Cut my first clutch ever! do they seem underdeveloped?

Hi everyone, I've cut my first ever clutch of ball pythons today (day 55 of incubation), since Im going away for a week tomorrow and I really wanted to know what animals I hit. The pairring was a Cinnamon female to a Pastel and a Super Pastel male. The Pastel did most of the breeding but luckily the Super ended up being the father :). When I was cutting the eggs I was expecting to see more color on the babies, and when compared to other clutches I've seen pictures of when cut, in my eggs the babies aren't seeming to fill the eggs (if you know what I mean) as much as I'd thought...In other pictures the babies almost seem to burst from the egg. So I was wondering if the babies look underdeveloped to you guys since prety much every one of you probably has more experience breeding than I do. So anyway here are some crappy Iphone pictures of the cut eggs, by the way I got 4 pewters and 3 pastels out of my 7 eggs, so Im pretty happy about that :D, Now Im just hoping all the babies will make it out the eggs OK.

Pastel 1
http://i456.photobucket.com/albums/q...ps66dba48a.jpg

Pastel 2
http://i456.photobucket.com/albums/q...psef569b78.jpg

Pastel 3
http://i456.photobucket.com/albums/q...psc4b64c76.jpg

Pewter 1
http://i456.photobucket.com/albums/q...pscda9d7a9.jpg

Pewter 2
http://i456.photobucket.com/albums/q...psdc044579.jpg

Pewter 3
http://i456.photobucket.com/albums/q...ps26852a86.jpg

Pewter 4
http://i456.photobucket.com/albums/q...psbad3d465.jpg

They look fine to me. Remember they still have about a week of grwoing and yolk absorbing to go. Congrats those are some really neat looking pewters.

Those are huge windows. I'm not sure why you would cut at all, let alone windows that massive, when you're about to go away. You won't be there to monitor for mold, dehydration, or any of the other issues you open them up to when you cut.

:colbert:

Congrats on the babies and hopefully they all turn out OK

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MrLang

Those are huge windows. I'm not sure why you would cut at all, let alone windows that massive, when you're about to go away. You won't be there to monitor for mold, dehydration, or any of the other issues you open them up to when you cut.

:colbert:

Congrats on the babies and hopefully they all turn out OK

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I agree that was definitely a bad idea. Cutting is something you need to monitor closely and the fact that you're going away can turn out pretty bad if it molds or drys out and youre not there. You need to have some way of monitoring it or you could very possibly lose some of those babies.

I thought cutting the eggs wouldn't be an issue this late in the incubation process. And as to why I decided to cut eventhough Im going away for a week is that I really wanted to find out the results of the breeding. And I actually thought that me going away for a week would be better for the eggs because then I wouldn't be able to check up on them and desturb them in their final development.... but now having read your comments I wish I hadn't cut. But since I can't change what's allready happened what would you recommend? Leaving the eggs as they are now or place them in a clean tub with wet paper towels? I am planning to mist the eggs down with a boiled saline solution before I go to prevent the eggs from drying out.

Do you have any local breeders who would be willing to keep an eye on your eggs? What's done is done, but you do run the risk of losing babies to dryout and mold. Why cutting on day 55 just to satisfy curiosity is a bad idea.

I would ask someone to check up on them while you are away, just to be sure.

I wouldn't have cut them either if I was going away. I have a clutch in the incubator right now that was due to hatch while I was gone for a week and I didn't cut. They get really gunky/gross when you cut them and leave them. I'm not sure how dangerous it is, but I spray them every day when I cut to keep them clean. Do you have someone that can spray/mist them at least every other day? Like I said, I don't know how dangerous it is to leave the gunk on them, but I would try to find someone to spray them.

No local breeders around that I know of who could keep an eye in for me, but I'll ask a friend if he can do a checkup half way...I don't want people with no experience with snakes poking and prodding at the eggs too much. I guess I'll just give him instructions on what to look for, milky/cloudy egg fluid and mould on the eggs and tell him what to do if they occur. I'll probably have bad or no phone signal at all where Im going, so keeping in contact will be difficult but I will try my best.

As to what to do with the eggs, would you guys keep them on the vermiculite or put them in a new container on wet paper towels? And would you wipe the egg fluid off around the cut to keep them as clean as possible or leave them allone as much as possible. Same goes for misting them with (saline) water.

thanks in advance

New container on a wet paper towel with a small bowl of water is what I'd do at this point. Then, leave them alone unless there are signs of problems. Good luck.