Has anyone ever seen this deformity before?

[Snake Den]

Earlier today I posted some of the newest arrivals, and they were pretty fantastic looking. Well I just checked on the slow pokes who are still in the egg and I found this guy looking pretty abnormal to say the least. He is supposed to be a spider but his head is super narrow. Not to mention, his color is a bit off. His sibling, who is also a spider still in the egg, also has odd coloring, but he is looking a lot more normal. What do you guys think? I don't have high hopes for the survival of the deformed one, but I'm interested to see what people's thoughts are on it, and if anyone has seen it before. I'm wondering if a weird gene is a play, or if it is something else. The temperatures throughout incubation remained between 87.5 and 89.0. We had 4 different thermometers monitoring the temps and so I would (should) have known if there was a massive spike. The other thing to note is that this is day 65 of incubation, and I cut the remaining eggs after the first few pipped and I waited 24 hours. Anyway... I'm curious, and a little sad. This is my first deformed one.

The deformed spider...



The normal spider sibling:

[OhhWatALoser]

I had a carpet python hatch with a narrow head, he never took a meal, after a few months I eventually had to put him down. He was also a little odd with how defensive he was, constantly biting at everything that moved, I think he had other issues as well. That's my only experience with it.

[Kibbleswhites]

I had a baby this year hatch out super small, 32 grams. When he was still in the egg I thought for sure I was going to have twins due to his size as the egg was just as big and heavy as the other eggs. His head looks smaller than I think it should and he is super duper dark. He has not taken a meal yet, 2 failed assist feedings also. He had an issue with his yolk and only absorbed a small amount of it. When he crawled out of the egg he left the yolk behind with a healed belly. His sibblings are all fine and eating so not sure what happened with him. Hopefully mine, and yours will eat and do okay. It almost looks like the muscle/fat in the head is absent and I am hoping he will grow out of it with calories.
Still in egg

[Snake Den]

[QUOTE=Kibbleswhites;2274221]I had a baby this year hatch out super small, 32 grams. When he was still in the egg I thought for sure I was going to have twins due to his size as the egg was just as big and heavy as the other eggs. His head looks smaller than I think it should and he is super duper dark. He has not taken a meal yet, 2 failed assist feedings also. He had an issue with his yolk and only absorbed a small amount of it. When he crawled out of the egg he left the yolk behind with a healed belly. His sibblings are all fine and eating so not sure what happened with him. Hopefully mine, and yours will eat and do okay. It almost looks like the muscle/fat in the head is absent and I am hoping he will grow out of it with calories.
Still in egg]

I wish you luck with your little guy. My dude is still in the egg chilling out. Interestingly, the other spider is also still in the egg while the rest of the clutch have emerged and are hanging out in the rack. Hopefully the healthy looking spider emerges tomorrow, and maybe the "special" one will follow shortly after. Keep me posted on how your guy does. I hope it is a muscle thing!

[dr del]

I seem to recall it is something seen with early pippers where the snake hasn't quite finished developing. Iirc the head fills out when the baby eats and grows.

[Snake Den]

I seem to recall it is something seen with early pippers where the snake hasn't quite finished developing. Iirc the head fills out when the baby eats and grows.

I hope that is the case. The poor guy crawled out of the egg today and weighs 70g. I'm hoping I can get him into the vet school to X-ray his head and see what is going on. He otherwise seems healthy.

[Snake Den]

Update on my deformed spider. The snake is out of the egg and was confirmed to be female (of course! I only got 4 females out of 14 babies so far). She is doing well despite the awkward head shape. I have noticed that the snake seems to be unusually aggressive towards anything that moves. Here are some pictures of her out of the egg. The plan is to see if she can eat. If she is having difficulty or is unable to eat she will be humanely euthanized. If she can eat I will hold onto her as a pet as long as her quality of life is the same standard as the rest of my snakes.

[alan12013]

That poor girl. I'm very glad to hear that you will keep her as a pet for the rest of her days as long as she seems to be ok.

[SlitherinSisters]

Oh wow, her head is really thin! That's pretty wild. It's hard to say what the issue was, could have been temps, humidity, the breeding, or just plain bad luck. I'm interested in hearing how she does.

[Kibbleswhites]

[QUOTE=Snake Den;2274237]

I had a baby this year hatch out super small, 32 grams. When he was still in the egg I thought for sure I was going to have twins due to his size as the egg was just as big and heavy as the other eggs. His head looks smaller than I think it should and he is super duper dark. He has not taken a meal yet, 2 failed assist feedings also. He had an issue with his yolk and only absorbed a small amount of it. When he crawled out of the egg he left the yolk behind with a healed belly. His sibblings are all fine and eating so not sure what happened with him. Hopefully mine, and yours will eat and do okay. It almost looks like the muscle/fat in the head is absent and I am hoping he will grow out of it with calories.
Still in egg]

I wish you luck with your little guy. My dude is still in the egg chilling out. Interestingly, the other spider is also still in the egg while the rest of the clutch have emerged and are hanging out in the rack. Hopefully the healthy looking spider emerges tomorrow, and maybe the "special" one will follow shortly after. Keep me posted on how your guy does. I hope it is a muscle thing!

Update: After a month of every other day offerings of live rat pinks along with two failed attempted assist feed........................he finally ate It was an assist feed, but he took it on the first try. Hopefully he holds it down and starts getting the hang of it. His sibblings have all had 4-6 meals, all have doubled in size, and 4 are in shed. How is your little spider doing?