First clutch, so many newbie mistakes!

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Originally Posted by AbsoluteApril

Aww that's a shame the one egg was cut so early. Hopefully the baby makes it. I don't advise cutting anything until you see others pip.
I hope the other clutch does okay as well!
I've only had one BP clutch so far but the entire process took much longer than I was expecting. Definitely a learning experience. At least you know for next season to expect the unexpected!
good luck

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Next season I will definitely be more vigilant. Being this was my first year I just assumed something about my setup must have been off.

I had looked online for caved eggs and the ones I found that weren't even as bad as this one reported that the babies didn't make it. I wish I had taken a picture of it before I cut, but it was stuck in a pocket that was about 1/4th the size of the egg. I figured I can take a chance or wait and possibly lose it because the baby had no room to move to try and pip. Although I don't plan to do this, I did watch a video of a big BP breeder that mentioned they cut 12 days before hatch date without issue, so hopefully 10 days (or less) before won't be to much for this little guy.

As for cutting the rest, as I mentioned my humidity was not kept up well and I've read that this tends to make the shells tough and that the babies may not be able to break through on their own. I only plan to make a small slit in the shell and let the babies find it when they need too. Im also waiting until Saturday evening to do this, that will put the eggs at day 49 when I found them, so probably 50-52 days since laid.

I'm with AA. I don't cut until first pip. This year it was good that I cut because one had a twisted umbilicus and was not absorbing yolk. You have extenuating circumstances, so what you plan to do appears to be sound.

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cut 12 days before hatch date without issue, so hopefully 10 days (or less) before won't be to much for this little guy.

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And while it works in most cases you open the door for more issues than you think dryness, bacteria etc.

Ideally you want to know when your eggs should hatch and either cut on that day if nothing pips or wait till one pip and than cut. After running the same setup for the last couple of years I know that my egg hatch on day 60 (like clockwork) so on day 60 if nothing pips I will cut but not before and they will come out withing the next 24 to 48 hours.

My biggest issue is I don't know exactly when these eggs were laid, and as mentioned my humidity wasn't ideal, so I'm afraid the babies won't be able to cut through the shells on their own. I've learned from my mistakes on this first clutch and I'm monitoring clutch 2 more closely so hopefully I can avoid these issues in the future.

So an update to the cut baby. Since posting this I've been keeping a close eye on him. He kept his head out of the egg most of the time and I could see him through the tub being pretty active. This afternoon he crawled completely out of the egg.

I set him up in his own tub with a wet paper towel and put him back in the incubator for now. He weighed 43 grams, is very alert, and has been roaming his new tub. Looking at the pictures, is there anything that I should be concerned about? I'm assuming the mass that was left over is what was left of his yolk sack, is that a lot to be left over for a new hatchling? Or is it something else entirely?
I planned to cut the other eggs on the 1st (at least day 52, most likely 54/55) but since he had already crawled out on his own should I still wait that long or should I assume that the others may be ready to go as Well? I'm just very paranoid that if I wait too long they may drown in the egg.

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Your hatchling looks OK to me. Maybe a little on the small side, but not underdeveloped, and I've seen much smaller hatchlings than that do just fine. The umbilicus area on the belly looks clean. They don't always absorb all of the yolk sac, and you can tell by the plump belly that it did absorb a good amount of its yolk.

I had a clutch a few years ago (my 2nd clutch) that caved horribly before hatching. My big pastel girl Honey stopped eating shortly are breeding and refused all food until after she laid an 8 egg clutch. The eggs were ugly to begin with, I assume they were not fully calcified due to the feeding strike. The pre-hatch picture is from day 53 at 87.5°F, all the hatchlings came out fine by day 59. I can't quite remember but I think I did cut at least a few of them, because I was afraid that the shells were too hard for them to get through.

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Originally Posted by Insane

Well I care for my snakes solo, and I was checking them multiple times a day for 6 months specifically looking for eggs or checking follicles. As i said i only slacked off when i assumed there just weren't going to be any eggs laid. Sorry I guess for not knowing what to look for?

I mean I get it, I made mistakes. This is my first time and all the reading and research isn't going to make someone an expert. I'll be more diligent in the future, but berating me without even giving any actual input on the questions posted isn't really helping anyone.

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It's happened to me with my Burmese girl lol I didn't know she was gravid and she was even taking meals through the entire process. When I opened her cage a few days after I fed her, she was sitting on a big pile of eggs! I also didn't have an incubator and had to go buy materials to make one a day or 2 later. This was my first clutch ever too. We all make mistakes and as a first time breeder it's difficult to know what to look for right away. Good Luck With the clutches! Hope you hatch out some amazing babies!

Sent from my SM-S120VL using Tapatalk

i spot check and temp check multiple times a day whether gravid or not,better safe than sorry?

Well either my incubator is running higher in the egg box than I thought, or the clutch was older than I thought when I found it. Was checking the clutch last night and one egg had multiple strike marks in it. Looks like it had been trying to break through and managed to get one tiny cut out of about 6 attempts. So I went ahead and cut the clutch and so far one baby has poked his head out. I didn't mess with them too much after cutting, just put a piece of damp paper towel over the cut to help keep humidity in. So looks like they might be getting ready to exit soon! I can't wait to see what comes out! Hopefully 5 healthy and happy snakes :please:

Less than 24 hours since cutting and number 2 is out! 65 grams :)

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Fingers crossed I'll see some more activity from the other 4 soon!

Number 3 is out! 61 grams. When number 2 came out it was shortly after the cut and there was no yolk left after, but it took a couple days for number 3 to come out and the other 3 don't seem to be in much of a hurry. Is it normal for it to take a few days for the whole clutch to come out?

I think I hit a Pastave GHI on this one? The head looks pretty blushed out, but I don't want to get my hopes up since im not 100% on morph ID. Can i get a second opinion?

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