How to Incubate Hognose Snake Eggs

Video Transcript

"Once the female starts to begin showing signs of being gravid, her body will get thicker, those are the eggs inside developing. Once it gets towards the end of her pregnancy, what you want to do is put in a nesting box, and this is just simply a container that has some moist moss in it, some sphagnum moss. You don't want it soaking wet, you just want to keep it slightly damp. You are going to take the top and cut a whole in so she can go in there and deposit her eggs. She might go in there and explore it for a little while, she might go in sit in there and keep coming out, but eventually she will go in there and lay her eggs. Once she lays her eggs, you can remove them and put them in an incubator which you can purchase at some pet stores and reptile breeders. You can make your own incubator; you can find instructions on making your own on-line. Or, you can just put the eggs in a warm tank. In fact, sometimes I just use my Leopard Gecko tank which stays at a pretty much constant eighty-two to eighty-five degrees to incubate the eggs. Now, all you need is another smaller container and you can use vermiculite or you can use another substance called perlite, both you can buy at any gardening store. You want to add some water to it to keep it moist. If using perlite, put water in there and then just tip it and then just drain all the water out. The perlite will soak in the water that you need. You don't want to create it really; really damp too much humidity will create fungus on the eggs. Vermiculite, you want to just get it damp enough so when you squeeze it, it just sticks together. If you squeeze it and water rips out of it, you've got too much water in there. Average incubation time, depending on temperature, takes about forty-five to fifty-five days."