succesfull breeding of Malpolon eggs

This night I saw a small drop on the top of one of the eggs I'm incubating in a flower pot half-filled with gravel. This pot is set in a second, larger pot, filled with humid turf. At the moment three more eggs are beeing incubated this way. (The rest of the clutch is separately incubated in slightly moisty turf at 28 degrees.)

So this method - similar to de Haan's advice - works, too. Daily temperatures were at 32 to 34 degrees, nights at 24.

succesfull breeding of Malpolon eggs Img0569wz

succesfull breeding of Malpolon eggs Img0569wz

Hi ;

Congratulations, beautiful little snake !
You can be proud..

Regards...

Final results of second clutch trial (4 eggs of which one was not fertilized)

2 healthy juveniles
1 juvenile with deformated back and paralized 1/4 of the posterior body

(First clutch of seven eggs: 2 healthy juveniles of which one has a slight, hardly visible kink in the middle of the body, three juveniles dead in the egg or after getting out of it, two eggs not fertilized)

Three eggs of second cluthc are remaining... pale

very very nice! congratz!!

Very nice. Congrats on a successful breeding. I have tried for 2 years now and have failed.

Regards
Daniel

Thanks a lot - but I lost too many eggs. that's not succesful breeding yet.

@ Daniel

Could you describe your way of incubation and what happened to the eggs?

Regards, Christian

update: this evening, two hatchlings left their eggs.

Both looked healthy at first glance but one had a severe deformation / laceration of the right eye and died after some hours. Fortunately, the second one seems to be in good condition and immediately started hissing.

So I remain unsure about the right method of incubation...All of them produced healthy hatchlings and loss. Till now I've got only 5 juveniles out of 14 eggs and one egg remaining. Apart from the unfertilized eggs it's a rate of 50% only.

succesfull breeding of Malpolon eggs Img0588mg

succesfull breeding of Malpolon eggs Img0588mg

succesfull breeding of Malpolon eggs Img0593i

Sad to read about the bad hatchling :-( But nicer to read about the one that seams ok.

My problem has been infertile eggs. All eggs last year and this years have been infertile. This year i didn't realize this until some time of incubation, this years "eggs" was much bigger then last year, but still very small in my opinion. I have now got that confirmed that the "eggs" was very small and that healthy eggs should be in size comparison with Zamenis situla eggs. Is this true ?

I can't for the life of me figure out what i'm doing wrong. Snakes are in excellent condition and are no longer afraid of me or other people outside the cage.

Female has calmed down dramatically and even lets here be picked up by hand without freaking out, the male is a bit more defensive. But as soon as he is out he calmes down.

I have cooled them down from December to late March / early April. Temperatures as low as 7-8 degree celsius but for the most part around 10 degree celsius.

Regards
Daniel

@ Daniel

I can't see any point that might cause the infertile eggs. Maybe you can try to seperate them during the wintertime and bring them together only in May. I don't know if handling of the snakes could have a negative effect on mating activities, but I don't think so.

Egg size like Zamenis situla or longissima is correct; but even perfectly looking eggs can be infertile and look ok for two month or more. I had two of them filled with white "cottage cheese".

You can screen the eggs by using a bright lamp and find out easy whether they are ok or not.

Next try, next spring. Crying or Very sad

@Christian

I have them separated during hibernation, and always have since young. There is no problem with the mood of the male in spring Very Happy

Ok then it is confirmed once again. The "eggs" i have got so far has been in comparison with a 1 euro coin or slightly larger. (If i remember the 1 euro coin size correctly).

Yes next spring i hope for the best. I really really do.

succesfull breeding of Malpolon eggs Img0887fn

First M. monspessulanus hatchling of today - healthy, nasty and hissing a lot.

very nice and interesting topic, how are the babys doing??? keep updating wish you the best with them
regards

Hello
also on this place. Wink

Congratulations Christian.
Keep up the good work!

regards Manni

Very nice many congrats......

Regards
Daniel

Hi Christian,

I see you use coconut bark for incubation. Did you try to use Perlite or Vermiculite yet? Coconut bark often inhabit a lot of mould spores and other fungi. Also I see, the coconut bark seems very wet. Maybe better try to incubate them on only slightly moist Vermiculite or even nearly dry Perlite (like Python eggs are incubated very succesfully). At which temperature do you incubate the eggs? Too high temperature often results in deformations of the hatchlings and also in death of ready-to-hatch juveniles inside the egg.

Best regards

Frank

Sorry, I just saw, that you incubate them at 32-34 °C during daytime and 24°C at night. The daytime tmperature seems to be too high in my opinion. I would try to incubate them at constant temperature pf 27-29°C. Also the incubation method after "de Haan´s advice" is a little bit old-fashioned. It is pretty easy to build a precise and well working motor incubator by yourself, which at the end will be worth the work. A good design is described in this book (worth to buy it!):

http://www.amazon.de/Inkubation-von-Reptilieneiern-Anleitungen-Erfahrungen/dp/3936180113

Best regards

Frank

@ Frank

Thanks a lot for your advice - next year perlite and vermiculite will be tried.

For the monspessulanus I lowered the temperatures in the pot (gravel) down to about 30 degrees (daytime). It was the first hatchling yesterday and in very good condition. The ones on coconut turf were at 28 degress and the the ones on sand still are at 29 degrees. The second hatchling was on coconut turf and it looks perfect, too.

Deformations occured in all types of incubation I tried (insignitus), at 28 degrees as well as at 34. De Haan even recommended a daily peak up to 40 (!) degrees for one hour. Even eggs lying next to each other and looking the same showed different results.

The coconut just seems to be moist because of the flash or so. When I look at the pictures, I'm always surprised myself. If you touched it you would see that it is hardly moist, nearly dusty. I've never had any fungus when I used it and it always worked well for the rest of my snakes (natrix, zamenis, coluber and so on). Bad, mouldy eggs that are glued to healthy ones just have to be covered by the coconut and the fungus stops growing.

So actual result don't give a clear direction...

I've bought an incubation "stove" now for the next year. Part of the eggs are going to be incubated there, others on Vermiculite, Perlite and so on.

Kind regards, Christian

I just used a simple Exo Terra Incubator this time , temperature like most other colubridae eggs between 26-29 degrees, the whole time.
The result was very good and the hatchlings are good sized and strong. Vermiculite was choosen !

succesfull breeding of Malpolon eggs Img_0812

The next two "newborn" are about to leave their eggshells.

@ Fabian

Now all the things work out that didn't two month ago. Maybe it was just bad luck. I was afraid of checking these hatchlings but fortunately they seem to be fine.

Next time I'm going to put them in a glass with some moss and moisty leaves. Then I'll place them on the windowsill Very Happy

Congratulations!
...you've done a good job on ...

Thanks a lot; numer 3 and 4 have left their eggshells; healthy and nastily hissing at me. The other eggs still do not show any signs of hatching, it's funny. They are lying at the same place, temperature and so on. It always takes a week for a clutch to come out.

Rgds, Christian

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