Hello

[Mom2Four]

Hello, I am new here. We are always catching and releasing snakes here at our little farm. I take them to the schools and do a show and tell for my children's classes. after identifying and show and telling we release. Just yesterday we found a beautiful long sleek black racer in our neighbors rock wall, upon inspection we could tell she had been laying eggs, (cloeca (sp) was open. We lifted the rocks to find 21 black racer eggs. Soooo long story short I am here to figure out how to incubate and hatch the eggs. My neighbor HATES snakes and wanted them destroyed. I couldn't imagine destroying harmless snake eggs.. sooo I rescued them, put them on moist paper towels in a rubbermaid container, outside where it is warmer, but I have never done this myself, as I had never handled a snake until last year, when I finally got brave enough to start holding the baby snakes we found. ;)

I am off to search for more info.

Thanks,
Mom2Four

[Stefan-A]

Welcome aboard. :)

[gregmonsta]

Greetings :D

[adamanteus]

Hello, and welcome to the forum.

[Snake lover 3-25]

welcome to the forum!:D

[drache]

welcome to the forum and good luck with those eggs

[count dewclaw]

Welcome, welcome! :D

[Sid]

Hello and welcome to the forum. I have good luck haching reptile eggs by simply placing them in a deli cup with decaying wood. The cup need tiny vent hole in the sides. Mist the wood good and put the lid on. Keep an eye on condensate on the lid. If it strarts to dry out, re-mist and put the lid baack on. I keep the container in my garage so it stays warm, but out of direct sun light. Works great for me.

[guidofatherof5]

Nice to have you on the forum.
Settle in, you're amoungst friends.

[Mom2Four]

Hello and welcome to the forum. I have good luck haching reptile eggs by simply placing them in a deli cup with decaying wood. The cup need tiny vent hole in the sides. Mist the wood good and put the lid on. Keep an eye on condensate on the lid. If it strarts to dry out, re-mist and put the lid baack on. I keep the container in my garage so it stays warm, but out of direct sun light. Works great for me.

Thanks, I have them on damp paper towels in a plastic container. I will make sure they get to a dark place.. they are in the shade outside so the temp stays similar to where the mother laid them.

I can't find any info on here, but is there a way to tell if they are fertilized or not. We raise chickens for eggs, and they obviously lay eggs without a rooster sometimes. Will snakes do this also??

I will try to post some pictures of mom and eggs if I can get them uploaded to the computer.

[ssssnakeluvr]

vermiculite or perlite are good for bedding for incubating eggs. I use the vermiculite. it needs to be damp, soak it and drain it. a rubbermaid tote will work to incubate the eggs in. make a couple small holes for air circulation. you can get an undertank heater or heating pad to put under part of it. get one of those little metal thermometers that hang in ovens to tell temps, set this inside so you can monitor the temps. keep them around 80-85. snake eggs have to remain in humid conditions or they will dry out. don't thow away any bad looking, discolored, or moldy eggs as they can still have viable babies inside. after a month you can turn the lights off at night, put a small flashlight behind the eggs (called candling) and look for veins. if you see them, the egg is fertile and developing!!

welcome to the forum, hope this helps!

[Quibble]

Welcome! Wishing the best of luck with the racer seeds! :D

[eminesh]

hi dear friend
It me eminesh .i am just drop by t wishing you all warm welcome .I am also so glade to mitt you all.
__________
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[TwistidMutations]

Hi,and welcome to the forum i would agree with don.(ssssnakeluvr) vermiculite is a great incubation substrate.

[Didymus20X6]

]My neighbor HATES snakes and wanted them destroyed. I couldn't imagine destroying harmless snake eggs..]

You're not the only one new to handling snakes here. I only started catching them about a month ago. There was a stampede of garters in our neighborhood, and one of my neighbors kept threatening to have them all killed. So I started catching them and releasing them out in the woods, partly to keep her from panicking, and partly to keep the little critters safe.

Like you, I see no point in destroying something harmless. Unfortunately, around here, people don't think that way. I don't know how many times I've heard, "A snake is a snake," implying that if it has no legs, it must be just as bad as a copperhead or a moccasin. It's really annoying.

I have found this forum to be a great source of information on the little buggers. These folks are great.

Anyway, I hope the hatching goes well.

[Mom2Four]

Thanks everyone for the great info. I talked to our local reptile folks (a friend of mine use to work with them) I have the eggs incubating outside in the rubbermaid container. I have the eggs half buried in damp sandy soil with dampened paper towels under the soil and over the eggs, then a dark thin t-shirt over to keep sunlight out. They are sitting on a self on the porch, where the temp will remain the same as it would have been where they were at, warmer (should I say HOT because it is 92 and humid here in TN right now) during the day, and a little cooler at night. They are staying humid and warm and dark. My children are so excited. I mean how often do you have a chance to watch snake eggs hatch unless you become a breeder or a herpatologist.

Thankfully in this area we only have 2 venemous snakes, (copperhead and timber rattler) and they do not come down out of the mountains too much. :D All my family and friends think we should just smoosh the egss, but to me that is a waste. From what the local wildlife resource agency is telling me the racers here are endangered or close to endangered. I don't think a lot of people realize the benefit of snakes.

I will admit we did recently relocate a 5ft black rat snake to a new home 15 miles from here. He was living in my chicken coop eating eggs.. we caught him with an egg in his mouth.. Sooooo he didn't get to stay around to keep rodents away.. LOL

Last year we removed a black rat from under our neighbors house that was 6'1" a beauty to say the least.. Because of the neighbor's fear we released her about 6 miles away. ;) I wanted to keep her, but the neighbor was afraid she would move back in under his house. :rolleyes:

Thanks for all the help and all the warm welcomes. I have been reading a lot and there is a TON of useful information here. I will keep ya'll posted on the egg progress.

[jitami]

Welcome & good luck with the racer eggs!

[celticguitar]

Sounds like a fun project I hope you have good luck with eggs that they hatch. I too have have been only doing the keeping a pet Snake thing for about a month and 1/2 or so. I have always caught them but just to take peek and let them go more to show "Hey I'm not afraid" to my friends:D.
Dwight

[Mommy2many]

Welcome to the forum.

[Mom2Four]

Ok, so the eggs are starting to get small pin holes in them, all have developed and I think we are soon to have baby snakes.. YAY http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/dd189/Mom2FourBlessings/6480_1151151072748_1646760190_41904.jpg

See the goo, and the small hole, I have 4 eggs doing this.. We had one do this almost 2 weeks ago, then the egg shrank down, so we opened it up and the snake was still a bit translucent and not completely developed. I figured it was dead since the egg had been leaking goo and had shrank down so much.. unfortunately it was not..you could see it's tiny heart beating through it's skin... but it died shortly after... I really hated that.. lesson learned I suppose, that just because all the goo leaks out and the egg shrivels a bit, does NOT mean there is not still a viable baby in there.. :( There are 20 eggs left all looking really really good.. So I am keeping my fingers crossed for 20 black racer babies soon.

[Mom2Four]

By the way, we are 63 days since we found mama snake laying the eggs.. so they are due any day now.. I heard 60 days was the norm for black racer eggs.