Heartbreak............and triumph. {GRAPHIC PICTURE WARNING}

[angllady2]

Hello everyone. This has been a very rough few days for me. On Sunday September the 2nd, I lost my very first pied hatchling. It was a brutal and heartbreaking moment, and only now do I have the strength to post about it.

Things did not go as planned with this clutch. Due to the earlier temp spike, I was running the incubator at 83/84. I knew this meant the eggs would develop more slowly, so I wasn't overly concerned. On day 64 I decided to cut the eggs. Figuring this should be plenty late enough. Two of the four eggs remained attached to each other through incubation, which is never a big deal. However, when I attempted to separate the eggs before cutting the clutch, I noticed they did not want to come apart. Now all the other clutches I've had, which granted are not many, the eggs separated easily when the clutch was ready. So I knew then these eggs were not ready to cut. But my impatient hubby was hovering over my shoulder wanting to know if I had hit the pied, and his insistence coupled with my own impatience conspired to drown out the voice of reason that told me to wait. So I decided I'd just very carefully force the eggs apart.

No matter how careful one is, things can go wrong and I am sure the experienced keepers here already know what happened. I tore a hole in one of the eggs. Now, in and of itself that is not the end of the world, but I had turned the eggs in order to get better leverage to separate them, and the hole opened up in the worst possible spot, with the eggs upside down. Now comes the guilt, the remorse, the "I knew better than to do this!". But of course the damage was done. I clipped a small flap over the hole in the egg and peeked in. It was a pied. Now I felt even worse. I had put my much longed for baby in danger because I got impatient. I feared of course a twisted umbilicus or worse, a torn one. But I gently laid the eggs back in the box, and clipped the other two. Finding another pied and a het. After a few days, I decided the eggs should be further along, and could be separated now. Well, they wouldn't separate, and in the attempt I managed to make a hole in the bottom egg. At this point I wanted to bash my head into a wall. This egg proved to be a het. An upside down het, with what appeared to be a twisted umbilical, my great fear.

Days passed, and the two eggs that were now upside down did not appear to be progressing. Worse, they began growing bacteria. I flushed them daily and held my breath. Eventually I did get them apart, which by then didn't really help matters. More days passed. There were no signs of the babies pipping on their own, which made me realize they were much earlier in development than I had thought. Much earlier. Day by day I flushed the eggs, watched the slime grow and prayed they would be alright. Day by day I berated myself for being so foolish with this most important clutch. Then one day, the little pied pipped. He had his head out and appeared to be doing ok despite everything. The het would not pip, and neither would the other two eggs.

The day after the pied pipped and I posted it's picture, I took the tub out late Sunday evening, and noticed the pied seemed to be out further than it had on Saturday. I felt this was a good sign. Until I touched him, and he was limp and cold. I knew then he had died. I fell completely to pieces. Rocking back and forth, moaning and crying. It's one of the worst pains I have ever felt. I had killed my very first pied, the one I had waited so long for. It was all my fault. Frightened now, I pulled myself together long enough to cut the top off the het egg. Only to find that like the pied, he was not absorbing his yolk, and his egg was dark with bacterial slime. I decided I had to act or loose another baby. So I called up the sticky on tangled umbilicals and with it's guidance I cut the little one free. He was limp and thin and not moving, and I was sure he would not survive the night.

Even in my great grief I knew I needed to document what had happened, and through my tears I managed a few pictures. I warn you they are very hard to look at. It took me several tries to get them uploaded tonight. The pied I lost was really something, his back nearly fully striped, and he had a lovely little cross in the middle of his back. As you can see he had a lot of yolk left. The het is pitifully small, and had a huge yolk left. Take a deep breath and steady yourself before you look.
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Now for the happy ending. The two remaining eggs took their own sweet time, but yesterday morning the other pied pipped, and by last night had emerged. He or she is nearly my perfect 50/50 pied. I am so very grateful to get this other pied baby. Who is strong and healthy and a whopping 74 grams right out of the egg. The little het pied pulled through, and last night his cut umbilical fell off and he climbed out of his deli cup to join the pied. So I believe as small as he is, he's going to pull through. Now I'm just waiting on the last het, who's been poking his head out today. Now for the good pictures.





I love the little tail on the pied. How it's colored most of the way and then just the tip is white again. This baby will almost certainly be staying with me, boy or girl, because it represents how close I came to loosing everything with this clutch. And it will remind me that good can be found in just about everything.

Gale

[DooLittle]

That little pied that survived is just beautiful! Sorry to hear about the other.

Sent from my ADR6350 using Tapatalk 2

[Daybreaker]

Your story was heartbreaking, but it was really insightful for me (who hopes to have clutches myself one day) so thank you for telling it. Sometimes bad things happen but I'm glad you got your pied and a nice little het too. Let us know if the pied is a boy or a girl.

[satomi325]

I'm sorry for your loss!! D:}
I'm glad there was some good that came out of all of this for you.
That is a beautiful 50/50 pied.

[John1982]

Making mistakes is part of being human, don't beat yourself up too much as I'm sure you and many who read this thread will learn something of it. I'm sorry for your loss yet ecstatic for your survivors - congratulations for those beautiful, very special babies.

[Sama]

Oh Gale, I am so sorry you lost the little pied, I couldn't even imagine.... I am glad your second pied is healthy and I will be praying for the little het. Keep us posted as you are able.

[rlditmars]

I am sorry to hear about your experience, but I do appreciate you sharing. If I can take something positive away from your story and others like it, it would be to just wait and let nature happen. I have read too many threads where cutting did not change the contents in the egg, but dramatically changed the outcome of the process, and rarely for the better. It does seem to be a condition of people today, the need to know now. It is probably a result if the internet providing instantaneous answers.

Congratulations on the others. The pied that did hatch is absolutely gorgeous and is everything I could hope to have in a pied one day. I really love medium pieds and the balance of that little guy is nice.

[ballpythonluvr]

Awww. So sorry for your losses. That little pied is just so cute and so is the little het. You have helped me learn a lot from your post. I really want to breed in a few years and this has helped me learn already.

[heathers*bps]

Your survivor pied is absolutely beautiful! Congrats on your first pied clutch, and I'm sorry that the first pied didn't make it

[mbgirl17]

Im so sorry about the lost little one! My thoughts are with you!
The surviving pied is gorgeous though!