009)

ok thanx the only reason I say 18 hours is couse I don't have something to put her in, and I am doing croc movers till afternoon tomorrow and might not get home till say 2 - 5 pm sucks but I was going to be ready in a week when she was surposed to lay lol. some how it never works out to plan and she's always too quick for me hehe. 

Thanx wranga


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## SnakePower (Oct 13, 2009)

Personally I don't leave anything to chance, carefully remove the female, take and separate the eggs then AI them. Gives the best results better for the female to recover from being gravid and if there are bad eggs it is easy to get rid of them. Once the clump is well established, hardened and stuck together things are a little more difficult and removing them (slugs or turned eggs) can become quite difficult.

Wranga gave some excellent advice with the syringe idea, proably the best and easiest way to do it without undermining the integrity of the clump and also allowing the female back as soon as possible if you are wanting to follow through with the MI.

Good luck Jody, and congrats on your eggs!

Zac.


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## candycaine (Oct 13, 2009)

hey zac, have you had any females lay 16 days after pre lay shed? I'm finding it ver strange. I saw prenty of couplation this time and they where together for about 1.5 months. I lifted her head it seams like there are a few slugs. she's 9 ft and an agressive female as it is. I have planned for MI for the last 5 months its all set up. I understand your concerns I however had a terrable time last season with AI with a resolt of 1 hatching. I've talked to alot of people up here that allow females to MI and they seem to do fine. but I did take into conciseration of my girl with regular vet checks etc to make sure she would be of excellant condition for last the long period with MI. 

last year even though I AI the eggs she refused to feed she ate after the 2 months after the eggs where layed rouphly around the same week the egg hatched. she's increased in size since last year as well girth wise and weight was 6 klo's about 2 months before pairing. 

thanx heaps for your replies and most of all everyone with good advise.


cheers will show pic's as soon as cam is charged.


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## candycaine (Oct 14, 2009)

hmmmm hmmm lol I'm going to risk removing her by myself sigh....hope I don't get bitten.


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## Simple (Oct 14, 2009)

Do you have an incubator? Females are in a trance like state after laying, after the last egg is dropped it is easy to remove them.


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## candycaine (Oct 14, 2009)

Pic's of what I found when I looked a few hours ago. enjoy 

you can just see the eggs.


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## candycaine (Oct 14, 2009)

Simple said:


> Do you have an incubator? Females are in a trance like state after laying, after the last egg is dropped it is easy to remove them.


 
LMFAO that's so helarious 

oviously you don't know my medusa hehehehe I tried before but she's like BUGGER OFF!!! she was ready to eat my hand.


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## percey39 (Oct 14, 2009)

nice looking snake, congrats on the new babies


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## candycaine (Oct 14, 2009)

having some awfull luck need your advice asap

hi ok I took mum from eggs and because it was just me doing it it took longer, got 13 slugs and about 11 firtile about that, they started going cold, I have 3 in the incubator and the rest with mum.

BUT she is laying on top of eggs now and not around them can she crush them or kill them doing this? plus most where collapsed and others had clear parts on them what need's to be added?

I have added new vermiculite/moss moist and a heat mat to box humidity is at 89% now but she is laying on top of them.

the incubator has heat cord and thermostat and thermometre. small container with vermiculite and moss. 

I am so worried I will loose them all please help!!!


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## candycaine (Oct 14, 2009)

ok update, 

she is now coiled around the eggs properly again. the eggs in the incubator are in there because they would of rolled and drowned the embrio if they where left with clutch. 

she layed 30 eggs all up I re-counted and 13 where slugs. 

pic's next of eggs, eggs look very bad alot of slugs in pic and this is before I removed them.


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## candycaine (Oct 14, 2009)

eggs pic's


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## Vixen (Oct 14, 2009)

Did you candle some of them before you threw them out?


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## method (Oct 14, 2009)

candycaine said:


> eggs pic's



You didn't actually remove your 13 so called slugs from the clump in that picture did you?


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## candycaine (Oct 14, 2009)

I candled them and there was no veins what so ever. I removed only the ones with no veins. sorry forgot to take pic's after they where removed.


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## SnakePower (Oct 14, 2009)

Jody,

I hope you didn't discard those eggs, as to the looks of them they are just poorly calsified eggs and not actually all slugs as you may think. Sometimes it can take a few days or occasionally even more for the bloodveins to become apparent. I am glad you seem to have sorted out a bit of your stresses, but if it's not too late, I would be sticking those possible slugs into your incubator and check them again in a few days to a weeks time.

Also as far as being unusual laying only 16 days post prelay, I had a female last season to actually lay without having a prelay shed at all! :shock: figure that one out! LOL. They all drop them when they are ready and sometimes it's early, sometimes late and sometimes, actually on time! 

Zac.


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## JasonL (Oct 14, 2009)

lol :lol: Never bother candling eggs unless you have rolled them halfway through the incubation process, cook them all and remove those that go seriously mouldy.... all those eggs look like they are / were fine.


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## redbellybite (Oct 14, 2009)

JasonL said:


> lol :lol: Never bother candling eggs unless you have rolled them halfway through the incubation process, cook them all and remove those that go seriously mouldy.... all those eggs look like they are / were fine.


 :shock::shock::shock:wow ...thats a learning experience for you ....goodluck and try and not feel to bad that you got rid of potentially normal eggs ...


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## JasonL (Oct 14, 2009)

redbellybite said:


> :shock::shock::shock:wow ...thats a learning experience for you ....goodluck and try and not feel to bad that you got rid of potentially normal eggs ...



I have had eggs I would of sworn were slugs hatch, I don't see any point in candling at all (other then if they have been rolled), good eggs hatch, bad ones don't, whether they were candled or not. Incubate EVERY egg that is suspicious and you just may suprise yourself.


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## redbellybite (Oct 14, 2009)

JasonL said:


> I have had eggs I would of sworn were slugs hatch, I don't see any point in candling at all (other then if they have been rolled), good eggs hatch, bad ones don't, whether they were candled or not. Incubate EVERY egg that is suspicious and you just may suprise yourself.


 I believe you thats why I commented on that Jason ...I feel for her that she may have got rid of good eggs without knowing ...but as you lot said its hard to know ..especially it being her first ..wasnt having a go at anyone ...


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## Vixen (Oct 14, 2009)

redbellybite said:


> I believe you thats why I commented on that Jason ...I feel for her that she may have got rid of good eggs without knowing ...but as you lot said its hard to know ..especially it being her first ..wasnt having a go at anyone ...



This isnt her first season breeding


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## pythons73 (Oct 14, 2009)

This female had eggs last season and unfortunately only 1 hatched hence why shes trying maternal incubation.The only thing i find with maternal Incubation is in the wild the female can find the suitable place to lay her eggs,however in a enclosure she has no-where near as much room,Anyway i hope all goes well this season Candycaine....MARK


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## redbellybite (Oct 14, 2009)

sorry my mistake ..all the kafuffle so I thought it was her first time ...good luck anyway candycain


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## JasonL (Oct 14, 2009)

IMO, maternal incubation is harder to get right than artificial incubation, worth trying for sure, but I'd only attempt to once you have experience with incubation in general. What went wrong with her last clutch?


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## Kris (Oct 14, 2009)

Oh My God. I'm learning so much. Very exciting times eh? Good luck with whatever it is you are doing with the remaining eggs.


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## JungleRob (Oct 14, 2009)

pythons73 said:


> This female had eggs last season and unfortunately only 1 hatched hence why shes trying maternal incubation.The only thing i find with maternal Incubation is in the wild the female can find the suitable place to lay her eggs,however in a enclosure she has no-where near as much room,Anyway i hope all goes well this season Candycaine....MARK


 
Bang on the money!

Good luck!!!


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## diamondgal79 (Oct 14, 2009)

goodluck candycaine, glad to hear you still have all your fingers:lol:


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## candycaine (Oct 14, 2009)

SnakePower said:


> Jody,
> 
> I hope you didn't discard those eggs, as to the looks of them they are just poorly calsified eggs and not actually all slugs as you may think. Sometimes it can take a few days or occasionally even more for the bloodveins to become apparent. I am glad you seem to have sorted out a bit of your stresses, but if it's not too late, I would be sticking those possible slugs into your incubator and check them again in a few days to a weeks time.
> 
> ...


 

thanx mate as soon as I read it I was scunging in the bottom of the bin lol god I feel like a tool for chucking them... anyways I re candled and amazing 5 where good eggs its amazing when stress can bugger your thoughts and actions up. so they are in the incubator i now have 5 maybe's and 3 good ones in the incubator.

the others where definate smelly and slugy eggs.


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## candycaine (Oct 14, 2009)

redbellybite said:


> I believe you thats why I commented on that Jason ...I feel for her that she may have got rid of good eggs without knowing ...but as you lot said its hard to know ..especially it being her first ..wasnt having a go at anyone ...


 

yeah my second but just cause you've bred once doesn't make you a exspert your still learning. and the thing that gets me is cape york eggs are much much smaller compaired to other coastals eggs, so its easy to get the slugs mixed with the good.


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## woosang (Oct 14, 2009)

all I can say is..
How exciting for you and best of luck!!!!


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## Southside Morelia (Oct 14, 2009)

LMAO, just read the whole thread Jody..what a crack up! Good luck, i'm sure it will turn out fine.. & congrats!


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## candycaine (Oct 14, 2009)

thanx everyone 

thing that happened last year was everything that can go wrong went wrong....sigh.

first time clutch she layed 28 and only 24 where viable mind you I put the hole lot in the incubator, didn't remove slugs, didn't seperate them they all went in. I however tried the purlite and water method with a basket over the top and eggs onto. not the smartest move I would say, they got way too much moisture the eggs on the bottom started exspanding, I had herific bad luck with bloody fruit flys and them some how getting in the incubator and the container, them laying eggs in the eggs and killing them, exsess heat, my female picked the worst day to lay them when we had a high temp of 49 outside and 47 inside the house. and after that it got worse. the eggs got mould on them and then started dieing one by one. very frustraighting, I cleaned and removed one egg at a time. about a week before hatch date we had a temp drop and a couple cooler days that hit 28 degree's outside, I managed to work out my thermometre/hydo digital device was infact wired backwards and the temp I thought was the inside was infact the outside temp ect. I had 3 eggs left and within the last week of incubation I lost 2 more. 

this exsperiance almost made me give up all together on doing it again it wore me down to nothing till the lil guy in the last eggs hatched. every feeling I was having instantly left. 

I want this again this feeling. thats why I breed and keep trying to get it right but at this point luck is not on my side. I always bugger everything up even if I've done mass research.


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## Kris (Oct 14, 2009)

Wow, with luck like that I can see why you would want to give up and not put the female through another season like that. Chin up, things can only get better for you. You sure can learn a lot from such poor attempts/results.
How's last seasons hatchie going?


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## mungus (Oct 14, 2009)

Amazing thread this one.


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## candycaine (Oct 15, 2009)

well um I wouldn't have a clue to tell you the truth. sadly it escaped from my brother. I gave it away to my brother because my hubby said no more snakes and I had promised him for years he would get one. and well his house mates kid's went into his room when he was at work and desided to play with it, braking the lid and lieing about them even being in there. its been missing for about 5 months now and oh we are both pretty annoyed about the hole thing.


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## CodeRed (Oct 15, 2009)

I doubt maternal incubation is going to solve the problems you had last season. It might in fact create a whole new set of problems that you aren't quite ready to face. Surely it would have been easier to fix up your incubation tubs/mix and get that incubator setup correctly?

It might be best to find an experienced keeper in your local area. They could probably walk you through the whole breeding process and check every stage of your setup in under an hour. 

My 22 cents (inc GST)


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## Blondesnakelover (Oct 15, 2009)

CodeRed said:


> I doubt maternal incubation is going to solve the problems you had last season. It might in fact create a whole new set of problems that you aren't quite ready to face. Surely it would have been easier to fix up your incubation tubs/mix and get that incubator setup correctly?
> It might be best to find an experienced keeper in your local area. They could probably walk you through the whole breeding process and check every stage of your setup in under an hour.


Agree, probably a good idea.



CodeRed said:


> My 22 cents (inc GST)


People normally offer 2 cent of advice, your advice seems pretty vauable at 10 times the going rate, plus you add GST! LOL :lol:


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## CodeRed (Oct 15, 2009)

Blondesnakelover said:


> Agree, probably a good idea.
> 
> People normally offer 2 cent of advice, your advice seems pretty vauable at 10 times the going rate, plus you add GST! LOL :lol:



I offered 2 bobs worth of advice


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## JasonL (Oct 15, 2009)

CodeRed said:


> I offered 2 bobs worth of advice



Potentially it's a few grands worth of advise if it is followed.


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## candycaine (Oct 15, 2009)

I've been talking to someone since they layed I am going to start working on a fridge incubator soon I know I should start asap but you need money which I am strugling to keep funds in the bank. 

I bought a microclimat 100 yesterday which is a off/on thermostat only used for heatmats I have it in the hide box but the temp is 29deg in there and 31 outside I have it all set up and temp set for 30degs so she can keep them warm with little effort but it doesn't turn on and the tempreture is staying the same. the probe is on the outside of her so the temp inside where the eggs are would be a few more degs then inside the box wouldn't it? 

the 5 eggs I recovered from bin are still white and starting to get there creases out there is moisture on side of container and substrate looks good, the humidity is at 50% inside the box and temp is sitting on 30degs even though the heat is on, I talked to a pretty well known and successful breeder yesterday and they recon keep eggs at 32deg which I've been trying to, she also said that I will only need heat cords which I have and I have a big container of water in there. I've put it ontop of some heat cord to try get humidity up eggs are on top shelf as well sitting ontop of heat cord. the outside temp is at 30 -31.

any idea??? the thermostat for the incubator is a microclimat B1. 

I might be getting a visito on friday or saturday from a chick on this site to help me with anython that needs it.


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## Vixen (Oct 15, 2009)

From the bin? Wouldn't they have been rolled to much by now?


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## JasonL (Oct 15, 2009)

Your worring to much about the temp, I couldn't even tell you what temp my inc is right now, anywhere from 28 - 32 is fine and it can vary a bit each way without any hassle. The main thing is to watch for spikes and massive drops, ie un-natural temp changes.. Naturally the eggs would have some varience in temperature. Also something that people don't seem to talk about much is the heating the female has been kept at before and during being gravid, this has a dramatic impact on the health of the hatchlings, if the female has poor calcium levels, then the hatchlings won't form properly and fail to hatch.. Moisture is more important imo than heating (as long as it's within reason). Any thermostat can successfully run an incubator if it's set out correctly. The incubator should be kept in a cold place to prevent external temps from effecting the internal temps, and also the egg temp is usually a few degrees cooler than the average ambient temp of the incubator, so to incubate eggs at 31 deg, you may have to keep your inc at 33, use a lazer temp gun to monitor the egg surface temp, never trust a single digital thermometer either, I have 2 digital external thermometers that measure max highs and lows within the inc (and egg box) as well as a two traditional bulb type thermometers inside the inc... my inc varies by about 2 to 3 degrees throught the year.


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## JasonL (Oct 15, 2009)

VixenBabe said:


> From the bin? Wouldn't they have been rolled to much by now?



the embroy can take days to attach itself onto the egg wall.


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## candycaine (Oct 15, 2009)

well if you read what snake power suguested ealier then ya he said if not to late get the so called slugs and incubate them...or something along those lines. I hadn't moved them after I through them (NOT THINKING) god I am so poopy about this. BUT I got them out of bin and didn't roll them or anything just in case they had just been layed they could still be ok. anyways I candled the so called slugs to my horror they where good ones but only 5 that I removed from clutch.....so  at least the bin was warm and the eggs weren't cold. there in the incubator being cooked starting to go white and more plump they had some veins so fingers crossed they go ok. it would be a miricle if they hatched. one however is looking bad which I was really unsure about being a good egg anyways. but the others are fine. the other slugs I did move smelt bad and where hard and green. 

to clear things up I didn't remove 13 from the clutch there was 6 slugs not attached and pretty obvious to anyone they did also get candled but they where very smelly. so 7 where removed and 5 where put in the incubator out of the 7.


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## Kris (Oct 15, 2009)

JasonL said:


> Potentially it's a few grands worth of advise if it is followed.



And even more if all the changes that the incubation "process" cause a white hatchie or two to pop out....then survive.

Sorry to hear about the loss Candycaine.


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## candycaine (Oct 15, 2009)

hahaha I think that would be awsome hehe. but I don't think there has every been a nice albino cape york before. hahaha if my chances of hatching out a fully striped gorgous bub like last season is just because of the incubation process then bring it on but with more hatchies hehe.


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## JasonL (Oct 15, 2009)

Just a hint, if you have what you think are slugs, or even ones die mid way through, always open them up to see whats going on and if they were fertile or not, you can learn alot by opening "dead" eggs. If they have both yolk and white, then they were fertile, if they are all just "white" then they were slugs.. Living in Darwin you could incubate eggs on a shlf in a room without aircon.


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## candycaine (Oct 15, 2009)

Some pic's of the eggs in the incubator


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## JasonL (Oct 15, 2009)

What substrate is that? Is that all of the eggs?


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## candycaine (Oct 15, 2009)

the rest is with mum she's on 14 this is 8. the ones I fished out of the bin are the 5 on the left. the substrate I am using is a vermiculite/moss to the simple fact I only had a small bit of vermiculite left and half a bag of sphagment moss. the moss was way to wet so I added vermiculite to it to help contain the water better. it seems to be ok will see though I just don't want to be fiddling with them too much thats all.


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## Ciircz (Oct 15, 2009)

I'd love to do this, But I have a lot of reading and learning in front of me.
It's all very interesting though.


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## Pythons Rule (Jan 2, 2017)

This was a few years ago wow I had some terrible terrible luck, that season I lost it and had a break after they died off one after another...bred my BHP's in 2012 and got 5 healthy beautiful eggs, however I was moving unexpected with husbands work and well NEVER EVER move with eggs!!! they hatched out on 75 days at the end of the long road trip from NT to Sydney. got some interesting results with color but that was the last time my pair would allow each other to mate...sad. I bred my cape York girls in 2013 and hatched out 20/18 eggs so yes 2 viable sets of twins and lost a set of twins 2 weeks before they hatched 28 eggs all up. from medusa. and 9/10 from the other girl. Bred them again in 2014 and got 12/32 hatch this was a retained sperm clutch believe it or not as I sold the sire the year before. (lost most to MI) & 12/12 from other girl. enjoy the pics


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