# Power Cut - Incubator Failed - Eggs Dead?



## jimmus

Hiya,

Just checked my corn snake egg incubator only to find I had a power cut last night, must hav e been about 11pm. Only just seen the incubator switched off, had to reset the fuses. The temp of the incubator was 21 degrees C, reached 20 degrees C over night at lowerst point.

I have several eggs which had begun to sink yesterday and due to hatch in the next few days. I also have eggs from double clutches that have only been incubating a week or so.

I have read that under 24 degrees C the eggs will die but thats if exposes to those long temps for an extended amount of time, mine were at temps as low as 20 DC but for up to a maximum of 12 hours.

Question is, have I lost them all or is there still hope?


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## R.E.C.S

finish incubating them anyway, if there dimpling there probably fully developed and might make it through, 

hope they pull through for you, i had this happen to me 40 dyas in with 60 burm eggs. i did loose them all


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## vetdebbie

The fuse went on our aquarium heater about 3-4 days before our clutch hatched - according to the thermometer it dropped to 18'C. 22 eggs - 22 babies only a few days later (they had also just started to dimple)


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## jimmus

Thanks for the replies.

Debbie, you have given me hope there for my 'almost hatched' eggs however things dont look too good for the younger eggs 

I am going to continue incubation to see what happens anyhow, such a shame though, poor little fellas


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## vetdebbie

Ads research after our unfortunate incident showed that s_ome _breeders in the states who incubate at room temp over there include a night time drop down to 20 ish as routine, so keep your fingers crossed!


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## tortoise_dude

In the wild such spikes in temps must eventually happen. I would definatley think that at least a few of them would be good. (Not that I know anything about snake eggs) Out of all of them, I'd say the ones ready to hatch are going to be the safest!


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## jimmus

Great thanks for your replys guys, I will let you know if I get lucky 

vetdebbie - Ah I see, you are Ads partner in crime, a very supportive snake hoarder  

Thanks again


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## Renfield

I had a power cut that lasted 12 hours and all 3 of my clutches survived and I had 100% hatch rate on all 3, so don't worry and good luck with them.


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## oakelm

Had the same 2 years ago, the royal eggs were done for but most of the corn eggs survived but our power was off for nearly 2 whole days, but didnt even notice for a good 12 hours. If mine can go that long I hope yours can too. I have since brought a generator but have yet to need it, typical.


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## fran2491

there is defo still hope hun my power went off for 7 hours in my poly box bator and last night my first babys hatched,i think the further along the eggs are the more will be ok i had one die out of my first clutch because of the power cut and lost 14 eggs that had been laid a week before the cut out of 24:bash: its worth a shot hun give them a chance:flrt:


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## reptileexpress

*incubators*

Well i had two batches of bearded eggs in the incubator. had a few days off so i had a friend keeping an eye in the shop. When i came back i found that the heater had packed up in my incubator. May have been off for 6 days without my knowledge. Put them in another incubator and waited. 60 days appeared with no babies. Was not expecting them to hatch but eggs looked ok and i wasn't losing anything by incubating.

Checked on them this morning to find a new hatchling. Theres about 7 more with their heads stuck out. 9 eggs still good. Today is day 75. Just goes to show that they can tolerate temp changes in the incubator.


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## Alex M

jimmus said:


> Hiya,
> 
> Just checked my corn snake egg incubator only to find I had a power cut last night, must hav e been about 11pm. Only just seen the incubator switched off, had to reset the fuses. The temp of the incubator was 21 degrees C, reached 20 degrees C over night at lowerst point.
> 
> I have several eggs which had begun to sink yesterday and due to hatch in the next few days. I also have eggs from double clutches that have only been incubating a week or so.
> 
> I have read that under 24 degrees C the eggs will die but thats if exposes to those long temps for an extended amount of time, mine were at temps as low as 20 DC but for up to a maximum of 12 hours.
> 
> Question is, have I lost them all or is there still hope?


You should speak to Geoff Clarke about this, he could offer some good advice here (respected breeder of snakes etc for must be 332 decades now). Many species of reptiles eggs are incubated at unnaturally high constant temperatures in captivity (chameleo calyptratus springs to mind) which tends to lead to smaller weaker hatchlings etc, something that certainly seems to be seen as normal amongst CB corn snakes these days. Lower incubation temperatures normally result in much stronger, larger hatchlings that absorb everything in the shell and also feed much more readily than the usual bootlaces. Nowadays, i would never incubate N.American colubrid eggs in the mid 80'sF constant, although i used to.


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## Caz

I left a clutch of corn snake eggs in a box of vermiculite by accident on top of a high up viv some years ago after a minor emergency. The room temperature varied between 20 and 28c day and night. I rembered them just over 2 months later:blush:.

All the eggs had hatched and all the babies were the largest (and most ready to eat) i´d ever had.


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## timberwolf

Caz said:


> I left a clutch of corn snake eggs in a box of vermiculite by accident on top of a high up viv some years ago after a minor emergency. The room temperature varied between 20 and 28c day and night. I rembered them just over 2 months later:blush:.
> 
> All the eggs had hatched and all the babies were the largest (and most ready to eat) i´d ever had.


I lost a clutch of albino Royal eggs last year after a power cut, but the incubator went down to 16 degrees. You may well lose the new clutch but I suspect your older clutch will have an excellent chance! keep incubating.

There's been quite a bit of researching done into incubation temperatures and the general consensus seems to be that a degree or two lower though extending the incubation time will possibly lead to stronger babies with a better feeding response, good luck with yours


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## Eightleggedfreak

Keep incubating them all and hope for the best , Nature has a way of surviving whatever is thrown at it , so dont give up hope ... You never know , even the second clutch may turn out ok , Its worth the chance.. Good luck and fingers crossed for you ....
:2thumb:


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## jimmus

Thanks for all of your responses guys.

Nothing further hatched as yet 



Alex M said:


> You should speak to Geoff Clarke about this, he could offer some good advice here (respected breeder of snakes etc for must be 332 decades now). Many species of reptiles eggs are incubated at unnaturally high constant temperatures in captivity (chameleo calyptratus springs to mind) which tends to lead to smaller weaker hatchlings etc, something that certainly seems to be seen as normal amongst CB corn snakes these days. Lower incubation temperatures normally result in much stronger, larger hatchlings that absorb everything in the shell and also feed much more readily than the usual bootlaces. Nowadays, i would never incubate N.American colubrid eggs in the mid 80'sF constant, although i used to.


This is very interesting, I will look into this further in readiness for a lower inc. temp next year 

Thanks


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## jimmus

Managed to hatch 5/6 eggs even after this disaster 

Here are a couple of them:










Some close ups:


























Hope you like 


Cheers


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## htf666

Alex M said:


> You should speak to Geoff Clarke about this, he could offer some good advice here (respected breeder of snakes etc for must be 332 decades now). Many species of reptiles eggs are incubated at unnaturally high constant temperatures in captivity (chameleo calyptratus springs to mind) which tends to lead to smaller weaker hatchlings etc, something that certainly seems to be seen as normal amongst CB corn snakes these days. Lower incubation temperatures normally result in much stronger, larger hatchlings that absorb everything in the shell and also feed much more readily than the usual bootlaces. Nowadays, i would never incubate N.American colubrid eggs in the mid 80'sF constant, although i used to.


I must admit there is a lot of sense in the above.For years I have wondered about incubation temps of 82 deg f for 60 or 70 days solid.I know nothing of the weather in the states but surely it is not normal temperature day and night? Would a night time drop be more natural? They must have more than one or two cool days in a ten week period? I am keeping my colubrids at 73deg f nowadays. (that is the min temp). If we get a hot day it rises to the eighties but they seem happier than when they were in the loft and temps could soar into the 90's quickly. I am going to try my next lot of hatchlings at around room temp to see if they feed better.There is a growing concensus of opinion that we are overheating them and I would agree.Does anyone have information about temps in the states instead of us keepers blindly following what went on before?Harry


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## Natrix

htf666 said:


> There is a growing concensus of opinion that we are overheating them and I would agree.Does anyone have information about temps in the states instead of us keepers blindly following what went on before?Harry


I have thought that we over heat our animals for a long while. All my cages run at about 75F durring the cooler months but I turn the heating off from about mid June until the end of August and they just run at what ever the room temps are. I find mine are much happier and feed better this way. 

Natrix


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## DazedLewis

thats good news you've got some nice looking motleys there :2thumb:


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## jimmus

DazedLewis said:


> thats good news you've got some nice looking motleys there :2thumb:


Thanks 

After the incubator incident I set the temp to 27/80 degrees so as not to shock the eggs by having too higher temp, I intended to raise this to 29/84 but never did. They hatched in about 55 days with no health problems such as kinks and what not.

I will definitely drop my incubation temps next year, I mean they hatched in 55 days at 27/80 so i'll be happy to lower the temps to 25/77 or 26/79. A longer more natural incubation with a lower average temp has got to be better than a short but very hot incubation at 85/30. Anything over 32/90 is proven to increase chances of kinked spines and other health problems and I would say under 24/75 for a sustained period of time could be risky?

If lowering the incubation temps leads to larger, healthier babies with little or no feeding problems then it's a no-brainer to substitute a couple of weeks incubation time for this.


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