My personal thoughts on hatchlings with tangled cords

This is interesting, and makes a good point! Now I am paranoid because I DID in fact just cut my eggs! lol Today was Day 60 and none had pipped yet, so after reading what others do, I decided to go ahead and pip. This is my very first clutch, so I am definitely a newbie speck of dust!! :)

I haven't hatched a clutch yet, but I wholeheartedly agree with this theory

I had my first umbilical cord issue this year. I cut my eggs, and yes I'm sure it's partly, if not totally to blame for the twisting/knotting issues. I still plan to cut my eggs, and just keep an eye on the cords.

I would like to hear more on the subject of dead, fully developed babies who couldn't get out of the egg.

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Originally Posted by creepin

selectively breeding genetic mutations for aesthetic purposes isn't exactly natural.

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Really breeding snakes in captivity isn't natural at all, if you're going to go that route. When I said keeping the process as natural as possible, it was implied that it wasn't COMPLETELY natural.

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Originally Posted by meowmeowkazoo

nor will I be candling them.

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I haven't produced a clutch of my own yet, so really I'm just spitballing here, but it seems to be that candling is a totally non-invasive way to ensure that you aren't letting your female incubate infertile eggs for 60 days and probably refusing food for that time. Also, and again, not based on personal experience, it seems like infertile eggs or ones that start out fertile and fail to develop are the more likely ones to grow mold or start to go sour and could possibly affect your healthy eggs.

Just what I've gathered from reading around this forum and watching the boyfriend with his corn snake eggs, which he does not cut btw. If all the eggs in a clutch have pipped except a couple, he'll try to wait them out and if they haven't pipped within a day or so he'll cut to check on the baby but it seems like those end up containing dead-in-egg babies most of the time anyway.

This thread is very interesting as I have my very first clutch in the incubator as we speak. Several years ago I raised corn snakes and never cut the corn eggs, and have no plans to cut these eggs either. It seems plausible that this theory could have some merit.

Another speck in the wind here, just incubated 2 clutches of eggs and it was my first time with doing it. After reading all the stuff on here about cutting I determined that I would not cut until some of the eggs had pipped on thier own, only cutting eggs 24hrs after the first pip. I didn't have any problems with either clutch but I did decide to let the second pip on its own.Second clutch had all pipped on thier own within 36hrs and the babies were all fine. I think I will be doing this in the future to help avoid problems and to make sure the babies come out when they are ready.
And I was very guilty of disturbing the tub too much after they had pipped. Gonna try to be a good boy next year.

The science is sound. :gj:

I'm also one who now subscribes to the 'better left alone and be patient' crowd. I don't know yet if there is enough evidence in my collection to say things go better, but I sure worry less about it now. When I was cutting, I was always making sure that the eggs stayed clean and didn't develop problems. Now, I just let them run their course. So far, so good.