Another Mistake :(

I was wondering why the baby quail count was 3 and still 3, so I had a quick look around and found at least 5 in the water trough! The metal separating the trough from the incubating area is permanently shaped slightly upwards (from use before) and the quails had fallen in. I don't know how I could have missed that. I have since removed the damp quails and placed them onto the wire. They should be on wire or at least something they can grasped onto for the first 24 hrs whilst they're still in the incubator for their legs to grow properly or could lead to complications like weak or splayed legs etc. Lucky I found them soon enough as the trough that they fell into contained some water (luckily not deep enough to drown them).

Kowabanga

Recently I have gotten quite used to (though admittedly I still get small frights) when I hear a "bang" coming from my snake enclosures. The first time was quite scary actually as the sound isn't exactly minute. This is due to the jungles maneuvering around the enclosure at night, as they do, though they all love latching onto the sliding glass lock whilst they hang onto the rod in the middle, and when they don't hold on properly they fall to the ground (not that far) causing a "bang". I really have to look into sanding the rod soon.

Hatched!!!!

OMG my baby quails are hatching as we speak! Since removing the auto-turner I have moved them from the workroom downstairs to the lounge room upstairs. I can hear them going "eek eek eek". They look so cute, like little Chocobos (for all you Final Fantasy players). I tried taking piccies through the viewing panel but the reflection was too great. I've been told that it's best not to open the incubator for the first 24 hours (I presume to limit drafts), so all I did was lift the lid slightly to quickly take a few piccies. One turned out relatively okay but quite foggy from the high humidity. Yippees! Anyone want a couple for cute pets? As these are my first hatch I don't think I'm quite ready for these ones to be snake food.

Another Test

I then thought perhaps it was due to the hygrometer standing straight on top of the wire which the eggs aren't (they are still on takeaway lids), so I placed the hygrometer on top of one of the lids along with the eggs where the measurement should be taken, and humidity seems to have dropped considerably, but since I had the lid opened I'll have to wait a while till I take a proper reading.

Update: 2:46AM- Temp, Humidity both perfect at 37.5 degrees C and 70% RH. :D I noticed one egg which seems to have pipped (??? hopefully...) or accidentally cracked somehow.

Unfortunate Readings

I have three thermometers but only one hydrometer. I always check and recheck my therms but since I only had the one hydrometer I had to trust what it told me. I started pondering about its accuracy when I saw condensation forming on the plastic panels of my hovabator, which meant it couldn't be only 55% when at 60% nearly no condensation were witnessed. Then I remembered that the body of the thermometer itself had a measuring device so I popped it into the hovabator, and the humidity came out at HH% which gave me a shock. This means that it was above 90% which it couldn't read, so I've been busy removing water with a turkey baster. EEEK! I hope they're okay! T___T Now I'm hoping that the hygrometer itself isn't accurate....

Humidity Problem

For some reason, ever since I removed the auto-turner the humidity won't go past 55%. I thought it may be caused by the egg lying too deep into the 750mL take away containers so I replaced the containers with takeaway lids, and so far the humidity is sitting at 54%. I have filled all the water troughs and even added a container of water. I'm going to put a blankie around the hovabator to trap moisture and see if that helps. Don't see why humidity is so hard to raise since it was happily sitting at around 60% before. Hmm... I'm wondering if it could be the plastic (container/lid) that is actually blocking the water. I've removed one of the lids to free up some room and see what happens.

Quick update 8:52PM- Humidity at 59%
11:40PM- Humidity dropped back down to 54% *sobs* (I removed the blankie because it was insulating the incubator at a steady 38.2 degrees. Since the wrong temperature is more deadly than humidity, I sacrificed the blankie. Temp now sitting on 37.8)

Quail Eggs on THE 14 days!

So I have been incubating these eggs for 14 days now using an auto-turn hovabator monitoring temperatures at 37.5 +- 0.3 degrees (more like +-0.5 though) and humidity around 60%, with the addition of a thermal sink (consisting of a 1 litre plastic bottle and paper tape). I do have piccies but they are still in the camera. Now since it is on 14 days, I took them off the auto-turner and placed them in takeaway containers so that they aren't lying directly on the wire which is wet. The temperature will be kept around the same with an optimum humidity at 70%. It is currently sitting on 66%. Now we wait 3 days. I am ready for none to hatch though due to:

• Mailed eggs
• Inexperience (though all temperatures have been monitored carefully, so I have really done it to the books, I guess postmortems will tell what could be wrong. hehe sounds like I'm already making excuses for myself)
• On a few occasions the auto-turner didn't turn as it should due to the thermometer obstructing the passage, and/or the plastic bottle pulling away from the tape nesting warmly against one of the egg containers immobilizing the whole mechanism, though I have made sure the eggs have been at least turned more than twice properly each day (which is the amount recommended for manual turning).

Fingers crossed though as quail eggs are said to be very hardy. We'll find out soon!

Feeling Yukky >___<

Have been down with...something. Just feel so uncomfortable all over with recurring fever. Lucky I'm on holidays now and won't be back to work till Friday. A quick update on the herps. Been trying to finish my enclosures. It's a slow process but it's getting there! I need more thermometers. :(

Change of Events

Tile lady couldn't arrange child care so couldn't make it this morning, which suited me just fine. Slept till the afternoon *yawns*. This morning got a ding dong from the courier. My frozen rats arrived with something that I've been keenly awaiting for! Will post piccies later. :D

Tick Tock...

I'm having my tiles professionally cleaned around 9 AM today. It's past 5 AM and I'm still here brooding dark rings around my eyes. I don't think this is going to go down well.

Beware of Snakes

Just saw on The Insider that Will Smith & his wife lost one of their dogs (an Alaskan Malamute which happens to be my favourite breed) to a rattlesnake bite (more correctly 3 bites). The famous Caesar Millan, aka the Dog Whisperer who is also a long term friend of theirs helped train the rest of their dogs to be aware of rattlesnakes and to stay clear when they're in close proximity of one. I'd love to train my puppy to stay away from my snakes. She's almost identical to an oversized rat.

My Poor Rat :(

Pinky :D
Originally uploaded by Cotton Bunny

My poor rat just vomited in two places. I found out the usual way, wet foot test (arghhh). I don't understand why of all places she had to do it in my bedroom. :(

Cleaning the carpet in the middle of the night seems to have become my specialty as she's not fully toilet trained yet. These days it seems like her training is progressing backwards. Damn you tiny pea brain *sobs*.

Shopping List

Some things I'd like to have/need:

• Hygrometer
• Snake hook
• NEC T10 light tubes
• Another twin probe thermometer to double check
  

N. Amyae

N. Amyae
Originally uploaded by Cotton Bunny

Still too early to tell the sex of my baby Amyae. Wanna take a guess? :)

Terrible lighting + after I domestically violated my camera the last time it hasn't been able to focus properly. :(

Introducing My Quails

Here's my two pairs of gorgeous quails. Having kept a pair of lovebirds in my room before, I was quite put off having any type of birds for the rest of my life. They were messy, extremely loud, and have I mentioned they were horrendously loud? Anyway, I suddenly had the urge (as I do) to start breeding chickens for eggs as eggs around here are just not fresh enough. So, taking into account that I have very limited space, I opted for small chicky variations such as bantams. Then I decided on silkies because I've always loved their comical look. Then after some googling, I decided to go even smaller, resulting in the decision to start keeping and breeding quails. That way, I can satisfy the hunger of both my snakes, my beardies (the occasional eggs) and myself. Thanks to my impulsive personality, I wasted no time in accidentally going into a pet store and accidentally purchasing two pairs of quails without much thought. I didn't even have a setup ready, or any idea how to keep them properly (apart from my limited knowledge gained during my search for the right type of chickens). So everything was irresponsibly done after they arrived home.

Quite thrilled with the fact that their calls are actually not annoying as that was my main concern. If kept indoors, the smell will eventually get to you, so I moved them to the balcony, where I can't smell them even with the lid completely opened. Initially I was worried about the temperature being too low outside, but they've proven to be quite hardy little things. They do eat a lot and spoil their water quickly so in that sense they're not totally zero to maintain.

Arghhhh-vabator

I've been trying to set up my two hovabators for a while now. As it's my first time using an incubator I wanted it to be as perfect as possible (coz I'm sure something else will go wrong). One is a still air model for reptile eggs, and the other is a fan forced model for quail eggs. I'm having problems stabilizing the still air at 29 degrees. I have them both in my enclosed work room downstairs which has limited draft and temperature fluctuation. I've just tried the "turn knob and remove dust from wafer" technique so lets see how we go. Optimally I'd like to achieve this:

• Still air model: 29 degrees celcius
• Fan forced model: 37.5 +- 0.5 degrees celcius, 60% humidity

As I'm quite new to the prospects of dealing with humidity, it's slightly overwhelming. :(

Found a few good links for quail incubation tips. Here's one.

Pasta :: The Noodle in the middle

Pasta :: Striped Jungle Python
Originally uploaded by Cotton Bunny

Finally took some piccies of Pasta. She's my absolute favourite snake. Extremely placid but feeds like a hawk, and of course, stunningly beautiful. So far she's the only snake using the stick thingy I installed. I think this may be due to the fact that she isn't as heavy weighted as the others so can hold onto it well enough. The others seem to slip off from their weight + the smooth surface. I might sand it a little to give it more grip and see how that goes. :)

New Enclosures

Atlas :: Jungle Python
Originally uploaded by Cotton Bunny

Due to finishing exams and having a good break from work, I made some more enclosures. Isn't the floor boards looking sexy? :)