I´ve got eggs coocking!

It has been well over 15 years since I tried to hatch snake-egg the last time, but I am going to give it a go this year again. Got eggs from one of the most beautiful Cloubrids in Europe, the Leopardsnake Zamenis situla. This species is known to have rather small numbers of eggs in their clutches, usually about 2-5 eggs/clutch. This female is really large, about 120 centimeters compared to the normal size around 100 centimeters, and the clutchsize for her 2 years in a row is 10 eggs! The incubationtime is somewhere between 60 – 80 days, depending on the temperature.

Some pictures:

Egg-sizes ranging from the largest: 45 x 25 mm´s to the smallest: 37 x 27 mm´s.

 

Z. situla eggs.

The proud mom..

I also got some eggs from Aegean four-lined snake, Elaphe quatuorlineata muenteri, witch is the smaller islandform. The inland form reaches about 180 centimeters, but this subspecies becomes only about 120 – 130 centimeters in length.

I didn´t expect any eggs from the pair I keep, as I thought that they needed another year of growing first. As they are quite shy, I don´t see them more then about 10 seconds a week, I was surprised to see that the female was really fat. I put in a box with Sphagnum-moss in their terrarium, and it took only about an hour for her to enter the box and start digging around.

Since it was quite late, I decided to leave her for the night, and lookid in the box when I got home from work the following afternoon. And what do you know.. 4 eggs in the moss.

Some pictures:

Eggsize ranging from the largest at 77 x 22 mm´s to the smallest at 60 x 25 mm´s.

Elaphe quatuorlineata muenteri eggs.

The female, photographed late 2008.

The incubator.

Incubator.

 

More info and updates on Terrarium Morbidum forum (nonvenomous snakes section).

The awaitening…

The viperbabys that I am waiting for..

But I really think that they are coming soon because the notorious feeder a.k.a the yellowish V. a. ammodytes refused food at yesterdays feeding. A good sign..
She still looks like she ate recently, and didn´t  take a dump since May..
I am going to enjoy to see what the small ones will look like, as the mom is yellowish / orangeish in colours and the male is the “Zokadelic”-male. I really, really hope that there is at least one female that looks “Zokadelic” too, so I can keep it for future breedings. Will probably keep a male or two too, if they are “Zokadelic”´s.

The gravid V. renardi female is hissing loudly and striking at me everytime I show my face now, but she did take a little mouse yesterday to my surprise.. She´s also very large now..
I have to keep at least 2.2 from these too, as the parents are very old, at least 10 years old, possible allmost 15.
As far as I know, nobody have had young ones from this species in Sweden before. Can I be the first??
Good that I have lots of small crickets at home now, to feed the small ones with.

I have been trying to take decent pictures of the both gravid females, but it´s really hard, as they don´t show themselves as much as they usually do. Will continue trying though..

This week, or next, they will all arrive I think… Looking in the terrariums every day, up to three times now..

The eggs from the Z. situla..

You might remember this story: http://terrariummorbidum.wordpress.com/2009/01/29/409/

It will not happend again this year! The large female is clearly gravid, and shed her skin last week, so there should be eggs this week or in the beginning of next. I am just hoping that there is some lifes inside the eggs..

I have already prepared a hatchingmachine for the eggs, and trimmed it to keep the temperature at ~25,5 degrees C. Of course there will be some fluctuations in the temperature, but I am hoping that it will stay around 24,0 – 26,5 degrees C.
I am using a “Scherpner´s”-modell of hatcher ( wet-hatcher with a couple of wallbricks at the bottom with an eggbox ontop ) , and a immersion heater <– right word? for aquariums. The hatcher is in my garage, just to keep the risk of overheating the hatcher and the eggs at a minimum, as the garage don´t have windows and is a bit cooler then my little reptilehouse.

Would really be fun to hatch some eggs now, as I haven´t done it for years..