First clutch (heartbreaking)

Hello, so this was my first time breeding, I paired my bumblebee to my pewter lesser, I was thrilled when she layed her clutch of 5 eggs (first time mom) the incubation went good, everything was perfect, i decided to cut on day 52 because the incubator was running on the warm side at around 90. They where all alive and looked good i checked on them every day sometimes twice after I cut. On day 56 I saw that all there heads where up except 1 so I looked closer and saw that the umbilical cord was wrapped around her so from doing research I decided to cut it, but unfortunately the the next morning she didnt make it. Now just this morning day 59 I checked on the remaining 4 and 3 of them had also died all there heads where out one was even have way out of the egg but looked like he got twisted in the cord and stopped the yolk from being absorbed, afte looking at the rest I noticed that they all had big yolk sacs and appears that they hadn’t absorb any except the only one thats still alive, I can see the yolk going in him throught the ambilicul cord I hope he makes it. I regret cutting that early and think that could be the reason they didn’t make it. Next season im defintly waiting till they start piping

Cut way too early. Even at 90 degrees you should not cut before the first one pips and never before day 55. Cutting early creates stress which can cause the hatchlings to move around and get twisted up. Checking on them constantly adds even more stress. Personally I wait til most if not all the clutch has pipped then I give them one more day before I cut. By that time yolks are fully absorbed and veins are gone

Yeah, I totally understand like I said next time I’ll do that

Thanks for sharing.

99% of the time I do not determine a tangled umbilical to be a problem in my unhatched eggs.

This year: At 89 degrees I had a clutch with 8 out of 10 hatch at *68* days. I cut the two non-hatched eggs at day 70 (one pictured below): they had not absorbed the yolk yet and had to remain in the incubator for another 4 days.
If I had cut this clutch at day 60 I'm sure I would have lost at least half of them.

[IMG]https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...psnmsvc6ob.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...psu1orhrxj.jpg[/IMG]

If you MUST cut, wait for the first neonate to pip. Otherwise don't.

Thanks for the info

I've hatched my share of snakes & while not BPs, I've never seen a case where a twisted umbilical cord was an issue of any kind...nor did I cut open the eggs.

It was wrapped around the body just like the ones I’ve seen in other videos and posts

Hard lesson learned.
I absolutely hate this cutting business. It has its place, such as cutting when one has piped and the others are late.

Want to make sure they can get out of they have no egg tooth. Even then..a small slit is all that is needed.

Then some breeders couldn't wait to see what was in the eggs and started cutting for that reason. Then you would see people cutting huge windows out of the eggs..the entire top gone. Then earlier and earlier

They very much are shy snakes right out of the egg. Often retreating back into the eggs after peeking out when they see movement. I can't fathom their stress laying there so very exposed. And all the bacteria floating around..able to get in. Even seen maggots on hatchlings in the eggs.

Hobby and first time breeders see it done all over YouTube and the Internet and copy it.

Twisted umbilical can and has killed hatchlings. It's quite possible that they get tangled when they are stresses and moving/jumping around because of it.

Cutting should only be performed by highly knowledgable people and only for good reasons. In my humble opinion.

I am sorry you had to learn this the hard way and I'm not trying to beat on you while you are down. This is a valuable lesson for others to read about, so thank you for sharing this experience even though it couldn't have been easy..


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Thank you