my BP laid eggs after 11 years. help?

Given the higher probability of them having health issues I will be rehoming mine after a year, locally, as pet-only quality with a FROR contract if the next owner can no longer keep the critter. I'd be too worried about it getting resold/flipped as a typical healthy critter otherwise.

Hi... I'm back!
Out of 3 eggs, 2 got very gross and clearly were no longer viable (frozen and discarded).

The third egg.... seems to be doing fine, there is movement now.

So I have another question, assuming everything continues on the same for the next 30 days (at the midway point just now, or even a bit further on, because I might not have even found the eggs at first for a few days after she laid them).

What do I do if the snake comes out of the egg? Can I get some advice on a simple, low-cost place to keep the snake while I am waiting for the first shed? Obviously if it comes out looking okay, I want to make sure I am taking care of it correctly. I know how to care for a BP because, I've had one for over a decade but I'm very nervous about the period of time between where the snake is hatched and where it can eat/drink water/live like the one I already own.

I don't have anything prepared for another snake because I'm just waiting to see what happens, but since there is movement I should probably start to think about preparing the temporary place the snake goes after it hatches, just in case.

I linked the thing earlier in this thread but I'll also just spell it out here, the way I am incubating this is the most low cost/DIY way I could find on the internet, I am using a cooler, fishtank water heater, the thing that circulates air in the fish tank, and then I used some PVC pipe to sort of suspend a plastic shoe box (with some tiny tiny holes in it) and in that shoe box is the typical setup with perlite and the egg sitting on a light diffuser. I have a digital thermometer inside the shoebox so I know the temp is always 88-90 and it's 99% humidity. Some people are saying they keep their hatched snakes in the incubator but... I can't keep it in that, or can I?

Thanks, if anyone can help...

A setup like the one in this thread is a great way to start:
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/show...nclosure+setup

a baby typically won't eat until after they have their first shed, so no worries until then. I like to keep them in the egg tub in the incubator until they shed.
I put a heat pad on a thermostat under one half of the tub and keep that at 86-88F.

After a couple of months I'll move them up to the next size.

Thank you for everyone for all your help in this thread. If my snake had the eggs the day I found them, today would be 58 days. I think it’s possible she had them 5 days or so before. So I think today I have to cut open this remaining egg. The snake is definitely moving in there. If I put a small flashlight on it, it’s the shape of a snake. And the egg is looking dehydrated.

I don’t see any signs of the snake coming out on its own.

I am so so scared. Does anyone have any articles they can point me to about how to do this correctly?

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Originally Posted by movingthestars

I am so so scared. Does anyone have any articles they can point me to about how to do this correctly?

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I have a clutch that has just started hatching after 70 days.

Not sure who was responsible for first recommending cutting eggs pre-emptively, but, they gave devastatingly bad advice to others in the hobby. I don't respect any breeder that cuts eggs before first pip.

Cut at great risk. Take a pair of scissors and wipe the blades with 70% Isopropyl Alcohol and make sure you air dry them (do not touch them). Wash your hands with soap and water and then pinch the top part of the egg so that you can squeeze it together and ensure the snake will not be injured, then make a 0.5" (~1.3cm) incision on the folded section. Your goal is not to cut the snake out of the egg, but, to provide them a means to reach more oxygen and gain the strength to push their way out.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Lord Sorril

I have a clutch that has just started hatching after 70 days.

Not sure who was responsible for first recommending cutting eggs pre-emptively, but, they gave devastatingly bad advice to others in the hobby. I don't respect any breeder that cuts eggs before first pip.

Cut at great risk. Take a pair of scissors and wipe the blades with 70% Isopropyl Alcohol and make sure you air dry them (do not touch them). Wash your hands with soap and water and then pinch the top part of the egg so that you can squeeze it together and ensure the snake will not be injured, then make a 0.5" (~1.3cm) incision on the folded section. Your goal is not to cut the snake out of the egg, but, to provide them a means to reach more oxygen and gain the strength to push their way out.

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thank you for saying this. I can definitely wait a few more days and see, it’s just really daunting to start reading about hatching BP eggs online and a lot of the site are like “if you don’t cut them out at exactly the right time they will die (and it will be your fault)” okay not that last part explicitly… but that’s what it seems like. I think this snake has a chance of actually surviving now and I just don’t want to mess it up. Would you recommend me helping it out at some point if it’s not hatching?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Lord Sorril

I have a clutch that has just started hatching after 70 days.

Not sure who was responsible for first recommending cutting eggs pre-emptively, but, they gave devastatingly bad advice to others in the hobby. I don't respect any breeder that cuts eggs before first pip.

Cut at great risk. Take a pair of scissors and wipe the blades with 70% Isopropyl Alcohol and make sure you air dry them (do not touch them). Wash your hands with soap and water and then pinch the top part of the egg so that you can squeeze it together and ensure the snake will not be injured, then make a 0.5" (~1.3cm) incision on the folded section. Your goal is not to cut the snake out of the egg, but, to provide them a means to reach more oxygen and gain the strength to push their way out.

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THIS! ^ ^ ^ :gj:

Thanks you guys, please just remember if you didn’t read back this thread that I wasn’t trying to have an egg but life just happens like that sometimes I guess. I’m really doing my best and would love to bring a healthy baby snake to this world. I’m actually about to go to the monthly reptile expo near me, randomly it’s today and I need rats for my BP anyway, maybe I’ll try to talk to someone there also. I guess like anything else everyone is going to have different opinions about it.

But I did decide not to try anything today.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by movingthestars

thank you for saying this. I can definitely wait a few more days and see, it’s just really daunting to start reading about hatching BP eggs online and a lot of the site are like “if you don’t cut them out at exactly the right time they will die (and it will be your fault)” okay not that last part explicitly… but that’s what it seems like. I think this snake has a chance of actually surviving now and I just don’t want to mess it up. Would you recommend me helping it out at some point if it’s not hatching?

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If the egg doesn't hatch then something went wrong. 2/3 of your eggs have died so far, which leaves 1 with poor odds. If you cut the egg then you lower those odds even further.

Something I run into with eggs that I am forced to cut-is that the snake is underdeveloped and/or is often missing vital anatomy. Cutting the egg only speeds up their demise.

Youtubers often claim that the 'umbilical cord' can get wrapped around the neck of the developing snake-and cutting the egg magically helps them. I have done dozens of necropsies over the years, the yolk stalk connection is always stable. This is bull****.

Okay, me again. So, here's what happened and then I have a question.

First of all, I apparently can't count (I think I was just getting way too stressed about this snake not coming out when I thought it should) so my day count in my last post was off anyway which I realized the same day I posted last. Whether I should have or not, I was checking on the egg once a day and seeing it move at that point. So then on Saturday, it wasn't moving and it felt like something was wrong. I did end up cutting an opening on Sunday when it still wasn't moving, I see now that is controversial here and maybe it's not even what I should have done, who knows, but that is what I did. The snake really didn't seem to be moving at all and I couldn't see it's head so I was really just convinced it was dead in the egg. But I left it in the incubator that night. And still Monday it didn't seem to be moving. But today, the head was out and it was sticking its tongue out!

By maybe like an hour ago, it was more than halfway out. But I could see something twisted around its lower body. I also see the previous poster here says that maybe wasn't an issue? But in this journey I really have seen so many videos of people saying having that twisted around the snake could kill it. So I don't know if this is right or not, but I untwisted it. And the snake seems to have absorbed most of it.

So my question is like this. To me, this snake looks fine. It doesn't look deformed or kinked. It looks like it has strong muscle tone. It looks basically like a normal snake, except that where the cord is going in, it is looking a little soft on the belly and I think that is because of how it was wrapped like it was. But even looking at the snake, I feel like the muscles are moving down there and the little bit that is left is getting sucked in?

Do you think the yolk/cord situation is an issue or most likely it will just get absorbed in? After I untangled it, I left the snake in the incubator and I left the lower part of the body and the yolk in the egg. I'm going to add photos right after this but I have to do it on my phone.