2009 N. sumatrana clutch

My sumatrana finally laid her eggs. 8 total. The most she has ever laid. The one with the "?" on it was moved all around by her as I was trying to get her off the eggs. She's a psycho. I tried to candle the egg, and I think I have it right side up, but I'm not positive. It was only laid a few hours before I took it out, so I hope it will hatch. They are all approx. 2 1/2 - 3" long (6.3 - 7.6cm)

6 of 7 hatched in 2006, 4 of 5 hatched in 2007, and 6 of 6 hatched in 2008.

2009 N. sumatrana clutch Sumatrana_4_20_09

2009 N. sumatrana clutch Sumatrana_4_20_09

congratulation Randy!

dont worry about the egg, usually, within the first 24 hours there should´nt be any problem, even if you turned the egg... i believe, the embryo has not attached to the eggshell in the first 24...

good luck my friend for the incubating!

cheers
M.

Thanks Mario

I was thinking it may be ok, since I know I took it out within 3 or 4 hours of it being laid. I think I could see the embryo a little, though the brown stains from the sphagnum moss made it hard to tell for sure.

I may be coming to the Philippines sometime between July 16th and Aug. 1st. If your gonna be around, we'll come down and check out your place.

Randy

Nice nice...congratulation and good luck for the incubation Cool

Guest

Hi there,

congratulations! I can't wait to see the newborn!

Cheers
LucasC.

Newbie question:
Why is it necessary to give the eggs a special position and which position is this?
Does this appeal to all snake eggs, means: in general?
To "candle" means to view it against a light source?

Good luck Randy, hope you have some babies hatching in a few months.

Thanks Yall

Usually, Guenter, you can tell if an egg is good just by how it looks on the outside. But, sometimes a good looking egg will go bad, I assume because of no embryo, or the embryo dies shortly after the egg was laid.

When the eggs are laid, the embryo attaches itself to the top of the egg. If this happens and you place the eggs "upside down", I guess it would be like the embryo "drowning" for lack of a better term. Normally when the eggs are laid, we take them out of the laying box, and place them in the containers in the same position in which they were laid. If they are stuck together, it sometimes makes it much easier, because you can pick up the entire clutch at one time. Sometimes the clutch will be stacked up tall, in which case I mark the top of each egg in the stack, and carefully pull the eggs apart, so I can place them in the incubation container.

Hope this help. If anyone thinks I have have any mistakes in what I have said, please correct me.

Randy

If the eggs are rolled around, you can "candle" them with a flashlight and see where the embryo is located and place the eggs so the embryo is at the top of the egg.

Thanks a lot, Randy, I am learning all the time here!

Hi Randy,
also good luck with the incubation!
I love Sumatrana so much and I don´t know how often I had a look at your animals on your webside. Just beautiful animals but not easy to get in Germany.

I´m curious to see them hatching. So don´t be shy and make a couple of pictures for us.

Cheers

@Randy and Guenter:

During the first 24 hours after egglaying, it is no problem at all to put the eggs into the incubator in every position you like, or even to transport them by car to someone else who incubates them without any (or let´s better say little) risk of damaging the eggs.
In contrast to bird eggs, the different egglayers of reptile eggs stick (grow) together during the incubation time. That is the reason why reptile eggs should not be turned around during incubation, as the reptileembryo can not turn on top of the yolk if the egg turns upside down. He will die. In birdeggs the layers are not stick to the shell and it is no problem at all if they are turned, the embryo will turn on the upper side himself.
In case of reptile eggs the layers stick together within the first few days of incubation. That´s the reason why you see biologists marking the eggs for example of seaturtles if they find them. You don´t know the exact time of laying, and because of that it is important to mark the eggs to put them in the right position in an incubator. For private keepers of reptiles it is not that important, as we normally find the eggs within the first few hours.
I´ve seen my snakes many times laying the first part of a clutch and than the whole clutch a couple of hours later. The position of the first eggs layed was totally different than before, because of the movement of their mother.

Best regards

Frank

Thanks Pascal, there are a couple photos of them hatching on my website, but I'll surely take some new photos this year, as I now have a Nikon DSLR instead of a cheap Kodak Point & Shoot. Maybe I can get some of these to Germany sometime this year. I've been wanting to come to the European shows.

Thank you Frank for the in-depth explanation. I'm usually right there when the eggs start coming as well as hatching. I didn't think it would matter if the egg was laid recently, but I never like to take chances, especially when you only get a few eggs from a specie like this. If they normally laid 20 eggs, I wouldn't be too worried about losing 1 egg.

The first one pipped on July 3rd, and was out of the egg on July 4th, today, the exact day I predicted, according to last years records. Two others have pipped.

This the first one to pip
2009 N. sumatrana clutch 09_sumatrana-M-1_pip

2009 N. sumatrana clutch 09_sumatrana-M-1_pip

And here he is, a male, about 20 minutes out of the egg, and 14" (35.5 cm) long.
2009 N. sumatrana clutch 09_sumatrana-M-1

Gorgeous little cobra!
Congratulations! I hope to keep some of this species some day. They yellow ones are very nice.

Good luck with the babies,
Harold

Guest

Hi there Randy!

Well done! I'm seeking to see the other ones!

congrats!

LucasC.

Thanks guys

I'll post photos of each hatchling. This first male will have little markings if any, and be very yellow when he is full grown.

Beautiful little snake!

Dear Randy

Good Work! Some times Dreams comes true!

Christoph
Rolling Eyes

Thanks Christoph, but not as good as it could have been. 7 hatchlings are out and 6 are males. One more to come out.

Well, the final result is 6.2

Not sure why the ratio is so male heavy, as the incubation temps were the same as last year, right down to the exact number of days before they hatched. The only difference this year is, I had built a new hotroom and for the first 3 months the humidity was very high, so I bought a dehumidifier, and corrected it. Some snakes didn't breed this year at all, N. oxiana, and I actually lost a couple Cornsnakes. They died during the period of high humidity.

So, moving the snakes from inside my house, to the new building, and then the new building having much higher humidity, may have had something to do with it. I'm not sure if TDS does occur in snakes, but for the last 3 years, I consistantly got more females than males at lower temps, from the same pair of adults, but now this year, more males again. I'm thinking maybe TSD is determined by a number of factors, and not just during incubation.

Anyway, here they are. You've seen the first male. Here are the rest of the hatchlings:

Male 2
2009 N. sumatrana clutch 09_sumatrana-M-2

2009 N. sumatrana clutch 09_sumatrana-M-2

Male 3

2009 N. sumatrana clutch 7_4_09_sumatrana-M-3

Male 4

2009 N. sumatrana clutch 7_5_09_sumatrana-M-4

Male 5

2009 N. sumatrana clutch 7_6_09_sumatrana-M5

Male 6

2009 N. sumatrana clutch 7_6_09_sumatrana-M6

Female 1

2009 N. sumatrana clutch 7_6_09_sumatrana-F1

Female 2

2009 N. sumatrana clutch 7_6_09_sumatrana-F-2

All the hatchlings look normal, as compared to previous years, except Males 4 and 5. They are darkest colored hatchlings produced thus far. Kinda want to keep them just to see how they turn out.

Randy

HI!

Gorgeous little najas...

Can you post a picture of the breeding pair?
Never saw adult sumatrana before...

Thanks Rene

Here is a link to my website. It is easier than me uoloading several photos. Click the link, and scroll down. Click on ANY photo to see a larger version of that photo.

http://www.venomstreet.com/Cobras.htm

Randy

Thx!

Really beautiful!!!

Congratulation for those beautiful little cobras :-)
Especially the females are really pretty.

Fantastic little snakes!
Thanks for sharing.

Cheers,
Harold

» Black Equatorial Spitter (Naja sumatrana)
» Sumatrana/Philippinensis
» Naja sumatrana hatchlings
» Naja sumatrana Pictures
» Naja sumatrana hatchling