First Fatality, Need Advice (Urgent)

[Snakydan]

Hi there,

Got a beautiful clutch of 7 fatal eggs, incubated well with vermiculite which I've done a few times over the years for 55 days. Never once they came out their egg themselves, which I would cut a small hole in day 60.

However for this particular clutch of lesser X normal, everything seem alright when I cut them, left it there for 2 days to allow them to absorb their yolk, after 4 days, everything just doesn't change, never show any sign of coming out the egg, so I cut the egg bigger and saw there is still a full yolk sack in each of them.

On day 70, those lesser's still look so tiny and weak, I have no choice but to assist in bringing them out in case there is a twisted umbilical cord but there is not, the yolk sack and stuff inside the egg are getting rotten where I could find lava of fruit flies swimming in there. They just look so weak with very minimum heart beat. All 3 lesser were dead in 2 hours time.

I couldn't think of anything went wrong beside my incubation temperature was inconsistent which caused them to be immature but it never happen before.

There are still 4 normals in their egg, which I don't know what to do to help them, normally after 3 - 4 days they should finished absorbing their yolk in my own experience. What you guys think I should do, should I just leave it there in their rotten eggs till it comes out themselves? or there is some other alternatives I could do?

My time line was 60 days of incubation, cut and leave them for another 10 days, need advice on how to get these 4 normals to survive, thanks

[Emilio]

Have you seen any movement at all from the normals?

[Snakydan]

Yeap, all with movements, but 1 is really weak already, hopefully it goes well.

[Emilio]

Yeap, all with movements, but 1 is really weak already, hopefully it goes well.

I'd leave them another day or so see what happens.

[Snakydan]

I see, Yea, I just leave the remaining 4 normals in their egg in their container with moist tissue paper and just hope for the best.

[dr del]

Hi,

You can flush any mould growth or similar out of the egg with water at the same temp as the egg - I leave a sprayer in the incubator permanently.

How much did your temps change and for how long?

Also - when cutting the eggs there is no reason to make that large a hole - a small V shaped cut is enough really.


dr del

[SlitherinSisters]

The patterns make me think something went wrong with incubation. Do you know if you had any temp spikes? Did you have the eggs directly on the verm? It might have been too wet/too dry. Also, did you have a fan running in the incubator?

Sorry I can't really help with the babies, hopefully they pull through. Just try to keep the mold off them and wait. I'm just trying to help you figure out the issue for next time.

[MrLang]

Sorry for your losses. I have nothing to offer in terms of a cause or solution.

Gestation/incubation times are never exact in any animal. I can never understand the way we as a hobby approach 'cutting' the way we do. It's like kids who don't want to wait for Christmas to open their presents, but there's no one to stop them or guilt them into self control. Reptiles have been crawling out of eggs on their own for an amount of time so great it is difficult to comprehend. I can understand once the first snake naturally pips if you want to assist the process for the rest, but to just cut them open after an average number of days seems so unscientific and risky for an amateur hobbyist that I don't intend to practice it myself.

I can totally understand learning to read the signs of dimpling, etc. but to just have a number set in stone seems a foolish practice in my humble opinion.

[Domepiece]

Sorry about your situation. I would just flush out the eggs out and let them be. The more you mess around with them the worse you are going to make things. I would suggest getting a new incubator and letting them pip on their own next time as well or at least wait for one to pip first then cutting the rest. Good luck to you and you eggs.

[angllady2]

I had this almost exact thing happen to me. I got impatient and tried separating a clutch too soon, although it was on day 70, the temperatures were lower than normal. I figured it was plenty of time. I was wrong. I lost one baby, a pied, and nearly killed a second. I was fortunate the het pied lived. I left the other two eggs alone and they pipped on their own on day 80, so I was waaaay too early, even though going by a set schedule I had waited more than long enough.

I learned that lesson the hard way. Now I will always wait until one pips on it's own before I even think of cutting.

I am sorry this happened to you. All I can say is I hope the others pull through for you, and I hope you will have learned not to get in a hurry, much the way I did.

Gale